Separation may be solution for lasting peace in Libya

[Suldaanka]

The Age

 

Now that Western troops and prestige are on the line, we have to make the Libyan intervention a success. To do so we must get the diagnosis right and not lazily assume that protest in Libya is a simple contagion of the same impulse we have seen in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. A substantial body of evidence suggests that Libya is not undergoing a ''liberal-democratic'' revolution but rupturing along an ancient regional fault line. To avoid a long and bloody civil war Libya may need a partition through the two independent entities, which it had always had before 1951.

 

The Roman and Ottoman Empires administered Libya as two distinct colonies - Tripolitania in the west (with Tripoli as its capital) and Cyrenaica in the east (with Benghazi as its capital). In 1912 Italy defeated the Ottomans and took control of the two colonies, merging them, for the coloniser's convenience, into ''Italian North Africa''. With the benefit of 15 years' experience, the Italians re-split the colony in 1927. Mussolini did later nominally reunite east and west, not because they belonged together, but as part of a plan to merge these colonies with the Italian possessions in the Horn of Africa and name the entire entity ''Libya'' - a term last used by ancient Rome to describe all of north Africa excluding Egypt.

 

World War II rendered Libya a key battle theatre between a German/Italian force and the winning British/American/Commonwealth opponent. Tripoli supported the Axis and Benghazi supported the Allies. When hostilities ceased, Britain was asked to administer the region and, not surprisingly, made arrangements that reflected the wishes of its Benghazi allies.

 

Advertisement: Story continues below Italians felt such a bond with Tripolitania that even in humiliated defeat they lobbied to retain the colony but 1951 was the age of de-colonisation. The UN declared the Emir of Benghazi King Idris of a new nation ''The United Kingdom of Libya''. Its title belied division as did the compromise to alternating capitals between Benghazi and Tripoli.

 

A decade after the discovery of oil in 1959, King Idris was removed by a military coup led by Tripoli loyalist Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. All political power moved from Benghazi to Tripoli. Gaddafi's internal enemies - centred around Benghazi - were brutally suppressed.

 

Oil allowed poor Libya to rapidly vault the prosperity ladder with per capita GDP exceeding New Zealand's by the 1970s. Gaddafi used oil wealth to become the world's pre-eminent sponsor of terrorism.

 

After the Berlin disco bomb in 1986 US president Ronald Reagan communicated with Gaddafi in a language he would understand - 60 tonnes of laser guided bombs on five Libyan targets. The Colonel pulled his horns in. His most notable foray since then was funding Slobodan Milosevic - although the Serb was slaughtering Bosnian Muslims he qualified for Libyan largesse as an enemy of the West.

 

The image of Saddam being dragged from a rabbit warren in Tikrit brought a penitent Gaddafi out of hibernation in 2003, unilaterally inviting the West to dismantle his nuclear weapons program. Former British prime minister Tony Blair dispensed absolution with a state visit to Tripoli and foreign technicians and investors poured in to grab the spoils of 100 privatisations. The Libyan economy has grown impressively since, with benefits flowing more to Tripoli than Benghazi.

 

When protests erupted this year in two of Libya neighbours, Tunisia and Egypt, Western media viewed them through the prism of liberal-democratic uprisings. Time will tell. When an uprising began in Benghazi the same liberal-democratic assumption was pressed into service. West Point's Combating Terrorism Centre has since revealed that the city of birth most common per capita among foreign suicide bombers in Iraq is Benghazi. We also see Benghazi protesters carry icons of King Idris - so these ''freedom fighters'' are deeply fragmented and after 30 years of totalitarian rule, their instincts and loyalties are largely unknown.

 

Benghazi fell quickly to the rebels, who began a march on Tripoli, but each step to the west was met with greater resistance.

 

The ''no-fly zone'' was initially sponsored by three leaders, British PM David Cameron, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, each with an eye to domestic dividends. Then in a truly historic moment, the Arab League called for a ''no-fly zone'' and the UN agreed.

 

It is clear that Gadaffi must go - but it's likely western Libya will then rally behind a new tribal chief. By arming the rebels of Benghazi along the glorious road of liberation to Tripoli we could easily be fuelling a civil war.

 

The end game here is the partition of Libya along its historic division. Partitions are never easy but sometimes the only solution if two people can't live in one tent. The partition of the former Yugoslavia was fraught because the geography of the Balkans invites border disputes. Libya, however, is a small nation with fewer people than NSW and 90 per cent of its citizens live along a thin coastal strip. The availability of oil deposits, spread fairly evenly between east and west, gives the chance of viability to two small states. The eastern and western Libyans are already marching under their own flags but they will need two currencies, two constitutions, two football teams, two armies and they will share a long border through the Sahara. There could easily be border disputes and displaced tribes on either side of the line, but partition could be the least worst option.

