Revolutie in Libi� #116: Met vallen en opstaan

quote:

Libya’s Cache of Toxic Arms All Destroyed

WASHINGTON — Even as the international effort to destroy Syria’s vast chemical weapons stockpile lags behind schedule, a similar American-backed campaign carried out under a cloak of secrecy ended successfully last week in another strife-torn country, Libya.

The United States and Libya in the past three months have discreetly destroyed what both sides say were the last remnants of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s lethal arsenal of chemical arms. They used a transportable oven technology to destroy hundreds of bombs and artillery rounds filled with deadly mustard agent, which American officials had feared could fall into the hands of terrorists. The effort also helped inspire the use of the technology in the much bigger disposal plan in Syria.

Since November, Libyan contractors trained in Germany and Sweden have worked in bulky hazmat suits at a tightly guarded site in a remote corner of the Libyan desert, 400 miles southeast of Tripoli, racing to destroy the weapons in a region where extremists linked to Al Qaeda are gaining greater influence. The last artillery shell was destroyed on Jan. 26, officials said.

As Libya’s weak central government grapples with turmoil and unrest, and as kidnappings and assassinations of military and police officers accelerate in the country’s east, American and international weapons specialists hailed the destruction of the Libyan stockpile as a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy security environment.

quote:

Libya's football team

Something to celebrate

IF THERE was one image that captured Libya’s joy at winning the African Nations Championship final on Saturday night, it was a grainy shot of Tripoli teenager Ali Zoghdani draped in the Libyan flag and kneeling in jubilation as heavy rain drummed on his grinning, upturned face. The photograph, taken by his brother Omar on a phone as they celebrated with thousands others in the city’s landmark Martyrs Square, soon went viral on Libyan social media. "Football has reunited us in love for our one Libya," said Ali. "We get to smile again."

By beating favourites Ghana 4-3 on penalties in Cape Town's stadium, Libya clinched its first continental football title. Liby'’s best performance up to that point was playing the final of the main African Cup on home ground in 1982, when it lost to Ghana, again on penalties. But for Libyans, reaching and winning the championship final this year was always going to be about so much more than football.

Three years after they rose up against their eccentric ruler, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libyans are disillusioned with the pace of change in a country riven by growing factionalism and regionalism as it struggles in its journey from dictatorship to democracy. What optimism still exists is increasingly ragged, as polarisation across political and ideological lines deepens. The fact the African Nations tournament was initially scheduled to take place in Libya but was cancelled due to continuing insecurity was another painful reminder of the country’s challenges.

"Hope and despair have wedded this Libyan heart to a small yellow ball in Cape Town stadium," tweeted Libyan novelist Hisham Matar just before the kick-off. Crowds of jeans-clad youth and elderly men in traditional garb thronged squares across the country to watch the final on giant screens. Tripoli, the capital, came to a standstill as the game went into extra time and then penalties. The suspense was such that one Islamist member of congress said he could almost not bear to watch. When the Libyan team lifted the cup, every town and city echoed to a symphony of fireworks, celebratory gunfire and patriotic chants. The government announced a national holiday as the country celebrated more than it had at any point since the fall of Gaddafi.

The players, most of them in their twenties, are drawn from right across Libya, hailing from Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata, Zawiya and other towns. No wonder then that several Libyans quipped that the country’s bickering and increasingly unpopular politicians could learn much from them in terms of working together. The footballers are expected to make a victory tour of Libya’s major cities on their return, beginning in Benghazi and taking in Sabha, the southern town recently wracked by clashes. More than simply winning a football match, Libya’s youthful team has brought a country and its people together—at least for one night.

quote:

Libya: Critical TV Bans Setback for Speech

Reverse Punitive Scholarship, Salary Cuts for ‘Anti-February 17 Revolution’ Students and Employees

(Tripoli, January 27, 2014) �– A new decree passed by Libya’s parliament banning satellite television stations critical of the government and the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi violates free speech and Libya’s Provisional Constitutional Declaration. The decree was passed January 22, 2014. The government also slashed scholarship funding for students abroad, along with salaries and bonuses to employees who take part in activities “inimical” to the revolution.

“You’d think that Libyans learned long ago that suppressing speech, no matter how harsh, does nothing to foster security or peace,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “The best way to confront opinions that the government doesn’t like is to challenge them with better ideas that will convince Libyans.”

Decree 5/2014, “Concerning the Cessation and Ban on the Broadcasting of Certain Satellite Channels,” passed by Libya’s parliament, the General National Congress (GNC), on January 22, instructs the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Communications, and [Mass] Media to “take necessary steps required” to halt the transmission of all satellite television stations that are “hostile to the February 17 revolution and whose purpose is the destabilization of the country or creating divisions among Libyans.” It further instructs the government to “take all measures” against states or businesses in territories from where the channels are broadcast if they do not block the transmission of these stations.

