Points of View
Redeeming Gaddafi, but at what cost?
Hasni Abidi
Director of the Study and Research Center for the Arab and Mediterranean World
Libya has all of a sudden become one of the hottest stopovers for European Leaders. Is political realism back in this land? Do the Libyan Leader and his entourage tremble with fear at the thought of being judged by an International Court on their less then glorious past? Must this recently converted rogue state de worried? Not really! After Lisbon and Brussels, Paris in now unfolding the red carpet for the Colonel.
A state has never been surrounded in a shroud of mystery such as the Libyan Jamahiriya has. The regime in Tripoli not only handles its affairs in an ambiguous manner, but it also prohibits the smallest inquiry into its reign. Ever since the regime came to power in a Coup on September 1st 1969, it has shown itself incapable of handling social, economical and political matters. Muammar al-Gaddafi, with his grasp on power, has become the irreplaceable of African and Arab Leaders; and he somehow has accommodated himself to the different mutations that have shaken the international stage these past decades.
To read the Libyan political system is like facing a blank wall, which increases the suspicions and doubts on its internal evolution and foreign policy. In his latest speeches, the Libyan Leader has stated that guns have become irrelevant and should be replaced by pens. Which is an attempt to distance his regime from the reputation it gained by sponsoring terrorism these previous years.
This regime has survived internal and external pressures thanks to a balancing game played by the political forces, the Army and the Tribes. Gaddafi has very deftly played the part of balancing agent these past 30 years. But ultimately what saves the regime is the incredible natural wealth of its land, which Western Democracies are dying to get their hands on. Who can resist such a market where everything is to be sold? This country pays cash, so who cares about all those Libyans deprived of their basic rights.
Stability in Libya is intimately linked to this one man: Muammar al-Gaddafi. Without him, not only is there a power vacuum but Libya’s future is uncertain. Gaddafi does not hesitate in confiding his favourite son Seif-el-Islam with important missions. Yet this seemingly organised succession in not reassuring.
Libya’s progressive return to the International stage (which started with its mediation in the Algerian desert European hostage crisis and the forced liberation of the Bulgarian nurses) is just a face-lift, much needed by the exhausted regime. It is true that the success obtained by Gaddafi’s son could usher new actors with different perceptions on foreign policy thus breaking away from the path set by the Guide and his men. But the young son lacks a political programme, consensus around him and vision for the future.
A new generation of young Libyan technocrats that are into political realism, has been attempting these past years to be part of the decision making process in Tripoli. But the old guard composed by the revolutionary committees is against normalising relations with the West, and employ all in their means to continue their grasp on power.
Libya has been paying a high price to satisfy the demands of the victims of the Lockerbie incident. But this settlement is one of the biggest embarrassments in the fight for human rights and it is shameful, as if paying a couple of million dollars was enough to wipe a country’s human right’s record clean in the eyes of the International Community. In the end this case serves to prove the West’s egoism who bypassed Libya’s real problems to focus on the amount of indemnities and market shares to be won.
How can a state that violates its peoples’ rights everyday be forgiven in exchange for a stash of dollars? If the victims of the Lockerbie incident and the Bulgarian nurses found lawyers and support within their governments to pursue justice, have we thought about the Libyan victims and political activists who have been rotting in prison cells these past 25 years?
How to believe in a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Mediterranean Union - such as promised by Sarkozy - when in his own country, he accepts to launder the Libyan regime because the latter is willing to pay cash. Redeeming a country just because it is tired of being treated as a rogue state in not a trade agreement.
Translated by Ines Ward
Research Assistant Trainee at CERMAM
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- Origin CERMAM
- http://www.cermam.org/en/logs/vue/redeeming_gaddafi_but_at_what/
- Publié le 5 February 2008