Will a warrant suffice to catch Gaddafi?

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo seeks arrest warrants against the Gaddafi’s.

Reports suggest that the prosecutor has termed the father sun duo of Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi as suspects of crime against humanity.

Calling the Gaddafi’s suspects though is legally apt but laughable. The move looks like another not so valiant attempt to put the military ruler down and end the crisis.

The way allied forces have gone about handling Libyan uprising indicates that there isn’t a clear policy or plan in place to diffuse the situation.

The US didn’t join the assault on Gaddafi with its usual fever, the Germans pulled out of the NATO coalition, there have been issues plaguing the allied forces giving the Gaddafi’s enough to play around with.

Even after two months of daily air strikes they haven’t been able to nullify the colonel’s strength to an extent that he gives up.

The Guardian reports that Gaddafi Sr. is looking at a dignified exit and might as well get it.

Media reports do suggest that the step will put pressure on Gaddafi and it makes me wonder if this at all will. Will the mere suspect tag or say even conviction be enough to stop the authoritarian from his barbaric acts? And why only three individuals what about the likes of Moussa Koussa who till a couple of months back were partners in crime with Gadaffi’s?

Do they get away for turning their back on the regimen they were a part of all their lives?

The move to me hints at yet another half hearted attempt to do something, it’s about time to end the statement and settle the crisis or are we looking at another Iraq like situation?

Coalition attacks Libya to impose No Fly Zone

The UN coalition forces have launched operation Odyssey Dawn in their bid to end Gaddafi assault on Benghazi.

In a matter of few hours the scenario changed dramatically in Libya.

Backed by the UN approval to adopt all necessary measures authorising No Fly Zone (NFZ) over Libya to protect civilian lives France led the coalition attack over Muammar Gaddafi forces.

Interestingly it is a Euro led attack spearheaded by France aided by UK with US playing the unusual second fiddle.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has shown a great zeal in bid to uproot Gaddafi, remember France was the first country to recognise rebels as the government.

Sarkozy finds an unusual partner in David Cameron, who backed by the opposition and after serious thinking takes the opportunity as what some sections in media described as his finest hour in politics.

Amidst all this the big brother US which more often than not champions the cause of democracy around the world, took a long long time in a long time to jump the gun.

It was only after the Arab league and gulf nations intervened that President Barack Obama made his mind to intervene in the state of affairs of imposing a no fly zone.

Not discounting the fact that a leader willing to kill his people should not be stopped, but the way things have unfolded over the last one month make for an unusual picture.

Though the ground rules for the NFZ have been established stressing that there won’t be any occupation, what also comes to mind that in bid to secure NFZ and ground Gadaffi human lives will be lost.

Also the way West has reacted to the uprisings does pose a question or two.

While it wasted no time in getting NFZ imposed on Libya the moment Gadaffi announced his forces were coming to Bengazi, there has been no such action towards situation in Bahrain where the troops have already fired at protestors.

In fact they have been aided openly by Saudi and Kuwaiti forces to curb protests but no action in sight so far.

Also it hasn’t been the case that there is a total boycott of Gadaffi regimen, in Tripoli the colonel still has supporters who storm in the face of the media pleading their support for him.

To label him as someone who has lost all the support won’t be just. In this case the step should be towards reforming Libya and not taking merely Gadaffi out.

How things now will turn is beyond anyone’s guess, how long will it last, how many casualties will it result in, and how will it end are questions that remain to be answered.

Nevertheless the 27X7 media interest has made it a spectacle with each broadcaster dishing their perspective of the developments. Add to it the in numerous live tweets from ground zero and world over have turned this crisis into entertainment of sorts.

Amidst this a question posed by a civilian to scribes outside a hospital as aired on Al Jazeera poses an unanswered question to me and questions the interest of west in liberating Libya.

“The Americans, the British and the French over the years gave all these weapons to Gaddafi to rule us and now they are coming and dropping bombs to save us. How is it justified?”, said the civilian.

The answer lies in economics and not politics, but is something which is lost in the spectacle that media has made out of the uprising.

 

Gaddafi donation paves way for Davies exit

Sir Howard Davies resigns as the director of London School of Economics over revelations of institutes dealings with the Col. Muammar Gaddafi regimen.

For the last 24 hours Davies, once the acclaimed director of the premier institute has been painted as the ultimate fall guy by the media.

His fault accepting £2.2m deal to train future young leaders from Libya at the LSE and becoming an economic envoy to Libya on the UK government’s invite.

What makes me think is the fact that if an institutions director can be fired for inking a deal with a regimen to train its future leader and becoming a government representative to Libya should all those who have been referred as friends by Gaddafi not be questioned.

Should the leaders (Tony Blair to name one) who helped Gaddafi stay and be where he is today not be questioned?

The presenter at BBC radio show Today questioned on whether the university should be cautious in receiving donations and training those who will strengthen such regimens.

Davis defended saying at the time transactions were done there was no embargo in dealing with Libya and that there have been instances wherein the educational institutes have trained people from regimens.

Davies made it to headlines for the sole reason of being the director of LSE. That apart there is no need to crucify or blame him, if he is brought to books than others who had any relationship with Gaddafi should be dealt with equally.

People power in hands of military

The future of people’s power rests in the hands of military.

As digitization empowers people giving them chance to be heard across boundaries via twitter, facebook and blogs, it’s still gun power that calls the shot.

The difference between successful revolt and valiant attempt depends on which side the trigger is.

Given the present scenario of Middle East and African countries being an army man is the toughest job. To shoot your own people or defy the supreme command, the choice is not easy.

While in Tunisia and Egypt the guns remained silent, people became powerful ensuring that the balance tilted in their favour toppling the repressive regimens.

In Bahrain and Libya, forces marched to the regimens orders and the world witnessed mayhem on the streets of these countries.

War planes besieged parts of the Libyan capital on Monday according to news reports from Tripoli, killing many innocent people demanding their rights.

The question on the intent of armed forces arises on what will their stand be, for these rulers too were sometime men in uniform who were once worshipped. Will the present crop of military chiefs go their predecessor’s way?

Will the guardian of democracy, USA alter its stand and policy in the region? Will it still try to buy out the leadership by aids? These questions will have a significant bearing on the events in the coming years.

If the sentiments of people not only on the streets of Egypt, or Libya but also in states are something to go by, high time the superpower alters its stand.

Couple of days while at a news channel assisting some production work I received a few audience calls from US for a live show and a caller from Dallas said: “For how long will the administration spend my tax money on its fancy policies, we don’t pay taxes for wartime charity.”

High time these views are given a thought for the betterment of not only the revolt affected region but for US itself.