Libya the enigma of its revolution in western hands
By Iqbal Jassat – Chairman, Media Review Network
As Libya and its beleaguered leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi occupy center stage with news coverage being dominated by an American-led military offensive targeting his forces and weapons, a huge debate on it has emerged in many capitals of the world. Apart from the vexing issue of whether military strikes have transgressed the limited mandate of the UN’s security council resolution, there is also divided opinion as to whether the Americans must continue leading the military coalition or hand command over to NATO. With the war on Libya now about to enter a second week, it does appear that Gaddafi’s determination to fight to the last and his appeal on friends in the international community not to ditch him seems to be working for the “brother leader”.
Divisions in the rank of member states of the UN reveal at the outset how certain influential countries abstained from endorsing the resolution. These states, Brazil, Russia, China and India set the tone for further polarization which saw Latin American countries adopting a harsher and more critical approach to the war. It is true too that Gaddafi has been lobbying via telephone calls to a wide array of friends, supporters and business partners around the world, not to gain their sympathy but to exploit weaknesses in the fragile coalition. His four decades of autocratic rule and grand display of solidarity for causes such as the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa has endeared him to many people, particularly in Africa.
It explains his bravado whereby revelations such as claiming that President Zuma had pledged support to him in a private telephonic conversation are made without blinking an eye. Though the Zuma government disputes Gaddafi’s version, it doesn’t deny that a conversation did take place between the two. So while confusion reigns in diplomatic circles about what may have been said or not, Gaddafi rides the storm by attacking his opponents as “terrorists”.
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