Over the past couple of weeks, the media has been very busy reporting the story of the former AFM Captain who was abducted in Libya and released 10 days later. His account of what happened was shocking but I believe it gave Malta the true picture of what is going on, right on our doorstep, in Libya.
It’s now nearly three years since the Libyan revolution started, with long-time Libyan dictator Gaddafi being ousted. However, the country is nowhere close to being stable or having a stable leadership. Instead, the civil war that led to Gaddafi’s death in 2011 has given birth to a number of militias fighting in Tripoli and all around Libya – with damages and death tolls rising every day. It was also rumoured that the chaos has increased so much in Tripoli that officials are currently deliberating whether they should call on the international community for help and international troops to be sent to Libya. In fact, there is virtually no government or a very weak one that has almost no control over what is happening in the country. Not only is the government weak, but the militias have been gaining strength – both in terms of human resources as well as in guns and weaponry.
Moreover, there also disputes over Libya’s oil resources which are now triggering conflicts between the rival militias as well as within the political factions. This has been ongoing since Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship ended.
The situation has worsened so much that the United Nations has also withdrawn its personnel from the Libyan capital as the scenes resemble those of a war-zone, with armoured cars constantly patrolling the area. In fact, the reality that Libyans are facing today is a far cry to what they expected before the glorious liberating war. It is a far cry from what they expected when western countries led a military campaign to oust Gaddafi.
It is precisely the same outcome that ensued after the Iraq war in 2003.
Current events, such as the above, prove that the line of thought that western military campaigns and interventions can help democracy blossom in these countries is wrong. Libya is now divided, fighting in a civil war with armed terrorists roaming the streets and continuous violence and people fleeing. Instead of blossoming into a democracy, Libya is now a monster run by people who fought Gaddafi and refused to put down their arms.
What is more worrying however is that Libya, especially in Malta until the recent case of Captain Martin, has been mostly ignored by the media. News correspondents are busier than ever. I feel that at first the world was fascinated by the Arab Spring and how it reached Tripoli; then interest dwindled and moved to other places such as Syria and now Palestine. Furthermore, the interest of those who supported Libya and the spread of weapons, has moved on to the next conflict, the next place to advocate intervention.
I think that Libya and the Libyans deserve help. They need more assistance and more resources to be able to hit the ground running and start to build the foundations for a stable state. Without stability in Libya, Malta and Europe will have to keep forking out money to help people fleeing Libya, paying higher prices for oil due to the instability caused by the crisis, and invest tons of money in aid, because after all, the West has a responsibility to protect.
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