Muammar Gaddafi deploys the military against Libyans demanding that he steps down as the country’s leader

The wave of  protests in the Arab world has spread with fierce venom to Libya and  is about to terminate the 42-year reign of Muammar Abu Minyar El-Gaddafi, the president of Libya. Despite his refusal to step down as demanded by the protesters, the protest has succeeded in dismantling the government as key officials have resigned in solidarity with the protesters. Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, the interior minister; Mustapha Abdeljalil, justice minister, and many Libyan diplomats including the country’s ambassador to the US, have turned their backs on Gaddafi.

The opposition groups in the country have welcomed defectors from the government of Gaddafi. All those who have stepped down from the government have urged the international community to take actions that would rescue the country from the disaster that is about to befall the country. As Gaddafi continued to use military force against them, government officials who just quit the government of Gaddafi are urging the United Nations, UN, to impose a no-fly zone over the country to prevent the use of air strikes on the protesters.

The number of casualties has escalated. Opposition groups in the country put the figure of death at 500 and more than 1000 missing, while Human Rights Group, a non-governmental organisation, estimated that more than 300 people have been killed since the protests started two weeks ago.

In his first major speech since the protest started in the country, Gaddafi vowed to fight to the end and described the protesters as people who are “serving the devil.” He used insulting words such as “cowards and traitors,” “rats and mercenaries” who are seeking to humiliate Libyans and portray Libya as a place of chaos. He urged his supporters to go out and attack the “cockroaches” demonstrating against his rule.

He said he has brought glory to Libya and would not resign since he does not occupy an official position from which to resign. He assured the people that he would remain as the head of the revolution to defend the country with the last drop of his blood. He called on those who love Gaddafi to come out on the streets and defend his government. “Come out of your homes, attack them in their dens. Withdraw your children from the streets. They are drugging your children; they are making your children drunk and sending them to hell. If matters require, we will use force, according to international law and the Libyan constitution,” he warned, adding that the country could descend into civil war or become occupied by the US if protests continued.

While Gaddafi referred to the protesters as mercenaries, the opposition groups said those attacking the protesters are mercenaries brought into the country by the Gaddafi government. They said Gaddafi no longer has control of the army and the police. Many members of the army and the police were said to have defected and have been accepted by the opposition.

After an emergency session last week, the UN Security Council condemned the crackdown on protesters and called for an immediate end to the violence. Hilary Clinton, US secretary of state, also condemned the violence against the protesters. She said violence was completely unacceptable because the people of Libya have the right to protest against unacceptable policies. The Arab league has suspended the participation of Libya in its activities until it responds to the demands of the people.

Gaddafi was born in a village near Sirt. As a teenager, he was an admirer of Gamal Abdel Nasser, former Egyptian president, and his Arab socialist and nationalist ideology. He took part in anti-Israel demonstrations during the 1956 Suez Crisis. He began his first plan to overthrow the monarchy while in a military college. He received further military training in Hellenic Military Academy in Athens, Greece and the United Kingdom.

On September 1, 1969, a small group of junior military officers led by Gaddafi staged a bloodless coup d’état against King Idris while he was in Turkey for medical treatment. The Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, his nephew, had been formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest; the coup plotters abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. The 27-year-old Gaddafi, with a taste for safari suits and sunglasses allegedly turned Libya into a haven for anti-Western radicals, where any provision of arms and finances were made for any group to fight the west as long as it could claim it was a fight against imperialism. The Italian population in Libya almost disappeared after Gaddafi ordered the expulsion of Italians in 1970.

He formed the Revolutionary Command Council which ruled the country, with Gaddafi as chairman. He added the title of prime minister in 1970, but gave up this title in 1972. Unlike some other military revolutionaries, Gaddafi did not promote himself to the rank of general upon seizing power, but rather accepted a ceremonial promotion from captain to colonel and has remained on this rank since then. It is odds with Western military ranking for a colonel to rule a country and serve as commander-in-chief of its military, but in Gaddafi’s own words, Libya’s society is “ruled by the people,” so he needs no more grandiose title or supreme military rank.

The wave of protest in the Arab world where there are sit-tight leaders is motivated by the success of the mass protests that ousted Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, former president of Tunisia, and Hosni Mubarak, former Egyptian president. More countries have continued to demand for a change in the leadership of their countries. Since December17, 2010, when the protests started in Tunisia, it has spread to Bahrain, Algeria, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Morocco, Jordan and Iraq. The different governments have been put to the task of quelling mass protests in their different countries as protesters defy attacks from the police and other security forces to stage mass protests to  press home their demand for democracy and better living conditions in their respective countries.

