Many of my neighbours died today. My brother was hit by a bullet in his leg. The situation here is horrible. There are helicopters. The sky is raining with bullets...
As I write the United Nationals is deciding to 'punish' Libya with sanctions. In the case of Iraq this (arguably) hurt innocent civilians more than regime leaders. So what else could be done to help Libya?
- Should the European Union send a military force to 'pacify' Libya?
- Would any intervention help the people, or simply escalate the conflict?
- Is it cynical to think that any intervention is really to protect our supply of oil, rather than to help the people of Libya themselves?
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| Gaddafi was a good friend of Europe while he supplied oil without causing problems. |
They were using ambulances to shoot at people - can you believe it? They were using anti-aircraft weapons. They were shooting continuously...I am so shocked, about what happened today. The whole neighbourhood is terrified. They are shooting at civilians, just so that one person can stay in power. This is unbelievable...
We haven't left the house for six days, apart from going out to buy bread. Now that they've opened Tripoli to the international media, they've made sure they cleaned everything up. I went out in the car and I saw messages on the walls, streets destroyed, bullet holes, blood... Yesterday when I went out again, it looked like a completely different city. Everything was cleaned up so that Gaddafi's people can say: Look, nothing has happened, everything is fine.
(Click here for the full text.)
Wow! The text is utterly striking! Honestly, I firstly thought that Libya's situation was like the one in Egypt and Tunisia, and that after the revolution they would be able to abolish the dictatorship that they've been under for so many years. This situation had to occur, it's the natural course of how things are going to happen. The same happened 60 years ago in Europe after the Berlin wall was thrown down. Many East-European countries had to start a democratic process and there was a great deal of demonstrations because the people living in those countries were fed up with following orders and wanted to be free.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Libya's case has shown to be different from the one in Egypt and Tunisia. Gadafi has put resistance to the pressure of the country and threatens that he will go house by house killing the one that are against the dictatorial regime. The UN has, on the contrary, threatened him with prohibitions that he must not leave the country. But is that enough to stop such a powerful leader?
The situation is getting out of their hands, so in my opinion any military intervention that helps in the pacification of the country is welcomed, no matter how cynical it may look from the outside.
It is shocking. Shocking and frightening. There is certainly no euphoria, as there was in Egypt.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the Berlin wall was 1989:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/9/newsid_2515000/2515869.stm