It's called the pottery store rule: "you break it, you own it". But
it doesn't just apply to pots and mugs, but to nations. In the build-up
to the catastrophic invasion of Iraq, it was invoked by Colin Powell,
then US secretary of state. "You are going to be the proud owner of 25
million people," he reportedly told George W Bush. "You will own all
their hopes, aspirations and problems." But while many of these military
interventions have left nations shattered, western governments have
resembled the customer who walks away whistling, hoping no one has
noticed the mess left behind. Our media have been all too complicit in
allowing them to leave the scene.
Libya is a striking example. The
UN-authorised air campaign in 2011 is often lauded as a shining example
of successful foreign intervention. Sure, the initial mandate – which
was simply to protect civilians – was exceeded by nations who had only
recently been selling arms to
Muammar Gaddafi,
and the bombing evolved into regime-change despite Russia's protests.
But with a murderous thug ejected from power, who could object?
Today's
Libya is overrun by militias and faces a deteriorating human rights
situation, mounting chaos that is infecting other countries, growing
internal splits, and even the threat of civil war. Only occasionally
does this growing crisis creep into the headlines: like when an oil
tanker is seized by rebellious militia; or when a British oil worker is
shot dead while having a picnic; or when the country's prime minister is
kidnapped.
According to Amnesty International, the "
mounting curbs on freedom of expression are threatening the rights Libyans sought to gain".
A repressive Gaddafi-era law has been amended to criminalise any
insults to officials or the general national congress (the interim
parliament). One journalist, Amara al-Khattabi, was put on trial for
alleging corruption among judges. Satellite television stations deemed
critical of the authorities have been banned, one station has been
attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, and journalists have been
assassinated.
Some human rights abuses began in the tumultuous
days that followed Gaddafi's removal, and were ignored by the west. Ever
since the fall of his dictatorship, there have been stories of black
Libyans being treated en masse as Gaddafi loyalists and attacked. In a
savage act of collective punishment, 35,000 people were driven out of
Tawergha in retaliation for the brutal siege of the
anti-Gaddafi stronghold of Misrata.
The town was trashed and its inhabitants have been left in what human
rights organisations are calling "deplorable conditions" in a Tripoli
refugee camp. Such forced removals continue elsewhere. Thousands have
been arbitrarily detained without any pretence of due process; and
judges, prosecutors, lawyers and witnesses have been attacked or even
killed. Libya's
first post-Gaddafi prosecutor general, Abdulaziz Al-Hassadi, was assassinated in the town of Derna last month.
But
it is the militias that filled the post-Gaddafi vacuum who represent
the greatest threat to Libyans' human rights and security. "Libya has
been sitting on the international community's back burner as the country
has slipped into near chaos,"
warns Human Rights Watch.
In an attempt to integrate militias into the state machinery, the weak
central government pays 160,000 members of these often violent gangs
$1,000 a month and charges them with upholding authority.
When
residents of Benghazi – the heartland of the revolution – protested
against militia rule in June last year, 32 people were killed in what
became known as "Black Saturday". In another protest in Tripoli last
November, 46 died and 500 were injured.
Under militia rule, Libya is beginning to disintegrate. Last summer forces under the command of the
warlord Ibrahim Jadran took control of eastern oil terminals,
demanding autonomy and more resources for Cyrenaica, the long-neglected
oil-rich east of the country. Oil exports collapsed from about 1.5m
barrels a day to fewer than 500,000, costing the country billions of
dollars. Although Jadran's forces initially only drew support from the
Magharba people, other ethnic groups have now joined his struggle. It is
these forces which hijacked a oil tanker this month, prompting threats
from Libya's prime minister that it would be bombed until US forces
captured it this weekend. Clashes have broken out in Jadran's home town
of Ajdabiya. In painful echoes of Iraq's nightmare, a car bomb exploded
at a Benghazi military base last week and killed at least eight
soldiers, and Libya's main airport was shut on Friday after a bomb
exploded on its runway.
One of the great perversities of the
so-called war on terror is that fundamentalist Islamist forces have
flourished as a direct consequence of it. Libya is no exception, even
though such movements often have little popular support. The Muslim
Brotherhood and other elements are better organised than many of their
rivals, helping to remove the prime minister, push through legislation,
and establish alliances with opportunistic militias.
Ominously,
Libya's chaos is spilling across the region. The country is awash with
up to 15 million rifles and other weapons, and a report by the UN panel
of experts this month found that "
Libya has become a primary source of illicit weapons".
These arms are fuelling chaos in 14 countries, including Somalia, the
Central African Republic, Nigeria and Niger. Qatar is helping to deliver
Libyan armaments to Syria, where Russian-made weapons bought by
Gaddafi's regime are being given to fundamentalist Islamist rebels.
In
what has all the hallmarks of mission creep, a small number of US
soldiers are being sent to Tripoli to begin training troops. But a
stable future for Libya seems remote, however much the country's strife
is safely hidden away from the headlines. It is dividing along every
fracture line imaginable: whether it be ethnic, tribal, regional or
political. Most Libyans have failed to even register for upcoming
elections.
There is a real prospect of the country collapsing into
civil war or even breaking up. Unless there are negotiated settlements
to its multiple problems, Libya will surely continue its descent into
mayhem, and the region could be dragged into the mire with it.
No
wonder western governments and journalists who hailed the success of
this intervention are so silent. But here are the consequences of their
war, and they must take responsibility for them.