My colleagues and I defected from the Libyan mission to the UN to draw attention to Gaddafi's attacks on unarmed protesters
Adam Tarbah
(Adam Tarbah is second secretary to Libya's delegation to the UN)
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 March 2011
"I am almost the same age as Gaddafi's regime. I was born in 1968, a year before Gaddafi came to power.
The regime in Libya is built on the safety and security of Gaddafi himself. Every aspect of Libyans' lives revolves around him and no one dares to question his orders.
Living in that sort of situation for so long you tend to go with the flow just to be able to achieve basic goals in your life....
We weren't sure what to think or expect until the day Gaddafi's son, Saif, appeared on Libyan TV and made his historic speech to the Libyan people and the world.
I call the speech historic because it made it clear to me and my colleagues in the Libyan mission to the United Nations in New York – and in other parts of the world too – that this man was as crazy and brutal as his father. Call us naive if you wish, but certainly a lot of Libyans were fooled by Saif's previous speeches on reform in Libya and were hopeful that a better future might be possible under his leadership.
Following Saif's speech, all my colleagues and I met at the mission and issued a declaration stating that we were defecting from Gaddafi's regime and that we condemned what the regime was doing to unarmed protesters in Libya. Judging from what we know of Gaddafi and what he is capable of behind closed doors, our aim was primarily to draw the world's attention to what is happening in Libya.....
He is willing to deploy any means to buy himself time and try to contain most of the opposition, especially in the western areas of Libya. He will use whatever collateral damage might occur at the hands of coalition forces to gain sympathy both from Libyans and from the Arab world. I wouldn't exclude the possibility of him using human shields to ensure such tragedies take place. He played the illegal immigrants card (which didn't work) but the al-Qaida card is of some concern to western countries. He and his son tried to incite civil war but have failed so far.
There is a lot of uncertainty but one thing is sure: he will never be able to rule Libya again, at least not the way he used to do. If I will give credit to Gaddafi and his son for anything at all, I'll give it to them for uniting people in all parts of Libya against them, and for inflicting damage upon themselves, every time they appeared on TV, which is much greater than the damage inflicted by their opposition."
Adam Tarbah
(Adam Tarbah is second secretary to Libya's delegation to the UN)
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 March 2011
"I am almost the same age as Gaddafi's regime. I was born in 1968, a year before Gaddafi came to power.
The regime in Libya is built on the safety and security of Gaddafi himself. Every aspect of Libyans' lives revolves around him and no one dares to question his orders.
Living in that sort of situation for so long you tend to go with the flow just to be able to achieve basic goals in your life....
We weren't sure what to think or expect until the day Gaddafi's son, Saif, appeared on Libyan TV and made his historic speech to the Libyan people and the world.
I call the speech historic because it made it clear to me and my colleagues in the Libyan mission to the United Nations in New York – and in other parts of the world too – that this man was as crazy and brutal as his father. Call us naive if you wish, but certainly a lot of Libyans were fooled by Saif's previous speeches on reform in Libya and were hopeful that a better future might be possible under his leadership.
Following Saif's speech, all my colleagues and I met at the mission and issued a declaration stating that we were defecting from Gaddafi's regime and that we condemned what the regime was doing to unarmed protesters in Libya. Judging from what we know of Gaddafi and what he is capable of behind closed doors, our aim was primarily to draw the world's attention to what is happening in Libya.....
He is willing to deploy any means to buy himself time and try to contain most of the opposition, especially in the western areas of Libya. He will use whatever collateral damage might occur at the hands of coalition forces to gain sympathy both from Libyans and from the Arab world. I wouldn't exclude the possibility of him using human shields to ensure such tragedies take place. He played the illegal immigrants card (which didn't work) but the al-Qaida card is of some concern to western countries. He and his son tried to incite civil war but have failed so far.
There is a lot of uncertainty but one thing is sure: he will never be able to rule Libya again, at least not the way he used to do. If I will give credit to Gaddafi and his son for anything at all, I'll give it to them for uniting people in all parts of Libya against them, and for inflicting damage upon themselves, every time they appeared on TV, which is much greater than the damage inflicted by their opposition."
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