In Morocco, five charred bodies were found in a bank set aflame last week by protesters demanding for more democracy in the kingdom. Taeib Cherqaoui, Morocco interior minister, said at least 128 people were injured late last week as more than 37,000 people demonstrated in dozens of towns and cities in the country. The demonstrations marked Morocco’s entrance into the wave of protests in the Arab world.

A similar drama is happening in Yemen. Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of Yemen, has rejected the demand by the protesters that he should step down. After weeks of demonstrations against his regime, Saleh said that the protest is an unacceptable act of provocation. The number of protesters has continued to increase as protests spread to other cities from Sanaa, the capital. The opposition has rebuffed the offer of dialogue by Saleh. Some Muslim clerics have called on him to step down for a national unity government after 32 years to lead the county to elections. The promise by Saleh not to run for re-election in 2013 and stop his son from taking over has failed to quell the unrest. At least 11 people have been killed since anti-government protests erupted earlier this month.

In Bahrain, the government is planning to engage the opposition in talks that could end the weeks of protests. Hassan Meshaima, an opposition leader, who was accused by the Bahrain government of plotting against the state, would return to the country this week to negotiate with the government of Hammad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the Bahrain emir, in an effort to end the crisis. The emir in an earlier attempt to defuse the Shia discontent with his government ordered a $2,650 payment to every Bahraini family. But that has not appeased the protesting masses.

Eddy Erhagbe, senior lecturer in Department of History and International Studies and Diplomacy, University of Benin, is doubtful if the protests would oust Gaddafi from office. He said Gaddafi would go to any length in the use of force against the protesters and the international community was unlikely to take any harsh action against Gaddafi because they also want a trouble-free Libya to ensure that the crisis does not cause a hike in oil prices.

Regarding the situation in Algeria and Bahrain, Erhagbe said the reforms and concessions done by the two governments may save the situation from degenerating.

Killed by Pirate

 Pita Ochai

The activities of Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean have claimed the lives of four Americans. Phyllis Macay, 59; Robert Riggle, 67; Jean Adam and Scott Adam, owners of the seized yacht, were last week, shot dead by the pirates after being held hostage for days. The four were on an around-the-world sailing trip in the yacht known as the Quest when they were captured by pirates last week.

James Mattis, central commander of the US army, said that the military personnel were negotiating with the pirates before the four Americans were killed. The killing of the four captives led to the exchange of gun shots between the pirates and the military; eventually, two of the pirates were killed and 13 others captured after the gun battle. “We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest,” he said. 

Mattis said that a total of 19 pirates were involved in the capture of the yacht. They used a mother ship to reach the Quest which was about 190 miles off the Oman coast. Before the negotiation that led to the killing of their captives failed, the US forces had been closely monitoring the Quest for three days with four Navy warships tasked to recover the yacht. They are the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise;the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf; the guided-missile destroyers; USS Sterett and USS Bulkeley.

Mattis alleged that no shots were fired by the US personnel as they boarded the yacht. However, as the yacht was being cleared, the Special Forces shot dead one pirate and killed another with a knife in self defence.

Two of the Somali pirates in a statement issued after the clash with the US military forces said that the hostages were ordered  to be killed because the US forces had attacked them instead of following the normal negotiation processes. “Our colleagues called us this morning that they were being attacked by a US warship. We ordered our comrades to kill the four Americans before they got killed,” they said.

The pirates have declared war on the US forces over the killing of their colleagues, Farah, the pirate leader in Bayla, a pirate haven in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, vowed to avenge the deaths and the capture of the pirates by the US forces. “I lost the money I invested and my comrades. No forgiveness for the Americans. Our business will go on,” he said, adding that he spent $110,000 in the hijacking of the Quest, including weapons and food and salaries.

Tension in Suez Canal

The movement of Iranian warships through the Suez Canal, the first since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, has raised tension between Iran and Israel. The Israeli government is to increase its security in the region in response  to what it described as a provocative move by Iran. The ships entered the canal for the 10- to 12-hour crossing last Tuesday morning after permission was obtained from the Egypt Defence Ministry.

The Israeli government is not happy with the passage of the warships. To them, it is a security threat to the region. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said that allowing the warships to pass through the canal shows that the region has become insecure. “I think that today, we can see what an unstable region we live in, a region in which Iran tries to exploit the situation that has been created in order to expand its influence by passing warships through the Suez Canal. Israel views this Iranian move with utmost gravity and this step, like other steps and developments, underscores what I have reiterated in recent years that Israel’s security needs will grow and the defence budget must grow accordingly,” he said.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli foreign minister, described the move by the Iranian warship as a recurring provocation which should not be ignored. “The international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations,” he said.

According to international rules governing navigation through the Suez Canal, no vessel can be denied passage unless it is at war with Egypt. Approval for the movement must come from the Egypt Ministry of Defence, and ships must give at least 24 hours notice before crossing.