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Libya Turns From Africa to the West

James Brooke | Tripoli
September 02, 2011
Source - VOA News

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) welcomes Mustafa Abdel Jalil (C), chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC), and Mahmoud Jibril (R), the head of Libya's rebel National Transitional Council, prior to the opening of the "Friends of Libya" conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, September 1, 2011.

Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya was known for cultivating support in Africa and tangling with Europe, the United States and moderate Arab governments. But now there appears to be a big foreign-policy shift toward the West in the air.

Two political snapshots capture the new directions for the foreign relations of Libya, holder of the largest oil reserves in
Africa. Last week, South African President Jacob Zuma, speaking for the African Union, refused to recognize Libya’s rebels as the new
government of Libya.

This week, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of Libya’s transitional authority, was feted in Paris at a Libya meeting by the leaders of
France and Britain and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

On the streets of Tripoli, the view is that Libya will turn away from African states south of the Sahara and cultivate relations north of the Mediterranean.

"We can’t flee Africa. We are part of the continent, but we want the U.S. and Europe to help us," said Abdurazeg Akhmeda Jamour, a rebel leader:

Moammar Gadhafi, Libya’s fugitive leader, spent billions of dollars to cultivate African leaders. A decade ago, he launched the Africa Union. Two years ago, he styled himself Africa’s “King of Kings.” He called for the formation of the United States of Africa.

Peter Cole, a Libya expert, says Mr. Gadhafi’s generosity toward sub-Saharan leaders explains the African Union’s reluctance to follow the lead of the 75 nations worldwide that have extended diplomatic recognition to Libya’s National Transitional Council.

“[They are] very, very tiny countries - Libyan spending in there could be a significant part of GDP. So there is a lot of genuine fear among AU members that they will lose out,” Cole said.

Libyans are watching who is slow to extend diplomatic recognition to the rebels. Russia, Algeria and the African Union - all
friends of Mr. Gadhafi - have been the laggards.

Rafa Rejeibi, who once taught Arabic in the United States, pauses from celebrating the rebels' seizure of Tripoli to offer an explanation.

“Libyans now are a little bit sensitive to the way the African countries had reacted to the Libyan revolution. We were counting more
on them, and really we saw the opposite,” Rejeibi said.

Instead, Rejeibi and others say, Libyans now want to open up to the wider world.

“Libyan people are just very thirsty and hungry to open up to all nations and cultures. It is not just to the U.S. and to France, as
people say, because they were pioneers to take action to protect Libya against Gadhafi militias,” Rejeibi said.

During Mr. Gadhafi's era, Libya’s foreign policy included giving weapons to European terrorist groups and blowing up two passenger jets - one American and one French. Now Libyans stress that Mr. Gadhafi’s hostility toward the West is not shared by modern Libyans. Amar, a rebel unit fighter, speaks at a victory celebration.

“The people of Libya were not an enemy of America [loud bangs] Gadhafi was an enemy,” Amar said.

In a neighborhood near a walled compound that once served as the nerve center of Mr. Gadhafi's rule, Ali Azoz is the imam of a local mosque. He also leads his neighborhood’s underground resistance organization.

"People don’t have any problems with America or any other country. The whole world should know that Gadhafi’s character only represents himself," he said.

Inside the compound, Nale, a 20-year-old dentistry student, is touring with her father, Khalid, an engineer. Nale says she wants to discover the world. She resents Gadhafi’s past restrictions on studying English.

"We are not allowed to speak English, to study English in schools. And his (Gadhafi's) son goes to London and studies in the best unis [universities.] And we are not allowed to do that. It’s so weird," Nale said.

Libyans caution that they want future relations with the West to built on the levels of mutual respect. They know their 20th-century history: an Italian colony for three decades, administered by Britain for a decade, home to a massive American air base until 1970, a close trading partner for the Soviet Union during the Gadhafi era. But Libya has changed, and Libyans have changed.

