Benghazi in Counter-Protests

Two weeks ago, US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens was killed in Benghazi after the US consulate where he was staying was stormed. At about the same time protests were beginning to form across the Middle East in reaction to a crude, offensive US film called "Innocence of Muslims". Immediately the world's media jumped to the conclusion that the two events were connected (myself included). We were wrong. It has now emerged that the reason for the attack was very different, it coincided with the anniversary of 9/11 and was supposed to be revenge for the killing of a high profile Libyan member of Al-Qaeda. Immediately after the attack Republicans in the US called for all aid to Libya to be suspended.

The protests have since subsided, but whilst most of the Arab World was in turmoil due to the video, Benghazi was in turmoil for a very different reason. Recognising that the death of Stevens was nothing to do with the crude and offensive video, the people of Benghazi began to protest the murder of him and his fellow diplomats. The militia believed to be responsible for the attack had its base in Benghazi stormed by civilians and the police, counter protests emerged with protesters holding signs such as "Christopher Stevens was a friend to all Libyans" and "Thugs and killers don't represent Benghazi nor [sic] Islam". I think this is an image we need to see more of in the West, we need to recognise that although there are terrorist groups in the Middle East, most Arabs just want peace. Arabs are just another race of people, they're no different to us here in the West. The sooner we recognise that fact, the sooner peace will come. How can we call for peace in the middle east when there is so much Islamophobia in the press and media, when the majority of coverage of Muslims is extremely negative. Terrorists don't represent Islam, just like Anders Breivik, Pastor Terry Jones and Fred Phelps don't represent Christianity.

Add caption

US Consulate in Libya Stormed

In the early hours of this morning four US embassy staff were killed in the American consulate in Benghazi, the second city of Libya. Libya is one of the real success stories of the Arab Spring, a country that had experienced 40 years of the same dictator rose up and ousted him from power in a bloody revolution. Things have been looking increasingly sour in the fledgling democracy, already British war graves have been vandalised and Westerners have been the targets of attacks. The attack of the American consulate is by far the most serious.

Amongst the four dead was the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens who only took up the post since the downfall of Gaddafi. As of yet we do not know who perpetrated the attacks and why they did so. Currently most people believe that the attack was in reaction to an American made video that was uploaded to YouTube that many Muslims have found insulting. Already there have been protests in Egypt over the video and the American embassy in Cairo was stormed! The only other explanation put forward is that the attack was meant to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11. The problem with that theory is that the attack took place on the 12^th (local time), although it would still have been the 11^th across the United States. 

The attack has also caused political issues in America, Republican Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney initially criticised Obama for not taking a hardline approach to the initial protests in Cairo. This has not gone down well with the Obama camp who feel that Mitt Romney is trying to make political hay over a very tragic case.

Regardless of the motive, it is not a good sign for the future stability of Libya. We already know that the central government is very weak, most police work being carried out by armed militias. Disarming them will prove a difficult task.

The Noose Tightens

Assad and his cronies have suffered a massive humiliation, the defection of Prime Minister Riad Hijab is the highest profile defection yet. Yesterday it was revealed that the PM had defected and fled to Jordan with his family, in a statement he called the Syrian government a “terrorist regime” and says he has joined the ranks of the revolution. This is a huge blow to the regime, considering the PM has only been in office for two months and removes the regime’s most important Sunni member. Many people will begin to wonder which minister will be the next defect as Hijab is unlikely to be the last.

On top on the refection, the headquarters of the state television and radio station were bombed yesterday. Although nobody is reported to have been killed, this is a sign that the rebels are trying to target Assad’s propaganda machine that is still trying to brainwash the Syrian people. We all know that Assad has lost control of most of the eastern portions of Syria, as well as many districts of Homs and Aleppo.

With the rebels basically in control of whole swathes of the country and achieving high profile defections every week I am finally seeing a comparison to Libya. Right from the start I always believed that we could not treat Libya and Syria as the same. Syria has always been a completely different situation. Things are completely different now in Syria, even to what it was like just a matter of weeks ago. Although we cannot treat them as exactly the same, I believe that the situation in Syria is such that we can look to what happened in Libya to guide us in Syria. The major obstacle to this is the UN Security Council, Russia and China decided not to block Western action in Libya, but they are fighting tooth and nail to make sure no Western action is taken in Syria.

