The killing of Muammar Gaddafi by rebel fighters in Sirte marks the beginning of a new chapter for the Libyan people and will hope-fully allow them to focus on rebuilding their country and establishing a functioning secular democracy.
The ability of Gaddafi’s remaining sons and Senussi to destabilise the new Libya must not be underestimated- Anthony Manduca
Gaddafi’s ability to evade capture until last Thursday was having a destabilising effect on the country and his death now allows the country’s new leaders to concentrate on the many challenges that lie ahead.
While Gaddafi’s death is a major boost for Libya’s stability it is important that the former dictator’s children who have so far avoided capture or death are neutralised as soon as possible.
Three of Gaddafi’s sons died in the conflict, Saif al-Arab, Khamis and Mutassim – who was killed with his father in Sirte on Thursday.
However, Muhammed and Hannibal fled to Algeria, along with their mother Sfia Farkash and sister Aisha, while Saadi fled to Niger.
The fate of Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s heir apparent, remains unknown, as do the whereabouts of Abdullah Senussi, Gaddafi’s brother-in-law and intelligence chief who has been described by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court as Gaddafi’s “executioner”.
The ability of Gaddafi’s remaining sons and Senussi to destabilise the new Libya must not be underestimated so the quicker they are captured or extradited the better.
Gaddafi’s death has not only been welcomed in Libya but all over the world. This is not surprising, considering that the dictator brutally oppressed his people for 42 years, treated his country like his personal property, established one of the most authoritarian police states in the world, turned Libya into a pariah state, supported international terrorism, presided over the gross mismanagement of the economy, squandered the country’s wealth on foreign adventures and corruption and played a destabilising role in the Mediterranean, Africa and theMiddle East.
The world did engage with Gaddafi after 2003 when he gave up his weapons of mass destruction programmes and promised to co-operate in the fight against Al-Qaeda, but the nature of his regime remained unchanged and anyone who believed otherwise was naive at best.
His uncompromising and brutal response to the unrest that erupted in Libya in February was ample proof that Gaddafi had no intention whatsoever of changing his ways.
His death will be welcomed by Nato and in particular Britain, France and the US, the major powers behind the UN sanctioned air strikes which prevented genocide and led to Gaddafi’s overthrow.
Nato conducted a total of 26,089 sorties over Libya, including 9,618 strike sorties. Libya will no doubt be forever grateful to Nato, without whose support Gaddafi would not have been deposed and killed.
Now Gaddafi is gone the challenges for Libya’s National Transitional Council are huge and so are the expectations of the Libyan people. A new democratic system and constitution need to be put in place and an election date announced. The country’s economy and infrastructure need to be rebuilt, and much foreign investment is needed.
It is essential that all Libyans, of whatever tribal or political background, feel part of the new Libya. Crucially, the various militias and armed groups must be incorporated into a single army under one authority responsible to a single minister.
The police force must be beefed up and given control over internal security. Without a system based on the rule of law and an efficient and centralised security system there can be no stability in the country which means the economy will not be able to grow to its full potential.
The Libyan authorities must now ensure the new Libya is an inclusive one that fully respects pluralism and human rights. The transition to democracy will not be easy as Libya has no experience of freedom or civil society due to Gaddafi’s autocratic rule.
But the statements made so far by the National Transitional Council, as well as the behaviour of the new rulers since assuming power have been very encouraging.
Certainly there are differences of opinion among those who deposed Gaddafi – principally between the secular minded elements and the more Islamist oriented factions.
However, I don’t think Libyans overthrew the Gaddafi dictatorship only to replace it with an Islamic dictatorship. Furthermore, the fact that the West and Nato helped bring change is bound to influence the political agenda in the new Libya.
Gaddafi’s death will certainly have repercussions in the Arab world where a number of dictators are threatened by popular unrest, notably in Syria and Yemen. I am sure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be having a few sleepless nights after viewing the footage of the captured and later dead Gaddafi. Syria might be more complicated than Libya, but Assad’s regime is not immune to the Arab Spring.
Gaddafi’s exit is also good news for Malta. We have had to live next to an unpredictable, dangerous dictator for 42 years and we have had to deal with a number of problems caused by him, from interference in our domestic politics in the 1970s and 1980s to his support for irregular migration in more recent years.
As a nation, however, we can be proud of the way we handled the Libyan crisis and I am sure Malta will help the new Libya as it undergoes its transformation.
During the revolution Gaddafi denounced his Libyan enemies as “rats” and “cockroaches”. Yet ironically it was he who was found hiding in a sewage pipe in Sirte before he met his timely death, which now opens the way for the birth of a new and better Libya.