About a year ago, the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the end of his regime were unimaginable. Popular uprisings across the Arab world saw despots overthrown in Egypt and Tunisia, but it was thought that removing Gaddafi was too difficult, if not impossible. Gaddafi was born in 1942 in a Bedouin tent. In his youth he joined a military academy in Libya and did further military training in Britain. His decades of rule began in 1969 after leading a bloodless coup that overthrew the monarchy.
At the beginning he was seen as a change for the better. He pressurised oil companies to pay a higher proportion of the oil revenue to Libya, and the people saw some improvement in their living conditions. At one time during his rule Libya had the lowest infant mortality rate, the highest education index and the highest nominal GDP per capita in all of Africa.
However, as time went on, the Libyan people – like any other nation – grew tired of the status quo, but Gaddafi did not tolerate that. Political parties were banned, and his security services hunted down oppositionists, assassinating more than 20 of them abroad. It is also believed that as many as 1,200 inmates were massacred by Gaddafi’s security services in 1996 in Abu Salim prison.
Gaddafi’s government did not have ministries or institutions. Instead, he established committees all over Libya to run the country. He published his ideas and political philosophy, a so-called alternative to capitalism and communism that he called the ‘third international theory’, in his famous ‘Green Book’.
His relations with the world leaders were as bizarre as the way he ruled Libya. At one Arab summit during the 1980s, he wore gloves when he shook hands with other Arab leaders who met American leaders. His reasoning, he explained, was that he did not want his hand to touch any hand that was ‘contaminated’ by shaking American leaders’ hands.
This neatly summarises his relations with the west during that period marked by the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986, and the Lockerbie plane bombing in 1988 – a crime for which Libya would admit no responsibility till 2003.
At the same time, Gaddafi supported revolutionary movements such as the IRA and the Palestinians. It was a risky policy, but he knew he could use it as a bargaining chip in the future.
After years of antagonism, Gaddafi’s relations with the west took a dramatic turn after the invasion of Iraq. He gave up his nuclear programme, which led to a visit by the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair – who later used this new connection to make money by lobbying Gaddafi to invest in the American bank JP Morgan. The situation reflected western leaders’ hypocrisy that favours business interests over human rights. Indeed, British and American intelligence were found to be involved in protecting Gaddafi and they handed over some of his opponents before the uprising.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi also abandoned his ideas of pan-Arabism, instead championing the concept of a ‘United States of Africa’, reinforced by his investing part of Libya’s oil revenue in sub-Saharan African countries.
But the accumulation of 42 years of oppression and corruption finally caught up with him earlier this year, as the ‘Arab spring’ spread from Tunisia to Libya. As Gaddafi pledged from the start, he fought until his death. I hope other dictators will learn from that, and allow democratic reform to take place.
There is now a real chance to build a new democracy in Libya. But the people must be wary of interference by western countries that have operated a policy of propping up leaders who put western interests before the interests of their own people, especially when oil is involved. The people of Libya should be supported during the transition to democracy and their will should be respected. Differences among Libyans may happen, but this is part of the democratic process.
Mohammed Samaana is a Palestinian living in Belfast.