Although I disagreed with military aid in the past, I now believe that the new situation is such that we should provide some limited resources. I would still be wary of providing weapons, due to the risk of them falling into the hands of jihadists, instead we could provide intelligence as well as communication technology as well as vehicles for transportation and food to help sustain the rebels.

We must act now if we wish to have favour in a new Syria.

Elections in Libya

In 1969 Colonel Gaddafi took control of Libya, and for the next 41 years there were no elections. This has finally changed as yesterday Libyans took to the polls for the first time since overthrowing Gaddafi last year. Over 100 political parties are vying for seats in the 200 strong parliament, the parliament will then begin to draft a constitution and select a leader. The constitution will then be voted on in a referendum.

So far, everything seems to be going rather smoothly, even in Gaddafi loyalist areas voter turnout has been remarkably high. The election has also been marked with relatively low violence, particularly in the East around Tripoli. In Benghazi on the other hand there have been a few attacks on polling stations and skirmishes with the police, but nothing major.

The National Transitional Council has promised to hand over power as soon as a government is formed, which will take a few weeks as vote counting will take quite a long time and one party is unlikely to receive a majority. Yet if a stable government is formed there will be many challenges for it, central government is currently very week and armed militia are the de-facto government in rural areas.

Despite the challenges ahead, things are looking bright for Libya. The vast oil wealth will be able to prop up the civilian government against terrorists and will allow Libya to be rebuilt. Let’s hope the revolution will turn into a shining success, like those in Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War.

A Year of Revolution and Protest

 This year was the year the world rebelled. It started with the Arab Spring, with every Arab country experiencing some sort of unrest. The Arab Spring would later inspire the Occupy Movement and the protests in Moscow.

It all began with a street vendor in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest to the police taking away his wares. Although he later died, his action sparked major protests in Tunisia which saw the overthrow of the President. These revolutionary protests later swept through the Arab world, overthrowing Egypt’s government and causing civil war in Libya which resulted in Colonel Gaddafi being killed. Revolts in Bahrain were crushed by Bahraini police and Saudi Arabian troops. A Bahraini commissioned report accused the government of committing human rights violations. The fact that this report got published is hopefully the first signs of reform. Protests in Syria are still on-going though and the government continues to crackdown harshly on protests. With China and Russia blocking any moves towards a UN resolution, it is difficult to estimate when or how the current stalemate will end.

A map of the Arab Spring.

Navy indicates government overthrown

Dark blue indicated sustained civil disorder and governmental changes

Light blue indicates protests and governmental changes

Orange indicates major protests

Sand-like colour indicates minor protests

Protests were not confined to the Arab world; many other countries experienced the Occupy movement. It started out on Wall Street, but it did not take long for the protests to go global with Occupy movements springing up in London, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of other cities. The movement protests against the inequalities that exist in society. Slogans such as “We are the 99%” prompted many important questions for politicians to answer. The slogan comes from the fact that the richest 1% of people earn a disproportionate amount of money, in the USA the 1% earn around 40% of the entire nations wealth! This won’t be an easy battle for the Occupy movement; it would only take a few of the 1% to launch an effective propaganda campaign against the movement. But it would be wrong to brand all of the 1% as elites; Bill Gates is a well-known philanthropist who donates much of his money to charity work across the globe and there are many more like him.

Another major protest in 2011 was in Russia, after the state elections in December around 50,000 people crowded onto an island near the Kremlin and accused the elections of being rigged. This was despite the fact that the government had suffered severe losses in the elections. Despite this, European and American officials who watched over the elections supported the protesters’ view that the elections had been rigged in favour of the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party. The protests in Moscow were the biggest since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90s. With Putin looking to run for presidency this has certainly damaged his chances.

With many of these protests still on going, 2012 will also be an important for many countries in both the Arab world and beyond.

Crowds in Tahrir Square, Cairo.