In an upper middle class home, Fatma Ghobtan says Libyans are fast embracing the future.

“We don’t want the back history - [such as his ties with] Russia. We want new faces, we want new people, we want new education. We want everything new. It’s 2011. Everyone with a computer, with a mobile. Everything has changed,” Ghobtan said.

Agreement comes from Milad Mohammed Arier, a 30-year-old fire extinguisher salesman, who is relaxing with neighbors on a street corner on a hot evening.

“We are so near to Europe. Even our mentality is so open, because we are reading. Technology. Internet access. Mobile phones, they are coming, and they are changing everything. Even now if you are working in Tripoli, you will see the difference in the knowledge between the old men and the new guys, between 20 years and 40 years,” Arier said.

With half of Libya’s population under 15 years of age, the demographic momentum seems to be on the side of big changes in how Libya relates to the world.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Rebels round up migrants and fighters

Associated Press
Tripoli, September 03, 2011
First Published: 00:14 IST(3/9/2011)
Last Updated: 00:17 IST(3/9/2011)
Source - Hindustan Times

Rebel forces and armed civilians are rounding up thousands of black Libyans and migrants from sub-Sahara Africa, accusing them of fighting for ousted strongman Muammar Gaddafi and holding them in makeshift jails across the capital. Virtually all of the detainees say they are innocent migrant workers, and in most cases there is no evidence that they are lying. But that is not stopping the rebels from placing the men in facilities like the Gate of the Sea sports club, where about 200 detainees "all black" clustered on a soccer field this week, bunching against a high wall to avoid the scorching sun.

The rebels' National Transitional Council has called on fighters not to abuse prisoners and says those accused of crimes will receive fair trials.
FM


Published on Sep 1, 2011 by AssociatedPress

As the international community rallies behind Libya's rebels at a conference in Paris, Moammar Gadhafi was heard in a statement broadcast by Syrian TV saying tribes loyal to him are well-armed and preparing for battle. (Sept. 1)
FM
Libyan pseudo-rebels, they are in reality a Sarkozy creation, consider themselves more European than African. Sarkozy promised to make them European if they stopped Gaddafi, who was using the money to create the so called "United States of Africa" and the so called "African Army". At the end, who wants to be African? Not even Africans themselves.
FM
quote:
Originally posted by Demerara_Guy:
Libya Turns From Africa to the West

James Brooke | Tripoli
September 02, 2011


Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya was known for cultivating support in Africa and tangling with Europe, the United States and moderate Arab governments.
This is revisionist history. Gadhafi was getting along famously with "the West" until suddenly things took an unexpected turn in March of this year. Let's refresh our memories, shall we?


Labour peer who was Blair's Middle East envoy forced to quit Libya role


By MICHAEL SEAMARK

A former Labour Foreign Office minister severed links with a Libyan government-backed organisation yesterday – 24 hours after claims that she had appeared to praise Colonel Gaddafi’s ‘sound ideology’.

Baroness Symons, who was Tony Blair’s special envoy to the Middle East, declares she is a paid adviser to the National Economic Development Board of Libya in her House of Lords register of interests.

But the peer, who has accepted several lucrative roles with companies linked to the region since leaving influential government posts in the Foreign Office, Trade and Defence ministries, says she had now resigned.

The ex-minister also said she received no money for her work with the Libyan organisation, which was set up by Gaddafi’s son Saif – who last week vowed to ‘fight to the last bullet’ as the Libyan dictator’s troops fired on his own people.

Baroness Symons insists she was being ‘scornful’ of Colonel Gaddafi when, in a Lords debate last month, she repeated his claim that the Libyan people ‘recognised and valued’ his regime.
She also said she had been in the United States ‘for the period during which violence has taken place in Libya’ and added: ‘I have taken today the first opportunity since my return last night to tender my resignation.

‘I am appalled by the violence that has taken place in Libya and horrified that the violence should be encouraged by Libya’s leader.’

