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Created: Wednesday, 11 June 2014 09:53

Written by Trevor Rayne

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 239 June/July 2014

Since NATO-led forces overthrew the government of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011 Libya has been torn to pieces by rival militias presiding over separate fiefdoms. Now a coalition of militia and other forces headed by former general Khalifa Haftar intends to crush their rivals: full scale civil war threatens. On 16 May Haftar’s forces attacked jihadist militias in Benghazi using war planes and helicopters; over 70 people were killed and 141 injured. Two days later forces loyal to Haftar attacked the parliament building in Tripoli. Haftar said he was fighting terrorism. Parliament’s leader, Nouri Abu Shamein, called on jihadist militias to repel the attack.

Haftar participated in the 1969 coup that brought Gaddafi to power. He later fought with Libya’s soldiers in Chad where he was taken prisoner by French forces in 1987. Having become an opponent of Gaddafi, he was removed to the US in around 1990, returning to Libya in 2011. Haftar is suspected of having close ties to western intelligence agencies; his allies include current and former army officers.

In April 2014 the US State Department announced, ‘Libya has become a terrorist safe haven.’ Just days before Haftar’s forces acted in Benghazi, the US stationed 200 marines in Sicily. A Pentagon spokesperson explained, ‘We’re doing this as a contingency because we believe that the security situation in North Africa is deteriorating to a point where there could be threats’. 2,000 Libyan troops were brought to Britain for training in 2013 and a further group arrived in April this year.

Libyan oil output has fallen from 1.4m barrels a day in 2013 to 200,000 barrels a day today. Oil generates 95% of Libyan government revenues. Unemployment is over 30% and a million people are internally displaced. Militias run their own prisons, thousands of people have disappeared. Dozens of police officers, former and current army officers and judges have been assassinated since 2011. The US ambassador to Libya and three aides were killed in Benghazi in September 2012. Amidst the chaos inflicted by the NATO attack on the country, weapons from Libya have been transferred to jihadists in Syria and been sold to groups fighting across West Africa, including Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Whatever foreign backing Haftar’s self-declared Libyan National Army may have, its opponents will not easily be outgunned nor will they be without their own supporters abroad. Any confrontation could be long and bloody.

Trevor Rayne

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Created: Sunday, 20 October 2013 08:41

Written by Trevor Rayne

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 235 October/November 2013
The activities of militias and striking workers have reduced Libya’s oil output from 1.4m barrels a day at the start of 2013 to 200,000 barrels in August. As a consequence, Libya’s government and foreign oil companies such as Total, Eni, Marathon Oil, ConocoPhilips and Repsol are losing $100m a day in revenues. Most of Libya’s main oil export terminals were closed in early August by guards paid to protect them. Oil pipelines have been sabotaged. Now the oil multinationals are saying that they plan to sell up and leave Libya.

On 17 September Libya’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan visited Britain and Prime Minister David Cameron and asked for help in disposing of the mass of weapons in Libya. The United Nations Security Council warned of a ‘worrying’ increase in the movement of weapons and ammunition across Libya’s borders ‘and an increasing number of reported cases of trafficking such material to Syria’. Libya’s militias are beyond the control of the central government and were armed by such as France, Britain and Qatar to fight the Gadaffi-led government forces. Now these militias have such a glut of weapons that they are advertising them for sale on Facebook.

Trevor Rayne

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Created: Thursday, 13 June 2013 13:11

Written by Jack Edwards

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 233 June/July 2013

On 2 April 2013 HMS Kent docked in Tripoli harbour, the first visit to Libya by a Royal Navy warship in 40 years. It hosted a UK Trade and Investment event which saw 11 UK businesses – including BAE, Thales and Babcock International – vie to secure lucrative security contracts. Over 100 Libyan military personnel were in attendance, including the heads of all five armed services and the police. Naval Commander Ben Ripley praised the ‘thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding visit’ and its ‘potential wider benefits for the UK’. On 10 May the British embassy evacuated all non-essential staff from its Tripoli premises, issuing a joint plea for calm with the French and US governments amid political instability sweeping the country – the newly-established US marine unit at Moron Air Base in southern Spain and an AFRICOM special-ops force based in Stuttgart, were both placed on heightened alert. Imperialism has opened Pandora’s box in Libya; it must deal with the consequences.

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Created: Wednesday, 05 December 2012 14:08

Written by Trevor Rayne

FRFI 230 December 2012/January 2013

A year on from the murder of Colonel Gaddafi Libya has descended into chaos and reaction, which this paper predicted when imperialism launched its attack in March 2011. Housing projects begun under the Gaddafi-led government remain incomplete as ‘foreign contractors refuse to return to a land essentially ruled by shadowy gunmen... The country is earning $1bn every ten days from oil revenues but lacks the administrative capacity to spend it’ (Financial Times 11 October 2012). Apart from security firms, foreign businesses have not arrived, the Chinese have not returned and there is no investment. There is no centrally controlled refuse collection in Tripoli, pensions are unpaid and schools go without books. Libya’s borders are battle zones between rival smuggling gangs. Trees planted as brakes on the spreading Sahara desert are chopped down for their timber.

British, French and US politicians hailed the election of Mahmoud Jibril’s ‘moderate pro-business’ National Forces Alliance in the 7 July 2012 congressional elections, but the Libyan government is both dependent on militias and incapable of controlling them. On 5 October Amnesty International reported, ‘thousands of people held across Libya without warrant by armed militias... ongoing abductions of individuals... and unofficial detention facilities spread across the country’. Amnesty said that hundreds of residents of Bani Walid were held across Libya and many were being tortured. Bani Walid’s people seized their own town but it was recaptured on 24 October by pro-government militia after eight days of fighting and over 30 deaths. The Red Cross said that 25,000 of the town’s 80,000 people had fled. Hundreds of Bani Walid’s citizens invaded the parliament building in Tripoli to demand an end to the violence. Bani Walid, 90 miles from Tripoli, is considered a pro-Gaddafi town and reputedly harbours those who killed the murderer of Colonel Gaddafi.

The militia accused of killing the US ambassador and three of his colleagues at the US consulate in Benghazi on 11 September 2012 remain at large. The attack on the consulate was not the spontaneous demonstration against the anti-Islamic video that the US government said it was. The consulate was apparently targeted because it served as a CIA base in the region. In and around Benghazi, 15 security officials serving the new government have been assassinated, thereby ensuring that the government forces are feeble. Benghazi’s chief of security was shot dead on 19 November 2012. He was responsible for trying to curb the power of the militia. Several targeted officials were early defectors from the former state forces.

Libya’s descent into chaos is of no concern to the US, British and French governments – as long as they control the oil they will view their mission as a success.

Trevor Rayne