|
Momodou
Denmark
11824 Posts |
 Posted - 28 Feb 2011 : 08:31:53
|
THE URGENCY TO EVACUATE GAMBIANS IN LIBYA AND THE WAY FORWARD
25th February 2011
Issued By Halifa Sallah
We have reliably learnt that Gambians, who are currently resident in Libya, are desperately struggling for ways and means to get out of Libya. According to people we have spoken to directly, Libya has become ungovernable and is no longer a safe place for them to stay. Those who called on 24 February claimed that it was not safe for them to try to find their way to the border because of the rumour which has spread that Africans from South of the Sahara are serving as mercenaries to enable Qhadaffi to slaughter Libyans. This has incited hostility among many ordinary Libyans towards people from Africa South of the Sahara.
On Friday 25 February 2011, the Gambians who spoke to us sounded to be more desperate. They claimed that the situation has overwhelmed the Gambian Consul in Tripoli. They intimated that they had to go to the Senegalese Embassy to explore possibilities of being evacuated but that the Embassy staff is overwhelmed by the demands of the Senegalese citizens. They lamented their hunger, tiredness and vulnerability to attacks and beatings. They have not given concrete evidence on who is attacked and beaten or whether there are any casualties. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been duly informed of the raw data we have collected so that it could serve as the raw material for policy formulation on the means to adopt to rescue Gambian Nationals from Libya.
First and foremost, The Government of the Gambia and the Government of Senegal should jointly charter flights to evacuate the Gambians and Senegalese who are currently seeking refuge at the Senegalese Embassy. If they have difficulties they should approach other Governments, ECOWAS, The AU or the UN for support.
Secondly, those managing the programmes of the international media should know that most people in Libya are relying on them for information. It is important for them to convey to each sovereign Libyan that magnanimity is what gives integrity to a social movement that is bent on bringing about social transformation in a country.
If one guarantees justice to strangers one would not deny it to the Libyan people.
Those on the side of change in Libya should provide protection and render justice to all foreigners in particular and to all Qhadaffi Loyalists they capture. They should provide those who want to leave Libya with food and safe passage to any of the borders. Justice triumphs by fighting impunity.
Thirdly, the fact that almost all non Libyans lacking protection are trying to leave the country put into question whether Qhadaffi is in control of the Country. The speeches delivered by Qhadaffi are designed to show that he is still in charge of Libya.
We have said and will repeat again that no government could survive that is no longer regarded, respected or recognised by the vast majority of its sovereign citizens. Any government which takes a stand by relying on the instrument of coercion to trample on the liberty, dignity and prosperity of the vast majority of its sovereign people would indeed be taking its last stand as a government before being liquidated.
In our view Qhadaffi is not reading the situation in Libya correctly. His last chance to minimize the damage instead of fueling the carnage is slipping away with unparalleled rapidity.
The fact that Qhadaffi and his son are particular in convincing the whole world that Tripoli is under control by inviting Independent Journalists to judge for themselves is a sign that they are both concerned about world public opinion. However the remarks made by those who have been invited that Tripoli is under the control of Qhadaffi confirm that such observers are not reading the situation correctly. What do we mean?
They have not gone to embassies to be able to tell us whether the Ambassadors are able to conduct normal diplomatic relations with the Libyan government. Nothing has been said on what the Ambassadors are saying about the security of their Nationals.
We know for sure that Gambian Nationals are in a hurry to leave Libya because of the state of insecurity in Tripoli. No Government could be said to be in control if the security of persons could not be guaranteed. The Independent observers could not indicate that Government Departments, the courts, the hospitals and schools are functioning. To be in control of a state is to be able to govern the state without hindrance. Governability of a state is inconceivable without viable instruments like Constitutions and laws, Institutions like Ministries and departments and the institutional processes that come in the form of public services. Any state whose Instruments, Institutions and Institutional processes are not operational must be seen to be ungovernable. No Country or settlement that is
ungovernable could be said to be under the control of anyone. The Instruments, Institutions and Institutional Processes of the Libyan state are not operational in Tripoli.
A correct reading of the situation would reveal that it is the attitude of Qhadaffi´s son, in particular, who is not elected by the Libyan people to be their head of state and his own attitude towards the protesters which has eroded the internal and external sovereignty of Libya. In short, the Government of Tunisia and
Egypt were besieged by protesters but the internal and external sovereignty of the two countries remained intact, once the armies of the two countries remained loyal to the people and refused to take opposite sides and cause a civil war. Today Libya is unable to conduct normal international diplomacy. Its ambassadors are outraged by the turning of guns against the people. Hence Qhadaffi could no longer guarantee the external sovereignty of Libya and its enormous external investments.
Internally, only Qhadaffi and his son are speaking on behalf of the old Libyan state. There is no other authority in Libya that is speaking on behalf of the old state. Needless to say, Qhadaffi has only Tripoli and its environs as his theatre of operation. Even in Tripoli civil order has been disrupted. People are in doors and normal daily life is disrupted. It goes without saying that once a government cannot provide protection to a population irrespective of their differences and ensure the normal operation of services such a country must be classified as ungovernable. This confirms that the internal sovereignty of Libya has also been negated.
