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Libyans reject ‘hijacked’ revolution?
Published: 24 January, 2012, 22:32
Edited: 25 January, 2012, 07:56
Libyans demonstrate in front of the headquarters of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) in Tripoli on January 24, 2012 to demand better work and living conditions and compensation for those affected during last year's events (AFP Photo / MAHMUD TURKIA)
(42.7Mb) embed videoTAGS: Conflict, Military, NATO, Kevin Owen, Opposition, Libya, War
Violent clashes between supporters of the new and old regimes have been seen in cities across Libya. The successful regrouping and attacks by former regime loyalists has raised fears that another civil war might take place in the country.
Fighters loyal to late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have clashed with revolutionary forces in the former regime stronghold of Bani Walid on Monday, taking control of the city in the process. At least five NTC troops were killed and 30 others injured in the violence.
There is a lot of disquiet in every corner of Libya at the moment, as investigative journalist Simon Assaf told RT.
“The thing we have to remember about the Gaddafi regime or any kind of regime is that it isn’t simply about the people at the top,” Simon Assaf explained. “There are people, the supporters on the ground, low and mid-level officials and so on. And I think quite a few of them would have been thrown to the winds after the death [of Gaddafi].”
Assaf believes that this group, “the new victims” of the revolution, represents a “certain section of population that now wants to find its voice.”
“The NTC forces when they marched into Bani Walid would have had to face the local population,” he said. “Now it is the local population that seems to have thrown them out.”
There is extreme discontent with what some people are describing as the “hijacked revolution,” Assaf says. And the process of hijacking was very “messy and brutal,” leaving many people seeking revenge, he added.
“There was the total annihilation of Sirte, the attacks on areas considered to be loyal to the old regime,” Assaf explained. “So I think there is no question that there are many people who died under NATO bombs. I think there are quite a lot of acts of revenge taking place.”
“The thing about revolutions is that they are not simply passive events,” he concluded. “There is a whole awakening of the population in the Middle East.”
Ali Alkasih, an eyewitness to NATO’s campaign in Libya told RT that life in Libya was better under Muammar Gaddafi’s regime but now the country is facing more corruption and violence against its own citizens.
“We didn’t have these thugs in Libya. We didn’t have the killings taking place now in Libya. We didn’t have interference – we were an independent country.”
Watch RT's full interview with Ali Alkasih
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20 comments
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Well, as long as the Russian Federation and the PRC don't approve another no-fly zone, then the thugs and rats will be in trouble, deep trouble. Because they won't have the ability to fight them in their substandard Toyota thug technicals supplied by Qatar et al. and their pre-world war AA guns. And all those government employed people that don't get payed anymore could join in too, because they can see that it isn't getting better. NORINCO should sell them a bunch of weapons too, they already tried, now it is their chance.
OneAfrica wrote in#6
"While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas."
Thomas Sankara, revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso, a week before he was assassinated in October 1987
The same can be said about Maummar Gaddafi, he may be dead yet his ideology of a Libya independant of the evil facists and colonalists will live on. The death of Mao didnt mean the end of the Peoples Republic of China and the murder of Gaddafi doesnt mean the end of the idea of the Great Scocialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
The idea of the Jamahiriya, a direct democracy with the Libyan people in control of their country, not Washington, Brussels or London, will be still supported by many. It may take time, but one day many Libyans are likely to look back at the era of Gaddafi as better than the chaos of 2011 onwards. The NTC doesnt have control of the militias that helped toppled the government let alone control of all of Libyas territory. There is a lack of security and stability, the NTC is doomed to fall if it doenst disarm and unify the country.
There IS NO and NO possible way Iraq could EVER be compared to Libya. Not for the sake of discrimination but reality check.
Iraq was completely strangled too death, although Sadam also had great socialist ideas.
While the Libyan’s Gaddafi had already implemented them in practice ….so much successful that entire Africa accepted him as the King of Kings reformer.
Even we in the former Soviets could NOT ever dream to have what Gaddafi gave to ALL Libyans. While the westerners, compared to the former Soviets, just pretended their societies were better.
The Russians were right; the west didn’t won the war there killing Gaddafi …the war has just started. And so was Gaddafi as prophetic.
All and all the west embarked on another idiotic colonising adventure which WILL be lost.