A deep sense of anger and revulsion is building up over the killing of hundreds of people protesting against the cruel regime of Muammar Gaddafi as tension in the country continues to rise in various parts of the country but particularly in Benghazi and Tripoli.

Malta looks on with great concern and anxiety at the unfolding drama on its doorstep, sharing, with others, the horror of the indiscriminate killings now described by the country’s deputy envoy to the United Nations as genocide.

It is a harrowing story, made worse by Col Gaddafi’s defiance and promise he would not cut and run but would fight to the last drop of his blood. His son, Saif al-Islam, has gone on television declaring the regime his father built when he toppled King Idris would fight until the “last man, the last woman, the last bullet”.

Whatever happens from now on, Libya will never be the same again. Right now, the major concern of countries that have nationals working there is to bring their people back home to safety, away from the possible eruption of further fighting as the regime’s opponents keep up the struggle to win back their freedom from the tyranny of a clique that has kept the people in suppression for so many years.

The Times has never been enamoured by the Gaddafi regime and for this it has earned stiff criticism, and even rebuke, from those who over the years cosied up to it. To be fair though, the Libyan leader was severely criticised when he sent gunboats to stop an Italian firm drilling for oil in a site on the Medina Bank contested by both countries, an action then rightly deemed as befitting the worst enemy rather than “blood brothers”. Only a few days ago, that is, just before the start of the uprising, The Times did not quibble when it said “the way Libya has been treating Malta over offshore oil exploration rights is humiliating”.

Only time will tell what will happen next in Libya but the democracies of the world will not support a regime that turns on its own people so brutally. Civilised people will side with the people and hope that, when the uprising is over, they will build a strong country that will shun terrorism, and suppression, and embrace real freedom, the kind of freedom the people on the streets of Benghazi, Tripoli and the Libyans who have been protesting outside the country’s embassy in Malta declare they want.

Malta has good reason to feel concerned. To begin with, stability and security in the region are of primary importance for the well-being of the peoples living in Mediterranean countries and, also, for economic reasons as well. The trouble has already sent the price of crude oil soaring, and, although other countries may make up for the loss of supplies from Libya, it is uncertain how the situation is going to develop.

One organisation has said it is vital for the Maltese government to act in a manner that will preserve good business relations with Libya so that Malta may play a key role in re-establishing trade and investment flows that will be necessary for the rebuilding of the country once the turmoil is over. The argument only makes sense if this means Malta sides with the people, as it is assumed this is what the organisation meant, rather than with a tyrant.