Source: Russia Today
A year on since the death of Colonel Gaddafi, RT speaks
with political analyst Ibrahim Alloush who thinks that it is the involvement of
NATO and its allies that handed the country over to ‘a group of fanatic
criminals.’
It's as the former regime strognhold of Bani Walid is bombarded by the army
in attempts to restore order in the volatile city.
RT:The tensions around Bani
Walid just underline the challenges for transforming Libya into a peaceful
country but despite this, was the western backed Arab Spring a success, is the
country better of without Gaddafi?
Ibrahim Alloush: Well I think the picture
speaks for itself. For the last three weeks Bani Walid has been lying under
siege and recently it was bombarded, many civilians were killed and wounded,
the city was not allowed to receive medical supplies, food or fuel for that
matter. Let me remind you that several hundred people from Bani Walid have been
abducted after the new regime came into power. This picture is not only
restricted to Bani Walid in-fact there are several places in Libya where the so
called revolutionaries, the NATO mercenaries that invaded Libya with support of
NATO airplanes have kidnapped and are still keeping in jail without trial or
any form of supervision, tens of thousands of supporters of Colonel Gaddafi.
Also amnesty International recently demanded that the siege of Bani Walid be
lifted. This siege represents a form of collective punishment that is not very
different from the way the Libyan people were treated by NATO airplanes or by
the so-called revolutionaries.
RT:As you pointed out, Bani
Walid is indicative of how unstable the country is, and following the death of
the US ambassador last month, NATO has offered its help to improve security in
the country. Do you think that Western countries should now be more involved in
bringing stability to this very troubled country now?
IA: I think that the involvement of Western countries
was the source of trouble for Libya as a whole. We have seen that the state has
become dismantled, as happened in Iraq and Somalia, wherever NATO, or US troops
have walked in. There was a total implosion of the central state, and this is
why you have cases like Bani Walid. If you look at it from the point of view of
the rule of law, in fact, there is no rule of law in Libya, and this is the
best environment for the control of states that used to be considered rogue
states, as they refuse to abide by the dictates of the imperialist countries.
RT:Rogue, failed states are
a target for extremists, for the likes of Al-Qaeda. Just how dangerous now is
the situation in Libya, where the authorities basically lose control to
extremists?
IA: I think the question is who brought Al-Qaeda to
Libya, and now to Syria. It’s the same Western involvement, with the support of
petrodollars from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. That is handing the country over to a
group of fanatic criminals, who are bent on bloodshed, torture, slitting
throats, bringing the country back to medieval darkness. We have seen very
clearly what these people are aiming to do. They want to punish Bani Walid for
its stance against the invasion of Libya by NATO. This is a form of collective
punishment against the whole population for standing up for their independence
and the sovereignty of their country.
RT:Today Turkey has called
on the US, Britain, and its allies to intervene in Syria to prevent the looming
humanitarian disaster there. Would the situation in Syria be different from
that in Libya, if there was foreign military action?
IA: I think they are already intervening in Syria. All
the weapons and all the volunteers, the fundamentalists who are coming into
Syria through Turkey, and sometimes Iraq and Lebanon, they are not coming in on
their own. They are being financed and armed by Western countries, as well as
GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries. What we’re seeing here now, is a form
of destabilization. The same is happening in Beirut, this recent bombing is an
attempt to destabilize the country, and an attempt to put Syria under siege by
imploding Lebanon internally, along sectarian lines.
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