The decree violates freedom of expression because it censors a wide range of speech, including peaceful political dissent, and its broad and vague wording is open to arbitrary implementation, Human Rights Watch said. While the government could lawfully ban speech that is found to directly incite violence, it should not ban all of a satellite channel’s broadcasts even if some of the speech that it disseminates is found to incite violence. Human Rights Watch urged the government to revoke the resolution.

The ban appears intended to block satellite stations that have taken a pro-Gaddafi position in their editorial content; in particular, it appears aimed at a pro-Gaddafi station, al-Khadra Channel, and al-Jamahiriyah.

Libya’s government also passed Resolution 13/2014 on January 24, discontinuing scholarships to students studying abroad and salaries and bonuses to Libyan employees, for “taking part in activities inimical to the February 17 revolution,” which is widely understood to encompass statements and protests against the current government. It calls on Libyan embassies abroad and others to draw up lists of names and refer them to the Prosecutor General for prosecution.

“These efforts to sanction Libyans who don’t support the revolution or the current government should be an embarrassment for all those who pledged a new era of freedom for Libyans,” Whitson said. “Punishing students and employees who don’t toe the government’s political line is a tactic that should have ended with the fall of Gaddafi.”

The government’s effort to ban pro-Gaddafi media comes in the context of a difficult political and security environment. Seemingly pro-Gaddafi armed groups in southern and western Libya have engaged in pitched battles against pro-government forces, resulting in at least 154 deaths and 463 injured people according to an Agence France Presse report. In the past year, armed groups and unknown assailants assassinated at least 70 Libyans associated with the Gaddafi government, mainly former members of the Gaddafi security forces, but also political opponents of Gaddafi, and judges, with virtually no arrests by the government.

It is unclear how the Libyan government will enforce this ban against satellite stations operating outside of the country.

quote:

Libya: Muammar Gaddafi's secrets finally revealed

Since Muammar Gaddafi's ignominious death at the hands of a rebel mob in October 2011 much has been written and said about him. But now a new film, with unprecedented access to those close to Gaddafi, provides a comprehensive study of Libya's brutal and contradictory long-time leader.

Ali Aujali, Gaddafi's former ambassador to the United States, is an exceptionally charming man.

He is also something of a magician. He began his career in the Libyan diplomatic service a couple of years after Gaddafi seized power in 1969.

In a series of postings from London to Latin America, he explained away the excesses of the Gaddafi regime. So I was rather surprised to sit with Mr Aujali surrounded by the staggeringly ornate Libyan embassy in Washington and hear him tear the colonel to pieces.

Mr Aujali defected to the rebels in February 2011 and became their ambassador to the United States.

According to him, there was literally nothing good about the man whose regime he had served most of his adult life.

Secret after secret spilled out. We checked as many of his claims as we could.

There were anecdotes we could not follow up, such as his claim that a young man had been tied to two cars and ripped in half after complaining that Gaddafi had had sex with his wife.

But there were other claims we could check.

One was that on 22 December 1992, almost four years to the day after Pan Am 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, a Libyan Arab Airlines 727 was shot down on Gaddafi's orders.

A total of 157 people - Libyans and foreigners - had died.

Its flight number, curiously, was 1103.

The wreckage of Flight 1103 on the outskirts of Tripoli

After Gaddafi fell, the British wife of one of the victims tried to get the new Libyan government to open an enquiry.

Reporters pieced together statements made by pilots of military jets in the area, air traffic controllers and airline employees.

But what was important about Mr Aujali's statement to us was that it was the first time a true insider had spoken out.

Was he sure? "100%," he said.

A bomb with a timer had been placed on board the plane. When it failed to detonate, Gaddafi ordered the plane to be knocked out of the sky, near Tripoli airport.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

Celebrations, and Unease, in Libya on Anniversary of Uprising

Rockets exploded in showers of sparkles over Martyrs’ Square here on Monday, and thousands of Libyans raced their cars up and down the coastal highway, flying flags and honking their horns in celebration of the third anniversary of the start of the uprising that overthrew the longtime ruler Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Libyans complain that their leaders have squandered the revolution, engaging in power struggles and enriching themselves while doing little to improve the lives of citizens. Carjackings and kidnappings are so frequent that some people even lament the bygone security of Colonel Qaddafi’s dictatorship and call for a new strong hand to control the many militias and criminals at large.

Yet the enthusiasm for the revolution that rid the country of the “tyrant,” as many refer to him, is still emphatic and widespread. The crowds in Tripoli, the capital, appeared undaunted even when a small car bomb exploded just yards from Martyrs’ Square. The front seats of the car were damaged, but no one was wounded.

“It means everything to me and to the Libyans,” said Abdul Hedi al-Kikli, 58, who took his family three years ago and went to join rebels in the mountains.

“We may have some negativity now, but it will not last,” Mr. Kikli said. “I don’t care about the situation now. What we have done is lay the foundations for change. It is for the next generation, even if our generation might not know democracy.”