Libya: ‘Occupation does not breed democracy’

Published time: 23 Oct, 2011 19:33Edited time: 23 Oct, 2011 23:33

Libya’s interim rulers have proclaimed the country’s liberation on Sunday. But the path to democracy still has numerous obstacles. Professor Hisham Ghassib says the main issue is that Libya is occupied.

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He claims that the conflict in Libya cannot be described as a real revolution.

“Historically speaking, this cannot be described as a revolution. It was some sort of coup d’état, where you had a military coup d’état backed by NATO,” the professor from Princess Sumaya University in Jordan told RT. “It is an occupation and a very brutal occupation.”

And unlike a real revolution “occupation does not breed democracy,” he stressed. “So I doubt very much that there will be real, genuine, democracy in Libya from now on.”

According to Professor Ghassib, the elections that will take place in Libya will be a formality, and “will not be a genuine expression of the will of the people.”

“It would be a mere formality hiding something else beneath it,” he says.

The professor warns that the end of the war in Libya could be followed by a resistance movement as in Iraq as NATO’s allies in Libya will find a lot of trouble convincing the people of their legitimacy.