The imposition of the ‘No-fly-zone’ against Libya under the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17 and subsequent unlawful aggressions by the US, UK and France seem to show the emerging trend of a new pattern of relationships and activities in international relations which the US desires of being a kind of ‘cowed conformity’ and ‘slavish submission’ by the States believing in pursuing independent foreign policy. We also forget how the whole West Asia has been made fragile after the occupation of Iraq, destruction of Afghanistan, suppression of Palestinians and mounting pressures and threats on Iran. Who would have long graph in committing crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, war crimes, crimes against peace and genocide? US, Israel, UK, France or Libya.
We must address this question in black and white. Israeli war crimes against Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese are well recognised facts. UK partnership with US in various crimes cannot be ignored. France killed 1.5 million Algerians in 1950s war of independence. France does not accept the concept of Minority and it claims to be the best model of democracy. Italian occupation caused the elimination of one-fourth of the total population of Libya by the end of World War II. Certainly I am not in favour of any kind of dictatorship but I prefer to admire a Hobbesian State based on one-sided social contract than being in the Hobbesian ‘State of Nature’. Western intervention is breaking the Leviathan by promising Lockean State with conveniences but the main objective of the West is not democracy. We can see it in Iraq and Afghanistan. Future Libya is forced to become a fragmented, fragile and unstable Iraq or ‘cowed conformist’ like Qatar.
The way the resolutions were crafted with dubious sentences and words and immediate military action against Libya by those forces which veto even a mildly critical resolution against Israel needs to be debated. Over 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired in the afternoon of March 19 from both U.S. and British ships and submarines striking more than 20 integrated air defence systems and other air defence facilities along the Libyan coast. French air force has launched strikes against Gaddafi troops. Missiles were fired from five U.S. ships – the guided-missile destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry, and three submarines, USS Providence, USS Scranton and USS Florida. The US has at least 11 naval vessels in the Mediterranean, including three submarines, two destroyers, two amphibious warfare ships and the USS Mount Whitney, a command-and-control vessel that is the flagship of the Navy’s 6th Fleet. There are also Navy P-3 and EP-3 surveillance aircraft in this area. At least 48 people were killed and 150 others wounded. Six F16 jet fighters from Norway will take part in the Western-led military operations against Libya after the Norwegian Air Force has been given the go-ahead. Canada also declared its war against Libya.
Therefore, continuous provocations against the government of Libya, incitement and all kinds of supports to the rebels and criminals, condemnation and pressure on Libya to surrender to the rebels, disinformation campaign against the government, demonization of Gaddafi, misuse of the UNSC for passing resolutions – 1970 and 1973, and finally the military aggressions on Libya clearly expose the ulterior, criminal conspiratorial, neo-colonial and imperialist intentions against a country which has the small population of 6.5 million with the largest reserve of oil in the African continent with vast territory. They attacked Libya and resorted to dangerous resolutions by the UNSC on the pretext of safeguarding the civilians and civilian areas as well as for humanitarian causes.
In other words, the West is behaving like Zionist Israel and Libya is treated like Palestinians in Gaza Strip. It also indicates Euro-Atlantic rejection of the status quo and celebration of ‘revisionism’ under which the US and its partners seem to show ‘Rambo Super-positivism’. It makes a complete break with the established order in international politics guided by the UN and International Laws. It heralds a ‘dark age’ of ‘mercenary-interventionist policies’ of the strong against the weak. It is also tragic to note that the US and its puppets are determined to convert the UN into their raqqasa (hired dancer). This enforced conformity was to be realised on the basis of a set formula under which the US State Department and the CIA propagated their agenda of freedom, democracy, human rights and free market economy. In fact there was no ground whatsoever for the approval of the anti-UN resolution and the airstrikes against an independent country which was very near to achieve full control over law and order problem created by Al-Qaeda, CIA-sponsored agents, Al-Jazeera and the Western media.
Certainly both the UNSC resolutions – 1970 and 1973 – against Libya are not for democracy but for destroying it as they destroyed Iraq. Sanctions are always genocidal in effects on human resource development. Iraq is the example where every section of society was adversely affected. It will not bring freedom as we can see in Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk and Erbil where Americans are more secured than Iraqis. Resolutions passed by the Security Council contradicts the UN Charter and the purpose of the establishment of the UN itself as both the resolutions are coercive measures of the strong over weak states further clearing the path for full-fledged aggressions. India, China and Russia played highly objectionable and ambiguous role of disclaimer but the statement of the CPI (M) political party in India is appreciable.
It termed the aerial strikes as a “dangerous act of aggression” and said it was a “calculated intervention” in an internal conflict. The party asked all democratic and progressive forces in India to strongly protest yet another military aggression by America and its allies on an Arab-African country. It said: “They are now repeating what they did in Iraq, which led to deaths of millions of people and large scale.” Certainly it will not uphold the principle of the UN in this case as it is selective, prejudices, unfair and obsessive imposition of neo-imperialism and slavish mindset of most of the Arabs. It will establish a precedent for a long series of violations of International Laws. The UN seems to be reduced to a cabin in the US State Department and like an EU office-room in Brussels for giving a free hand to aggressors.
[DR. ARSHI KHAN is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University, India, cfsarshi@yahoo.co.in]