 

Our objective should be to stop the killings, deliver humanitarian aid, return daily life to normality. The Libyans must then be offered a path to self-determination but if the historical record is any guide, a one-state solution will only prolong the bloodshed. - with John Ruddick

 

Ross Cameron is the former Liberal member for the federal seat of Parramatta.

[Sensei]

Aha! Yet another to justify SL secession.

 

Partitions are never easy but sometimes the only solution if two people can't live in one tent.

Look, in Libya's case it is more like Gaddafi in the tent and the rest of Libyans outside the tent; the only two entities that cannot co-exist in Libya are the dictator & Libyans.

[London2010]

That's their aim to divide and turn every non western country into a 'balkanized', mini state they can lord over.

No doubt the bit they want to divide into 'rebel territory is the eastern part where their oil is. Third world fools that are fooled again.

[Som@li]

I see separation everywhere, I see desperation

 

20+ years of living in denial is taking its toll.

[Liibaan]

If separation may be solution for lasting peace in Libya or anywhere else, then for sure separation is a solution for lasting peace in so-called Somaliland , meaning snm clan faction cannot claim all the the territories of former british somali colony.

[Jacaylbaro]

Cabaadka jooji waaryaa ..........

 

I enjoy when i'm reading about "separation of an Arab country" ........ Sudan was a success. Next please ??? .......

[Liibaan]

Jacaylbaro;704971 wrote:

Cabaadka jooji waaryaa ..........

 

I enjoy when i'm reading about "separation of an Arab country" ........ Sudan was a success. Next please ??? .......

Aduu bal jooji oohinta iyo calaacalka, as muslim you should know dividing muslim or arab is not good.

[Jacaylbaro]

Tan fahmi maysid oo way kaa wayn tahay adiga ,,, ee bal berkedihii Kalshaale ka sheekee adigu

[caydarus]

Jacaylbaro;704988 wrote:

Tan fahmi maysid oo way kaa wayn tahay adiga ,,, ee bal berkedihii Kalshaale ka sheekee adigu

Tani waxba kama garaneyside oo wad kayar taheye bal maad kahadashid hargeysa iyo meelahaas

[Liqaye]

Yaax jb sudan waa carab iyo nilote diffrent ethnic groups and religions, inkaasta foolxumo lagugu xaanto, southern sudanse uma eekidee, there is no comparison in somalia and somaliland.

 

[Liibaan]

Jacaylbaro;704988 wrote:

Tan fahmi maysid oo way kaa wayn tahay adiga ,,, ee bal berkedihii Kalshaale ka sheekee adigu

Waa adiga ninka aan waxba fahmeen, waxa kaliya ee aad fahmasaa waa SNM clanland, Ka sheekada ah wadama Muslimka oo dhan ha la qeybiyo

 

 

Waa Warlord Siilaanyo Dhiigyacab, ninka marka uu maqlay subclan kiisii iyo qabiil kale ayaa isku qabsaday Baraago, Warlord Siilaanyo jaahilnimadiisa iyo caqlixumadiisa waxa soo diray dhamaan Maleeshiyadii Somalidiidka si ee baragaahaa u qabsadaan iyo in u gurmadaan reerkiisa una laayaan reerka kale. Adna waxba ma dhaantid

[Thankful]

Jacaylbaro;704971 wrote:

Cabaadka jooji waaryaa ..........

 

I enjoy when i'm reading about "separation of an Arab country" ........ Sudan was a success. Next please ??? .......

Those "Arab" countries have OIL....Sudan also! That is the reason why they are that way!

 

I love Suldaanka's articles, they are always meant to support NW Somalia indirectly, but then he'll try to convince us that they are not.

[Peace Action]

Sensei;704862 wrote:

Aha! Yet another to justify SL secession.

 

 

 

Look, in Libya's case it is more like Gaddafi in the tent and the rest of Libyans outside the tent; the only two entities that cannot co-exist in Libya are the

dictator

&

Libyans

.

Good point. Qaddafi is history and Libya will be free soon, IA. The people in the east and the west are fed up with the brutality of the regime and want regime change, there will be no breakup of Libya.

[Jacaylbaro]

They need to see this ..... Divided Sudan ,,, Divided Yemen ,, Divided Libya .................. Until ay Somalia/Somaliland arrimaheeda faraha kala baxayaan