The baroness said she had ‘never been paid’ for her work with the Libyans, explaining that she had officially listed her role as a member of the International Advisory Board to the development board as ‘remunerated employment’ in the Lords register just in case somebody in Tripoli did pay her.

The 59-year-old Labour peer had expressed surprise that dissent in North Africa had reached Libya during a debate in the Lords on February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was toppled.

She prefaced her remarks by telling peers: ‘I declare an interest as chairman of the Arab-British Chambers of Commerce and a frequent visitor to the Arab League countries. My other interests are all covered in your Lordships’ Register of Interests.’

She continued: ‘I was in Libya the weekend following (Tunisian) president Ben Ali’s departure. There were demonstrations even in Tripoli. However, President Gaddafi made a broadcast saying that similar events were not to be anticipated in Libya because of the sound ideology which the people recognised and valued.’

Baroness Symons insisted yesterday: ‘It is quite clear that I am scornful of the point he was making. It is far from being any praise.’
The peer was at the centre of a conflict of interest row two years ago when she accepted a lucrative role with UK investment bank MerchantBridge, which has made millions from contracts in post-war Iraq, after she left government. The peer is married to Philip Bassett, a special adviser to Tony Blair in Downing Street.

She was also dragged into the row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber in 2009 when it emerged that she joined the National Economic Development Board of Libya shortly before the release of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.

She is a paid consultant for DLA Piper, the legal firm that employs Nick Clegg’s wife Miriam and which has advised the Libyan government.
And she lists on the Lords’ register that she is a paid international consultant to CCC UK, a subsidiary of a huge Palestinian-owned construction multinational with subsidiary firms not only across the Middle East but in Britain and America.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...e.html#ixzz1WqIGALS7

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London School of Economics chief 'embarrassed' over £300,000 grant from Gaddafi family
FM
quote:
Originally posted by Henry:

Gadhafi was getting along famously with "the West" until suddenly things took an unexpected turn in March of this year.


Correct .. and likewise, other nations would follow.
FM
quote:
Originally posted by Lucas:
Libyan pseudo-rebels, they are in reality a Sarkozy creation, consider themselves more European than African. Sarkozy promised to make them European if they stopped Gaddafi, who was using the money to create the so called "United States of Africa" and the so called "African Army". At the end, who wants to be African? Not even Africans themselves.

Pueudo -rebels, it looked like Gadhadi has pseudo crowds just a few weeks ago. I actually never expected such a collapse in looking at those crowds few weeks ago. But hey, a dictator could do majic until luck runs out.
FM
quote:
Originally posted by Demerara_Guy:
quote:
Originally posted by Henry:

Gadhafi was getting along famously with "the West" until suddenly things took an unexpected turn in March of this year.


Correct .. and likewise, other nations would follow.

Purely convient friendship. Gadhafi over-played his hand, should have negotiated a place for himself in a new Lybia when he had the time. He and his family would have enjoyed an influential status in a new nation, but now he lost corn and husk. His own people threw him out like in Tunisia and Egypt.
FM
quote:
Originally posted by baseman:
quote:
Originally posted by Demerara_Guy:
quote:
Originally posted by Henry:

Gadhafi was getting along famously with "the West" until suddenly things took an unexpected turn in March of this year.


Correct .. and likewise, other nations would follow.


Purely convient friendship. Gadhafi over-played his hand, should have negotiated a place for himself in a new Lybia when he had the time. He and his family would have enjoyed an influential status in a new nation, but now he lost corn and husk. His own people threw him out like in Tunisia and Egypt.


Interesting developments, Baseman.

Of interest and just a synopsis.

Ten years ago, I wrote an extensive projection on an established place for numerous countries and almost all of my projections have pretty closely occured, of course, some with a few surprises.

I have my projections, as usual, for the next 15 years .. plus long term projections for 50 years and younger individuals would guage to see how close are my views. Big Grin
FM

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