In recent weeks, all media attention has been on the African continent not for good reasons, but for riots and demonstrations that have swept across North African Arab states. It all began with demonstrations in Tunisia that ousted Ben Ali, followed by demonstrations in Egypt that removed Hosni Mubarak from his comfort seat.
Inspired by the successful demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt, the Libyan people also staged demonstrations to end Gaddafi’s 42 years grip on power.
Through the Machiavellian principle that power and ruthlessness are more useful to a ruler than idealism, Col Gaddafi reacted by unleashing all sorts of terror on his people supposedly to protect them! He called the peaceful demonstrators all sorts of dehumanising names ranging from cockroaches, rats Barbarians, Al Qaeda elements e.t.c.
Together with his sons, notably Al- Saif Islam, they promised to massacre to Libyan demonstrators and promised to fight on until the last drop of blood! They had no shame; they made their intentions clear using national and international media houses.
In effect, they were communicating to the international community! Unlike the Egyptian and Tunisian protests, the Libyan conflict has raised a lot of controversies and divided opinions not only on Africa but the world at large.
This divided opinion became so apparent, when UN security Council was voting on whether UN should intervene in the Libyan conflict to stop Gaddafi from killing his people or not. Out of fifteen members of the UN Security Council, ten voted in favour of the motion and five abstained.
By implication, those who abstained including world powers like Russia, Germany and China were opposed to the motion. Anyhow, the UN resolution 1973 was passed and a no fly zone was imposed on Libya.
Next, we saw a lot of comments from African quarters including some heads of state who opposed UN’s intervention.
The African Union also feels it was not consulted enough regarding the Libyan conflict. To the AU, diplomacy and negotiations would have been the best approach to solve the Libyan crisis.
Actually, the AUwent ahead and appointed an Ad hoc committee to assess the situation on the ground! What is rather surprising is that given the urgency of this crisis, AU could not raise around 276,500 Euros needed to facilitate their mission.
So, the AU turned to theEuropean Union to finance this mission! Those who have criticised the UN military intervention in Libya led by UK, France and US,
argue that the countries that have intervened are led by selfish interests and economic benefits (Libyan oil) asking why the UN did not intervene in Egypt, Tunisia or Bahrain? Well, everybody is entitled to an opinion but what is apparently clear is that the situation in Libya is totally different from what happened in Egypt or Tunisia- Gaddafi was carrying out a genocide against his own people.
Gaddafi has failed to learn that by overstaying in power he has outlived his usefulness! If negotiations and roundtable talks were offering solutions, the Rwanda genocide against the Tutsi would not have taken place.
I hear UN Security Council and US congress spent time deliberating whether what was taking place in Rwanda was genocide or not! In the process, in a spell of just100 days, over one million Rwandans perished until the RPF, albeit the absence of the UN, took control and stopped the massacres.
Again, to the AU, and those who feel that the UN wrongly intervened in Libya militarily, why is it that the political standoff in Ivory Coast has been raging on for four months now without a tangible solution? The French, UK and US fighter planes did not intervene there.
Then, why hasn’t AU solved the standoff in the West African country?
The following statement from UK Foreign Secretary William Hague is a warning to world dictators. In his words he said, "Governments that block the aspirations of their people, that steal or are corrupt, that oppress and torture or that deny freedom of expression and human rights should bear in mind that they will find it increasingly hard to escape the judgment of their own people, or where warranted, the reach of international law.”
The Writer is an Educationist and the founder of Rwanda Book Development Initiative.