FIVE YEARS LATER, KILL MUAMMAR GADDAFI WAS A MISTAKE
The country is still in chaos, five years after the fall of former Libyan dictator October 20, 2011.
This article appeared on Slate.fr October 24, 2011 . We are republishing this October 20 on the occasion of five years of the death of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi .
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Yielding to a feeling of overwhelming helplessness and vague absurdity, I borrowed an iPad Thursday afternoon to send my very first message with this tool. It was addressed to one of these distinguished French who asked the most active on the international community to dislodge Muammar Gaddafi from his obscene toad position in which, for over forty years, it is spread over the life of the people Libyan. Please, I wrote, intercede with your friends from the National Transitional Council , as well as with any of the revolutionary tribunal to be constituted, to stop the killing of Gaddafi family and ensure a smooth transition to the bench defendants from the Hague to those already charged with crimes against humanity.
A implicitly desired removal
Rather simple? This is a moment that the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced that it was ready to take charge of affairs of Libya. But now Gaddafi is dead and, it seems, that one of his son, Mouatassim [confirmed information from the writing of this article, ndt], and not a word about the legality or propriety of all this case has yet been uttered. No Libyan spokesman has even referred to the court in the ads of the late dictator disgusting.
The president of the United States made a speech that suggested the possibility of an indictment had not even been mentioned. And it was in this perfectly followed by his secretary of state, returning from a trip to Libya, who settled for a few joyful projections, noting in particular that the transition would be facilitated if Gaddafi were to die . British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has yet found time to mention the victims of international terror years of Gaddafi , has also failed to mention the possibility of a lawsuit.
This tacit agreement, among others, convinces me that no sort of general instruction was ever given to the forces tightened their noose on Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte. No instructions like, kill it if absolutely necessary, but try to stop it and send it (along with others mentioned by name, be it family members or not) in the Netherlands. In any case, it seems certain that if an order of this style has been formulated, it has not been very strong.
Between revenge and healthy reconstruction
While ends obscene regime, which notably showed that he preferred to destroy society and the state, rather than give up power, it is very natural that people aspire to a kind of exorcism. It is satisfying to see the cadaver of the monster and make sure it will not come back. It is also reassuring to know that there is no leadership to which hate any kind of resistance “werewolf” could converge to perpetuate suffering and atrocities. But when he was killed, Gaddafi was wounded and out of harm’s way, and at the head of a small group of thugs terrified.
He was unable to resist in any way. And all positive results that I mentioned above could have been obtained by working simply to send it to the hospital and then in jail and from there to the airport. Indeed, a small living Gaddafi on the dock would surely have done much to enhance the positive impact, as the illusions of the poor misguided souls who were still trust him would not have survived shoplifting, even for a few hours , the mad ramblings of court.
And here is born the new Libya, including the birth is marked by a sordid lynching. Media correspondents did not hide a certain enthusiasm for the spirit of general tolerance shown by the rebels in the faithful location of Gaddafi and their property. This makes it even more regrettable that this principle could not be honored when it was most crucial. As I write this, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , a son of Muammar, is still at large. This would be a real shame if he were also killed without any trial, or at least the NTC and the international community do not remind their soldiers he must be legally stopped.
My intention is not to show undue sympathy Saif or other wanted persons. But he, in particular, is the repository of a huge amount of potentially useful information about the nature of the fallen regime and perhaps even hiding concealing material strategic-not to mention the huge sums of money, property right of the Libyan people. It would be criminal in every sense, to participate in the destruction of evidence. And I have to clarify that Gaddafi grandfather utility in the still underdeveloped field of the study of megalomania had no price. Yet countless victims will have no other satisfaction than seeing a character wandering bloodied and treated with brutality and in full panic, whose sufferings were cut short by a shot that has absolutely nothing brought to safety from the country.
I was in Romania on the day that Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were hastily done , and Mosul yesterday from where Uday and Qusay Hussein were trapped, strafed and bombed fatally in a house without issue. In both cases, the relief felt by the population was palpable. There is no doubt that public disposal of old symbols of torture and fear has an emancipating effect, at least in the short term.
But I would say its profits decline rapidly, which became evident in Iraq when unpolished acolytes of Muqtada al-Sadr were instructed to drive the execution of Saddam Hussein . Sectarian scars of this sordid episode sloppy are still apparent, and I would be very surprised if the same kind of resentment was not born among many Libyans on Thursday. It is too late to repair. But it would be a shame that the Gaddafi family continues to be decimated, and insulting that the summons to the Hague remains ignored.
By Christopher Hitchens
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