Libya is different from Tunisia, Egypt

Libya’s leader Muammar Gadhafi is determined to fight to the finish. Neither resignation nor reconciliation are options for him. He simply cannot contemplate stepping down and his forces have shed too much blood to make a deal with the uprising.

Rebels who hold the east of the country and key cities in the west also have no choice but to fight on because they could be slaughtered if he reasserts control over the entire country.

Gadhafi does not compare himself to Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali or Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, both ousted by a combination of popular pressure and military coup. Ben Ali was an army officer who was invited to overthrow Tunisia’s senile independence leader Habib Bourguiba. Mubarak, Anwar Sadat’s vice president, came to power after he was assassinated. Ben Ali and Mubarak were projected by circumstances into power.

By contrast, Gadhafi seized power. He sees himself as a man with a mission, creator of an ideology for rule by the people.  He claims he has no official position in his country while keeping the levers of power in his hands.

He is also out of touch with reality. During a surreal interview early this week, he said there had been no demonstrations against him and “all his people love him”. Illogically, he held that the defection had been engineered by youngsters provided with drugs by al-Qaeda.

Cut off from reality

He had not digested the fact that Tripoli was circled by cities that have gone over to rebels who have taken control of Benghazi, Libya’s second city and stronghold of the uprising in the east. He did not accept that there have been anti-Gadhafi demonstrations in Tripoli itself.

Gadhafi simply cannot bring himself to admit he is no longer respected and accepted by his own people. To do so, he would have to admit that his 41-year rule has been a disaster.

Born in 1942 into a bedouin family living near Sirt on the coast, Gadhafi became an ardent admirer of Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel Nasser, an army colonel who overthrew his country’s British-backed king, proclaimed a republic, and instituted socialist reforms.

Nasser also became a figure of world stature as leader of the drive to unite Arabs and founder, with Pandit Nehru, of the non-aligned movement.

While at his country’s military academy, Gadhafi formed a group of like-minded junior officers — modelled on Nasser’s Free Officers group — and plotted to overthrow Libya’s elderly King Idriss. In September 1969, Gadhafi and his comrades ousted him and proclaimed the Libyan Arab Republic.

Gadhafi emulated Nasser by adopting a pan-Arab agenda, nationalising the country’s oil sector, and instituting economic reforms. In the mid-1970s he published his political philosophy in his three-volume ‘Green Book’. His career developed a messianic dimension when he sponsored anti-colonialist struggles around the world, attempted to merge Libya with other Arab countries, and promoted federal union among African countries.

On the Libyan domestic scene he reached accommodations with tribal leaders,
established loyal military units commanded by his sons, and kept the rest of the armed forces weak by conducting periodic purges of officers and starving them of weaponry and funds.

Gadhafi also established Islamic and African Legions,militias consisting of foreign Muslim and African fighters who have been deployed as ‘mercenaries’ in the ongoing struggle.

Strong history

However, Gadhafi’s strategy to preserve his regime did not work, particularly in the country’s traditionally restive eastern region which, under the leadership of Libya’s national hero Omar Mukhtar, fought Italy’s brutal colonial regime during the 1920s.
In Tunisia, the uprising was triggered by the self-immolation of Muhammad Bouazizi, a fruit and vegetable vendor harassed by police. In Libya, the spark was the arrest of human rights lawyer Fateh Tarbel on February 15, following the collapse of talks between the government and a committee representing the families of 1,200 inmates killed in 1996 during prison riots. While the government had begun to pay compensation to the families, they demanded prosecution of officials who had ordered guards to shoot the prisoners.

This demand was, almost certainly, unacceptable to the regime. While Tarbel was detained, protesters gathered and clashes erupted. Fighting escalated during a ‘Day of Rage’ on Feb 17 and the uprising was born.

Like Ben Ali and Mubarak, the Libyan leader initially responded by ordering his forces to contain the protests. But they spun out of control, leaving Gadhafi, trapped in Tripoli, detached from reality and extremely dangerous.