By: Paulino G. Kedok / Juba, South Sudan
June 20, 2011 (SSNA) — Correctly, it was on 16th Feb. 2011 when the downtrodden people of maritime region of Libya declared their disloyalty and disappointment against the protracted rule or what is believed to be similar to a life presidency from a self- appointed king of kings Col. Maumar Gadhafi.
Historically, Col. Maumar Gadhafi took power over kingdom of Libya on 1st Sept. 1969 through a bloodless coup as a junior military officer who was serving under King Idris while King Idris was on medical treatment abroad in Turkey.
Gadhafi pledged the transformation of then Libyan kingdom in to the green flagged democratic republic of Libya of which forty two years rule has been the result of his then fluid oaths of yesterday.
The defenceless and armless Libyans perhaps inspired by the successful revolutions triumphed at the neighbourhood of both Tunisia and Egypt and on 16th Feb. 2011 Libyans finally took to streets all over the key state corners of Tripoli, Sirte, Bengazi and Misrata etc demonstrating peacefully and demanded the unconditional exit of Mr. Gadhafi who has been ruling them for forty two years through iron fist in a very complex despotic status quo.
Gadhafi and his son Saef Islam didn’t have any time of consulting around as whatever should have been done in order to dissuade the protesters to decrease the intensity of uprisings using soft manner that promising reforms and freedoms lacked while claimed.
But to add fuel to a flammable fire, Gadhafi as well as his expected heir Saef Islam did allow pride to go before fall by obstinately overreacting in an intense opposition to the blameless demands of the majority Libyans protesting against their state owned half a century system at the long last.
As such, the so- called king Gadhafi swore to die a martyr when necessary and thus instructing all military depots to be opened and embarked on anarchically arming civilians loyal to him for some mysterious reasons perhaps those happened to be being favoured by him based on nepotism or tribalism lines while subsequently sanctioning the use of infinite force against everybody, everything in or at everywhere, vowing to fight a last man to a last bullet and dismissing his own subjects to whom he had been ruling for four decades to be the rats and cockroaches when claiming their rights of boredoms for donkey years’ tyranny.
In the light of the above abuses of human rights and illegitimate use of force against the civilians whose call was an inch of change against the rampant long rule of a totalitarian regime, to this end, some officers, NCOS and men serving under the same Gadhafi Government stainless green flag decided to rebel and join the civilians as Gadhafi and his specialists partnering him in crime of massacre, were already executing callous acts of all forms of crimes against humanity weighing heavily on the civilians in an indiscriminate manoeuvres.
Therefore such a rebellion of those few soldiers with their armaments turned the colour of popular uprising into rebellion because those armed soldiers ganged up with civilians and stationed at second national capital city of Bengahzi whereas Gadhafi has been utilizing such opportunity to wipe out all civilians whether participated in any protest or not as a means of suppressing the rebellion not popular uprising.
Moreover, the whole world had been overwhelmed by what Libyan Leader Mamaur Gadhafi was applying contrary to humanitarian principles or international laws before every one came to his senses when three effective members of UNSC took very humane and impeccable decision by dispatching an intervention forces code named Odyssey Dawn on 21st March 2011 to effect the No fly zone over Libya and at the same night carried out their rescuing mission aimed at saving civilians versus the tanks or high calibre of weaponry targeted against the purest civilians by Gadhafi forces.
The Odyssey Dawn mission under coalition of US, UK and French indeed worked like charm in forestalling and counteracting Gadhafi‘s military capability and energy in brutality and advancement towards civilians areas.
The mission was naturally short in duration but SMART and sophisticated as it taught Gadhafi a very powerful lesson informing him of transgressing against human rights treaties and thus warranted his loss of legitimacy as a sovereign leader of a failed state who resorted to his sovereignty downfall in the broad daylight.
Hardly had the Odyssey Dawn operations continued in the same spirit without NATO succeeding them on 27th March 2011, Gadhafi and his bloodstained family elites would have already yielded the state to the stakeholders the common people of Libya who have been nowadays caught up in a very lengthy suffering as NATO arbitrary air strikes are lesser and more irregular short of strategic concentrations on positive targets and at positive times.
Unlike the Odyssey Dawn air strikes, the NATO air strikes is affecting civilians who are the prime cause of their intervention to target Gadhafi as Gadhafi was mercilessly killing civilians while informing the whole world boastfully of butchering his own subjects via all media outlets.
In a nutshell NATO‘s air strikes are not significant and heartbreaking to Gadhafi and his allies deterrence and therefore NATO HAS TO HALT AIRSTRIKES AND USE GROUND FORCES TO CAPTURE GADHAFI ALIVE instead of losing many precious lives of third party or innocent Libyans for resistance of one Adoft Hitler student called Maumar Gadhafi who has sheltered himself with human shield making civilians to be his bullet-proof and helmet since he is aware unusually that the international interventions is for the sake of protecting civilians lives and their assets.
Targeting Mamaur Gadhafi in point blank posture for a well meant business would herald significantly to precipitate the conclusion of an open-ended business which took five months now but in a vain solution while death toll of civilians is ranking higher. Without resort to ground forces or cornering Gadhafi in his den of Tripoli, the Libyan people to whom NATO is to save and protect from the scourges of insecurity and ill-safety, will still be missing even more and bigger through collateral damages because the extraterrestrial stratagems employed by Gadhafi has got no wider difference with that of Saddam Hussein‘s school of thought and must be analysed wisely to avoid further losses of innocent civilians on the ground.
Let NATO introduce other instrumental mechanisms that will force Gadhafi to head Hell or Paradise and leave Libyan revolutionists and civilians in peace and reconciliation in Libya not another planet as Gadhafi fancied the same Libya to be.
Gadhafi must be dealt with effective and efficient assault so as not to waste resources of international forces via air strikes to which he almost always dodged to the innocent civilians of whom we are sympathizing or helping instead.
NATO must improve its credibility as a powerful collective security mandated by the U.N to maintain international peace and security and the same to prevent or remove the open threat to peace or any breach of peace and international justice.
The Author: is a student of International Relations and Diplomacy The Bridge University / Juba and could be reached for comments at [email protected]