THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN LIBYA Pratidhwani - Prime Time Discussion on ETV The legacy of Colonel Gaddafi, Libya’s crazy dictator who was mercilessly killed by Benghazi-based opposition militias rebelling against 42 years of his tyrannical rule, continues to infest and destabilise. Gaddafi was no ordinary dictator. After seizing power in 1969 in a coup d’etat that unseated King Idres, he established a ‘Republic of the Masses’ in which his ‘Green Book’ was compulsory reading for all citizens – a bit like ‘The Little Red Book’ of Mao. He was a real desert rat. He fostered terrorist activity outside his country – including the one which blew up Panam Flight 103 with all its 259 occupants over Lockerbie in Scotland. After admitting responsibility, Gaddafi accorded a hero’s welcome to the main accused who was allowed to go back to Libya by Scotland on compassionate grounds that he had terminal cancer. His occasional secularist claims went well along with encouragement of extreme Islam. Despite his love for a Republic, Gaddafi who accepted the title of ‘King of Kings’ conferred on him by 200 sundry African leaders and chieftains in 2008! When Gaddafi was in danger neither French President Sarkozy whose electoral campaign it was believed was illegally financed to the extent of 50 million Dollars by Gaddafi, nor the several organizations in the UK including the London School of Economics which were funded by Gaddafi’s clan came to his rescue. That was not possible - you can only get help from terrorists clandestinely and support them . Instead, they who never aggressively shunned his money, imposed a no-fly zone on Libya which eventually did Gaddafi in. Despite its leader, fuelled by oil, Libya has had a fairly prosperous economy which was upheld by financial reparations made by its former colonial occupier and exploiter Italy. And huge numbers of foreign workers who came in through its porous borders – all these 2.5 million were thrown into desperate conditions in the chaos that followed Gaddafi’s murder. The militias which took over Libya were initially inspired by the Arab Spring in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt. But when the Govt. collapsed in Egypt, the Army, the well-established and authoritarian institution took over; while in Libya because there were no institutions, there was nothing to replace the collapsed state. It is fair to say all the nearly 7 million Libyans were caught in the great humanitarian crisis that followed the collapse of Libyan society which splintered on the lines of Islamism, Secular forces and Tribal groups. People started fleeing Libya since 2011. India which once had to valiantly evacuate over 111,000 Indian workers from Iraq in a gigantic exercise just after Saddam Hussain’s occupation of Iraq had to bring home nearly 18,000 workers from Libya in 2011. There are still 6000 Indian workers in that country now. So why are Indians still staying on in such a desperately bad situation? Is it because of looming unemployment back home? Is it the huge debts they incurred to travel out of the country and the fear of the loan sharks? Did the official Protectorate of Emigrants prepare these unfortunate semi-skilled or unskilled migrant workers for their jobs and lives abroad? And does the Pravasseya Bharat Ministry have a view on whether we are supposed to export unskilled labour outside the country – like sending cattle for the money they bring in? The US Ambassador was killed already quite some time ago; the US has evacuated even its Embassy staff by taking them to neighboring countries by land; Britain and France have done the same and the UN has also closed its operations in the country. Tripoli’s only International Civilian Airport is destroyed. And yet Govt. of India’s diplomats are still claiming that the situation was not all that bad. What gives the Indian diplomats this confidence? What does all this tell us about the competence of our officers as regards conveying the right information about threat perceptions in that distant sorry lawless land? Watch the Discussion here with Mr. K.C. Reddy, UN Security Advisor, Padmanabha Reddy, Good Governance activist, Dr. Hanuman Chowdary, architect of Indias telecom revolution and right wing ideologue and Babu Gogineni, Humanist. https://youtube/watch?v=PsdeJxRpE3I
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 13:33:51 +0000
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