The battle formation of the forces loyal to Qhadaffi, their concentration on the side of Tripoli where Qhadaffi is resident with all the bunkers to escape bombardment, confirms that his government is taking its last stand. Now, he is neither able to move freely to other regions nor is he able to travel abroad. The best description of his current state, without any attempt to caricature him, is that of a suicide bomber. The weapons he has could explode and destroy Tripoli but cannot be used to impose his will on the Libyan people anymore. The vast majority in Libya is no longer ready to live in the old way. The army cannot kill all the people and survive to rule in the old way. Sooner or later most will not subscribe to the logic of killing millions to save the rule of a person. Libya has to be governed in a new way, one determined by the sovereign will of her sovereign people. This is the verdict of history and it is irrevocable.
What then are the way forward to protect the Libyan People in particular and the Foreigners resident in Libya who are unable to escape?
First and foremost, the international community should realise that rulers are weak when it comes to fighting their own people. This is why leaders under siege always try to look for foreign scapegoats to identify as the external threat. As it stands, Qhadaffi is accusing Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and drugs as the cause of the disintegration of his rule. The US should not do anything that will enable Qhadafii to give the impression that he is fighting an imperial power. The US should not make any unilateral declarations but should rely on the decisions of the Security Council to make any pronouncements. There should be no competition between the US and
European Union as to which entity would issue harsher threats to Ghadafi and his circle. The international Community should recognise that what is happening in Libya is not the handiwork of any foreign power but a byproduct of the sovereign will and resolve of the Libyan people. The US should in fact begin to look at its policies in the Middle East and Afghanistan and map out a short, medium and long term strategy to address this new era of the sovereignty of the
people. The first era of the sovereignty of Nations is what brought about African, Arab, Jewish, Turkish, Persians, Chinese and Bolivian Nationalisms to name a few.
This did not negate the insecurity of the people of the world. Now the people are demanding for an order under which their civil, political, economic, social, cultural and ecological rights would be safeguarded, irrespective of their gender, colour and ethno-linguistic origin. If Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and beyond succeed in ushering in Sovereign National Conferences that bring about Instruments, Institutions and Institutional processes that institutionalize, acculturate and consolidate sovereignty of the people, they should be able to inspire the Palestinian people to come together as one sovereign people and refuse to be divided by sectarian forces to demand their right to self determination and Independence. Once they establish the architecture of a secular state which could guarantee their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights the US will have no option but to support their demand for self determination or earn the rage of the people of the Middle East and beyond. Just like Qhadaffi is weakened because of his decision to take the wrong side of history against the people the US must be prepared not to go against the people of the Middle East in particular and the world in general in this second phase of the struggle for the liberation of the people of the world from the tyranny of a few and for the assertion of their individual and collective sovereign existence.
PRIORITIES
The first priority is the recognition that the architecture of the Libyan state under Qhadaffi is disintegrating and withering away like chaff in the wind. Libya will disintegrate into a failed state unless the architecture of a democratic Republic emerges which would allow new instruments, Institutions and Institutional processes to be built that would guarantee the civil, political, economic, social, cultural and ecological rights of the sovereign Libyan people. Hence wherever people have taken over, attempts should be made to hold sovereign local or regional Conferences to appoint a transitional local government that would begin the process of drafting Instruments and building institutions that are demanded by the times and circumstances. This should be followed by a sovereign National Conference to establish a new state architecture once Tripoli capitulates to the sovereignty of the people. This is the first task.
The other significant priority is to guarantee the peace and security of the Libyan people in particular and the foreigners who are still in Libya. Hence Libyans should be called upon to agree to the establishment of evacuation depots in major cities and peace corridors from the cities to the border areas. The Embassy staff of countries should be given safe passage to such depots on a regular basis to be able to identify their Nationals and facilitate their repatriation. Such developments would enable foreigners to assemble and leave for the airport or the Tunisian and Egyptian borders. If it is necessary, UN troops should be allowed to provide a safe passage to such foreigners to reach the airport or the border where they could be evacuated.
Thirdly, the International community should recognise that the killing of other Nationals in Libya could lead to retaliation against Libyans elsewhere and thus undermine international peace and security. The militarization of Libya constitutes a threat to international peace and security. Hence Qhadaffi should be informed that the only way he could make what is happening in Libya a National affair is to recognise the sovereignty of the people. Qhadaffi should be informed that it would constitute a crime against humanity if he utilises any weapon to attack settlements that are not under his control at the moment. He should be told that the crisis would be an internal Libyan affair if no force is used against protesters and if dialogue is utilised to enable the people to build the type of Libya they want. The international community should then be resolved to protect the Libyan people whenever they are under attack.
In our view this is the way to bring sanity to Libya.
To conclude, we would like anyone who has access to Qhaddafi to remind him that no government could win by fighting her own people. It is Qhadaffi who is losing the battle and his integrity. There is no honour to die fighting unarmed protesters. All that Qhadaffi has to do to attain peace is to encourage the people to march and state their minds on the way forward for Libya. This should be followed by a National Conference of all stakeholders to prepare a new way forward for the country. Qhadaffi will not be remembered in an honourable light if he goes to his death by killing and maiming the people he claims to want to liberate. History, that great recorder of events, has its pen in its hand. A new Chapter of the history of Libya is about to be written. The deeds of today will be the words of tomorrow.
Qhadaffi should now choose what is to be written. It is either going to be Qhadaffi’s last stand or Qhadaffi’s last chance to engage or divorce the progressive pages of history. The decision is entirely his and time will tell.
|
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
|
Topic Locked
