Libyans demand closure of their embassy in Malta

A group of Libyans yesterday held a protest outside the Libyan Embassy in Balzan asking the Maltese government to close it down as it no longer represented the people of Libya.

The embassy is still flying Muammar Gaddafi’s green flag.

“I have never held the green flag in all of my life. Although the transition is gradual, we’re confident that the good will prevail in the end,” Magda Koukab said, waving the three-coloured Libyan monarchy flag proudly.

The Libyan civil war started on February 15 when a series of peaceful protests were met with violence by Col Gaddafi’s regime.

“People were so sick of Gaddafi that, in February, we all thought it would be over in four days,” Ms Koukab, 35, originally from Az-Zawiyah, said.

Asked about the criticism aimed at the international help that Col Gaddafi’s opposition is receiving, Ms Koukab said, despite the scepticism by other Arab countries, the Libyans needed the Nato intervention, which entered its 100th day on Monday.

On March 17, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 with 10 votes in favour, none against and five abstentions. It sanctioned the establishment of a no-fly zone and the use of “all means necessary” to protect civilians. Two days later, French military jets entered Libyan airspace to attack regime targets.

Ms Koukab described the evening of March 17 as “a final football-match night” with Libyans “glued to TV screens waiting for the announcement, which breathed a new life in their hopes of a freed Libya”.

She said people living in towns under Nato’s watchful eyes “slept at home peacefully” while those in cities like Tripoli, which still lay within Col Gaddafi’s strong hold, spent nights outdoors, sleeping under trees.

“Nato sides with the wretched. If Nato hadn’t intervened, Col Gaddafi would have pulled Benghazi down wall by wall,” Ms Koukab added.

The woman has been in Malta for eight days. A lawyer by profession, she ran her own office but was fed up of the dictatorial governance.

In 1984, she said, a group had voiced its disapproval of Col Gaddafi. “After he punished them all, Gaddafi appeared on state TV threatening people. He said those who expressed their disapproval... would be imprisoned for 15 years and those who went against his word would be hanged,” Ms Koukab said.

After working for about a year as a civil servant in Libya, Ms Koukab set up her own legal office. However, about 10 years ago, a law stipulated that a profile picture of Col Gaddafi must hang in every office. She hung a picture of Col Gaddafi behind her desk. One day, plain clothes officers barged into her office demanding she placed the portrait in front of the desk, replacing a poster depicting text from the Quran.

“Gaddafi fights for himself and not in the name of God,” Ms Koukab added, as her daughter held her hand tightly.

“And so, his face was the first thing I saw every morning,” she said, recalling the time when her business fluctuated on a daily basis as “laws were changed every month to suit Gaddafi’s international relationships”.

The demonstration held in Balzan yesterday was replicated in 16 countries across Europe, where Libyans asked governments not to deal with Col Gaddafi’s representatives, Nabil Alfitouri said.

The Libyan community in Malta was collecting signatures for a petition calling on Foreign Minister Tonio Borg to order the closure of the embassy while putting pressure on the ambassador to resign.

Some 245 signatures had already been collected, the promoters said.