From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Aug 31 2009 - 09:29:04 EDT
Gaddafi's 40th turns into a diplomatic minefield
Europe's leaders are staying away in droves but nothing will halt Libya's
biggest party, writes Daniel Howden in Tripoli
Monday, 31 August 2009
Britain has refused to reveal who it will send to the biggest party in
Libya's history, a celebration of the rise to power of Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi in a coup d'etat 40 years ago.
With London desperate to avoid further embarrassment in the wake of
allegations that it supported the release of the Lockerbie bomber in return
for trade deals, no decision had been made about who would represent the UK
at the lavish and potentially controversial carnival in Tripoli.
Officials refused to "speculate" who London would send after evidence
emerged that the Justice Secretary Jack Straw had sent a letter to his
Scottish counterpart two years ago saying it was in the UK's "overwhelming
interest" to include the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in a mooted
prisoner release programme.
A week of events on a grand scale kicks off tonight in Tripoli with a
massive equestrian display at the same military airport where Megrahi was
given a hero's welcome after his release on compassionate grounds by the
Scottish authorities.
Although the precise details of what will happen at the celebrations have
been kept secret, the released prisoner is not expected to attend. Megrahi
was reported to be on his death bed last night at a Tripoli hospital. He is
now "too sick" to answer questions, according to his family.
Suffering from advanced prostate cancer, he was pictured by Channel 4 News
wearing an oxygen mask and attached to a drip after being taken to the
hospital yesterday morning.
With 24 hours to go, Tripoli has taken on the frenetic aspect of a city
hosting the Olympics. Scaffolding covers the main avenues as lakes of
whitewash are slapped on to exposed concrete in last-minute sprucing
efforts.
Thousands of people were caught out as the capital's entire central district
- which now contains what is claimed to be the largest stage in the world -
was fenced off without warning. Frantic Libyans were seen crawling under the
fence to get home, while others passed packages and even children to each
other under the wire.
Looking down on them and staring from banners everywhere was the face of
Africa's longest-serving leader, with his gaze fixed on the future in a way
that suggested his determination to keep going for another 40 years. With
roads sealed, the din of motorists' horns was only drowned by the deafening
roar from rehearsing French and Italian aerobatic jet fighters.
The diplomatic fall-out from Megrahi's release and reception has cast a
shadow over the epic anniversary party. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi will be
the only EU leader prepared to lend his public backing to Colonel Gaddafi
with a one-day visit to Tripoli yesterday. And even the Italian premier,
whose excuse for the trip was the anniversary of a friendship accord, said
he would leave before the party began.
With a host of controversial African leaders from Zimbabwe's pariah Robert
Mugabe to Sudan's indicted Omar al-Bashir due to be joined by the likes of
Venezuela's showman President Hugo Chavez, wary Western leaders have
withdrawn from what is seen as Libya's international coming-out party.
The self-styled "brother leader" was taking no chances with the bulk of his
VIP guest list and staged an extraordinary African Union summit to coincide
with the event, guaranteeing the presence of many African leaders.
The money-no-object show continues tomorrow with a military parade which
should see military divers climbing out of the Mediterranean to join tanks,
fighter jets and troop formations in Libya's answer to May Day in Red
Square. For the 700,000 or more who make it into the fenced-off Green
Square, a three-hour spectacular on Libyan history awaits from a
multinational troupe directed by the French director Martin Arnaud.
With a a staggering arsenal of fireworks due to be set off over the
seafront, the official programme predicts that "the Libyan people will be
enflamed by the Brother Leader" - cue another of Colonel Gaddafi's marathon
speeches.
Daniel Howden: From Colonel to King of Kings - Gaddafi's heady rise
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tripoli's tower blocks and lamp-posts are weighed down by portraits casting
the "brother leader" as King of Africa. One declares Libya as the "Gate to
Africa" while another asserts that "Africa is Hope" and above each of them
floats the face of Muammar al-Gaddafi in flattering soft focus. Another
banner shows a great galleon with all of Africa's flags acting as sails.
Leader and Guide of the Revolution, Imam of the Muslims, King of Kings and
relatively lowly colonel in the Libyan army, the 67-year-old is a collector
of titles. But his leadership of the African Union offers the best insight
into the distance travelled in the 40 years since a 27-year-old army officer
toppled King Idris.
Col Gaddafi's role model at that point was Egypt's General Nasser. The young
Bedouin revolutionary was a confirmed Pan-Arabist like the Egyptian and had
apparently memorised all his speeches. However, his pursuit of the goal of a
single Arab state was given short shrift by Nasser's successor, Anwar Sadat.
With his pan-Arab dreams frustrated, the Libyan leader looked south.
Initially this saw him fund an on-again, off-again civil war in Chad that
lasted 15 years. During this period he sponsored rebel groups in West
Africa, backed the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the IRA. By the
1990s Libya was the target of international economic sanctions. Col Gaddafi
then began to look to sub-Saharan Africa as a way to bestride the
international stage.
It was at the Organisation of African Nations that he first pushed the idea
of a United States of Africa. This was followed by a concerted campaign to
buy influence across the continent using Libya's income from oil. The
results have been dramatic. In August of last year he was anointed King of
Kings in Africa. And in January of this year he finally got the coveted
chairmanship of the African Union.
While his plans to bounce his fellow African leaders into a single country
and a single currency have been largely ignored, agreement is close on a
joint delegation to December's climate summit in Copenhagen, where they will
pursue $67bn in compensation from rich nations.
The lavishing of Libya's energy wealth on African causes has stirred quiet
resentment at home, where one diplomat said "people are fed up with their
money being spent on Africans when the health service here is so bad they
have to go to Tunisia if they are sick".