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| Muammar Gaddafi |
September 13th, 2016
Like it is in the US, where the ghost of Libya, is currently haunting its politics, former UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, Wednesday, came under intense laceration from the country’s parliament, which indicted him for needlessly killing Muammar Gaddafi, and throwing the entire world into a cataclysm.
Supporting the views in some informed quarters across the world, the Foreign Affairs committee of the British Parliament, particularly said that the UK intervention in Libya in 2011, not only left the country in ruin, but spurred the growth of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), currently terrorising the entire world.
Insisting that the military operation to oust the former Libyan and African strong man, was based on ‘erroneous assumptions’ and flawed intelligence, the parliament, in a scathing report, slammed the former PM as an ‘opportunist’ for taking the country to war without a clear strategy to support post-Gaddafi Libya.
Britain and France, who were the ringleaders, had co-opted the US into the air strikes launched in 2011 “to protect Libyan civilians,” but which eventually led to the total devastation of Libya, including destruction of hundreds of year-old artefacts, monuments and historical places, apart from modern facilities, including the water billions of dollars’ worth water facility, oil installations and electricity.
The world was told then via world media like the Cable News Network (CNN), Al Jazeera and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that the campaign was necessary despite the heavy tolls in human and materials, in order to stop Gaddafi from “killing his people.”
But the committee said the operation turned from a limited intervention into an “opportunist policy of regime change,” adding that “Britain failed to identify that the threat to civilians was overstated and that the rebels included a significant Islamist element.”
It added: “The consequence was political and economic collapse, inter-militia and inter-tribal warfare, humanitarian and migrant crises, widespread human rights violations and the growth of ISIL in North Africa.”
The MPs said weapons from the Gaddafi regime were seized by terrorist groups in Algeria, Egypt, Mali and Tunisia as well as Boko Harem in Nigeria.
The report says: “The international community’s inability to secure weapons abandoned by the Gaddafi regime fuelled instability in Libya and enabled and increased terrorism across North and West Africa and the Middle East.
“The UK Government correctly identified the need to secure weapons immediately after the 2011 Libyan civil war, but it and its international partners took insufficient action to achieve that objective.”
It adds: “We have seen no evidence that the UK Government carried out a proper analysis of the nature of the rebellion in Libya.
“It could not verify the actual threat to civilians posed by the Gaddafi regime; it selectively took elements of Muammar Gaddafi’s rhetoric at face value; and it failed to identify the militant Islamist extremist element in the rebellion.
“UK strategy was founded on erroneous assumptions and an incomplete understanding of the evidence.”
The MPs say the UK and France, having led the military action, are responsible for failing to help rebuild post-Gaddafi Libya.
Committee chair, the Tory MP Crispin Blunt, said: “This report determines that UK policy in Libya before and since the intervention of March 2011 was founded on erroneous assumptions and an incomplete understanding of the country and the situation.
“Other political options were available. Political engagement might have delivered civilian protection, regime change and reform at a lesser cost to the UK and Libya.
The UK would have lost nothing by trying these instead of focusing exclusively on regime change by military means.
“The UK’s actions in Libya were part of an ill-conceived intervention, the results of which are still playing out today.
“The United Nations has brokered an inclusive Government of National Accord. If it fails, the danger is that Libya will sink into a full scale civil war to control territory and oil resources.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The decision to intervene was an international one, called for by the Arab League and authorised by the United Nations Security Council.
“Muammar Gaddafi was unpredictable, and he had the means and motivation to carry out his threats. His actions could not be ignored, and required decisive and collective international action.
“Throughout the campaign we stayed within the United Nations mandate to protect civilians. After four decades of Gaddafi misrule, Libya undoubtedly faces huge challenges.
“The UK will continue to play a leading role within the international community to support the internationally recognised Libyan Government of National Accord.”
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