Libya after Qaddafi

With the seizure of Muammar Qaddafi’s bastion in the Libyan capital Tripoli by the rebels on Tuesday, a 42-year autocratic regime has come to end, though the beleaguered colonel has vowed to keep fighting back. The collapse of Qaddafi, greeted around the globe with jubilation, is a major boost for the Arab Spring that has already swept away two autocrats from that part of the world. Now Libya has become the third Arab country after Tunisia and Egypt to shake off autocracy and pave the way toward democracy. We congratulate the leaders of the Transitional National Council (TNC), a political body formed by several anti-Qaddafi rebels, for their success in at last uprooting a repressive system dating back to 1969.



However, the prospects of a smooth transition to stability and democracy in Libya are less rosy than the euphoria of the moment would suggest. The first and foremost challenge facing the Libyan people is the absence of a rank of undisputed leaders respected by all the Libyan rebel groups and capable of bridging the divisions, mistrusts and suspicions existing among those groups.



The rebels suffered multiple cracks along ethnic and tribal lines during the six-month struggle to bring down Qaddafi and his cohorts. Concern is already high that if the rebels fail to bridge their differences and form a transitional unity government, Libya can plunge into sectarian violence such as shook Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.



The rebels received huge supplies of weapons and food from Western and some Arab countries and the longish anti-Qaddafi campaign also saw massive bombing by NATO and dozens of drone attacks by the US military. Against this background, it is encouraging to note that the Western and Arab countries that have remarkable influence over the TNC leaders are organizing a meeting in Qatar for Libyan rebel groups to chalk out a common strategy to run the country.



The TNC leaders have already sought US $2.5 billion in aid within a month to pay essential bills and carry out repairs in the oil fields to bring them back into production. We believe that this oil-rich country, which until last February was exporting 1.6 million barrels of high-grade sweet crude a day has full potential for restoring it battered economy. We think that Qaddafi and his sons need to be tried at the International Criminal Court for the numerous atrocities that they and their aides committed during their lengthy misrule. We are encouraged by the statement made by Mahmoud Jibril, head of the rebel government, that they are fully committed to democracy. We wish the great Libyan people all the best.

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