UNLIKE THE UNITED STATES, we Europeans have a stake in what is happening throughout north Africa. The earlier conflicts in Tunisia and Egypt, and now in Libya will affect us one way or another. If we had ignored the plight of Libya’s people and allowed Gaddafi’s forces to overwhelm them, the blood would have flowed liberally through the streets of Benghazi – a city of one million people. Such would have been the reckoning that Gadaffi would have wrought on his rebellious citizens, that the international community would have once more disgraced itself as it did over Rwanda.
Perhaps we in Europe could have carried on with our lives regardless of Gadaffi’s brutalities; Libya is after all a far off country whose fate is not Europe’s responsibility, any more than was Rwanda. We cannot police the world; people just have to find their own way in life as we in the UK have had to do. Is it not enough that we, a medium sized military power should have punched above our weight and given so much in terms of money and our young men and women’s lives to Afghanistan and Iraq?
If Gadaffi is indeed a monster, then why (asks those who oppose our intervention) was he courted and kow-towed to by politicians and academics alike? The likes of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, as well as academics belonging to the London School of Economics (LSE), all of whom paid homage to the Libyan orchestrator of international terrorism from shipping guns to the IRA, to arranging Lockerbie: and did the LSE not take £1.5 million from the beast of Benghazi as payment for guaranteeing that a PhD was awarded to his somewhat dim son?
THE PEOPLE ARE RIGHT to be cynical about our involvement in Libya, and, as a consequence, withhold their support.
But what is happening in North Africa will indeed impinge upon our lives in Europe (and yes, also the UK). For the elephant in the room which our politicians chose to ignore is once more immigration. I believe that those two designers of the concept of a no fly zone for Libya, Cameron and Sarkozy, were torn between helping prevent a human tragedy and avoiding an equal tragedy on Europe’s mainland.
What I would like to do is ask people to imagine the consequences of ignoring not only Libya but the whole ‘Arab spring’ in North Africa.
Lampedusa is a tiny Mediterranean island belonging to Italy, described by the New York Times (NYT) as “a kind of Ellis Island”. It is to this small Italian community that, in the past two months some 6,000 refugees, mainly from Tunisia, have sought refuge. It comprises, again according to the NYT, “Young men in hooded jackets [who] smoke cigarettes [and] await transfer to the mainland – a prospect that is striking fear in many European hearts”.
In Italy panic is just another boat load away. When Gadaffi launched his revenge upon those who dared oppose him, and threatened the inhabitants of Benghazi; many hundreds and thousands of Libyan citizens fled the city to go where?
Luckily the no fly zone became operable and drove Gadaffi’s forces back. In so doing it allowed those thousands who fled the city to return. If we had not taken a hand, then those who fled would have sooner or later turned up on some European shore…and yes, it does mean the UK.
At the moment those seeking asylum in Europe via Lampedusa are, in the main Tunisian. But had we not intervened when we did, yet another language could be added to the dozens we are confronted with in the UK today. We stopped Gadaffi and allowed the rebels to briefly enjoy their pursuit of his forces as they retreated in the face of Western bombs.
THE PEOPLE OF THE TINY ISLAND of Lampedusa were visited by the Italian president Berlusconi. He told them that the immigration centre on their small island would begin to disperse the Tunisians. He also rather bizarrely promised the Lampedusan community that he would put forward their small island’s name on to the Nobel Prize Committee as a contestant for the peace prize.
To accommodate those that would now leave Lampedusa, a new hastily built camp in Manduria, in the Puglia region of Italy (the heel), would be made available. This camp which holds a mere 1300 people, will prove insufficient unless the influx of North Africans can be halted.
In Libya last week it was temporarily halted because the no fly zone was activated. But if Gadaffi wins, a tsunami of people will cross the Mediterranean come what may in fear of their lives.
So those in this country who think that by ignoring the events in North Africa we can carry on as normal, must think again. These uprisings in North Africa must be supported by the West and Europe in particular. We have far stronger (be it selfish) reason for participating in Libya than we ever had for so doing in Afghanistan.
ACCORDING TO MOST OF THE POLLS, the most important priority for the British people is immigration. The politicians know this and they know that the Mediterranean is no more than a lake that separates us from North Africa.
If Gadaffi wins we will have another migration crisis on our hands in Europe to further exacerbate those we already have. This fact alone should encourage support for intervention in Libya. This is what the politicians fear most and is why the likes of Cameron and Sarkozy are hell bent upon the destruction of Gadaffi.
The interpretation of UN Resolution 1973 will be fought over in the coming days and weeks. Does it allow the arming of the rebels? Lawyers, it seems, will once more protract the arguments, thus allowing those who are for and against in the political arena to undermine what is needed.
Europe must support the Libyan people if only out of self-interest. By overthrowing Gadaffi and supporting a Libyan transition to democracy, the Libyan people will feel safe where they are.
So, for the sake of Europe, we must do whatever is required to preserve its peace. If NATO says that arming the rebels is not part of UN Resolution 1973, then we must proceed anyway. For the harmony of Europe requires such an approach.
Much talk about al-Qaeda infiltrating the Libyan rebels has been ignited by a passing reference by NATO’s General Secretary. This reference has caused the media to question the international alliance’s ability to separate the wheat from the chaff when talking to the rebels.
IT HAS NOW COME OUT that CIA operatives have been at work in Libya for weeks studying the opposition and passing on their view of the oppositions reliability. In other words, the USA has pre-empted the dangers of al-Qaeda infiltration into the rebel forces.
In addition to the presence of the CIA, British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are also working inside Libya. In addition, “American spies are meeting with rebels to try to fill in gaps in understanding who their leaders are and the allegiances of the groups opposed to Colonel Qaddafi”, according to United States government officials.
What we in Europe have to consider is the safety of our boarders, and in so doing, we must act to help the Libyan people overcome their tormenter. For to forgo this challenge only invites another addition to our multicultural experiment.
So those who think that the events in Libya can go unchallenged by the West in the hope that they will sort themselves out, had better think again.
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