Suspicions grow about the motives of the United Kingdom and France, the primary international patrons of Libya's interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC), in enabling the almost-completed overthrow of Muammar al-Qadhafi. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was not short of fine words in his March 19 statement that his country was protecting the civilian population of Libya against the “murderous madness” of a regime which, by assassinating its own people, had “lost all legitimacy.” But substantial evidence is already emerging of extensive links between major oil corporations and the British and French governments in supplying the rebels and in the reconstruction of Libya's only large-scale industry, which is oil production. An analysis in The Guardian mentions meetings between Britain's junior Minister for International Development, Alan Duncan, and the crude-oil trader Vitol, with whom Mr. Duncan had previous business connections. Meanwhile French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé has tried strenuously to rebut allegations in a letter obtained by the daily Libération to the effect that the NTC had promised French companies 35 per cent of future Libyan oil production. Prospective western attitudes towards the government-in-waiting are thrown further into question by The Independent's revelation, based on documents formerly possessed by the Libyan defector and former security boss Moussa Koussa, that Britain and the United States offered prisoners to Libya under the rendition programme in the so-called war on terror, and that the British intelligence service, MI6, provided Mr. Qadhafi with information on exiled Libyan opponents and dissidents.
Once in office, the NTC will desperately want to revive oil production as a prerequisite for further economic development, but the conditions under which it can do so will not be in its hands. It may find that the terms of new contracts are imposed by foreign companies, and that if it attempts to favour western firms over oil industries in Russia, China, and India — all of which abstained from the United Nations Security Council vote authorising military support for the uprising — then it might incur lasting opprobrium from those potentially important partners. Further complications for the new government in Tripoli could arise from the fact that its patrons, the U.K., France, and the U.S., were not nearly as hostile to Mr. Qadhafi as they would have the rest of the world believe. In addition, if the NTC goes about nationalising the country's oil industry as part of a programme of economic reconstruction, it could end up at the receiving end of western-induced regime change.
Why do we still have such deep anti-colonial feelings and suspicions? The colonial era ended decades ago. Is it really so hard to accept the fact that the West was on the side of freedom-fighters in Libya? Gaddafi was no Mossadegh who was elected; he was a military man who came to power in a coup and forcibly ran the second last remaining quasi-communist country on the Mediterranean. His detractors are civilians who were tired of being called rats and treated as such. The reason for oil production being damaged, is that unlike Musharraf, Gaddafi decided to fight his people. If he resigns even now, further bloodshed will be avoided.
The articles here really throws light on the motives of western allies behind overthrowing gadaffi, they are not the one's who help mitigating the adversities imposed on libyan people ,they are there only to fetch their interests i.e to get their tanks full with the Libyan oil, we have a no. of examples in the past about the dishonest intentions of these powers, they use oil rich countries just to remedy their economic problems in disguise.
The mask hiding the malaise intent of the patrons of Libya has been exposed in the arcticle.It is an SOS for the world community to think beyond boundary and not let Libya to fell into trap. Libya needs to figure out between friends and masked foe; the real wolves in the sheep clothing.Aftermath of Muammar al-Qadhafi overthrow several wolves are in hunt to have access to their precious oil reseve but the Libya need to have task cut out as these reserves are their real weapons for their economic development and to wield their power in international arena. Learn from the past regime blunder in showering their faith to these patrons as they have been to no one since time mmemorial.
In this world of realpolitik, one would have to be extremely naive to expect that any country would interfere in another country based only on altruistic objectives. A overwhelming majority of the people of Libya hated their dictator and wanted him to go. Hundreds of Indian expatriates who returned from there know this. In a police state where anyone could be a spy, people were mortally afraid to talk, but still, the strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction could easily be discerned through subtle hints thrown during conversations. Selfish or not selfish, the western countries are on the right side of history while our own Indian government, as usual, stuck to worn out theories of sovereignty and lost a valuable opportunity to foresee what was coming and act accordingly. Otherwise what can explain the delay in recognizing the NTC even days after the brother leader fled?
It was pretty clear during the inception of decision by France,UK,US that they had hidden agenda besides advocating the protection of human rights.The manifesto is very clear now,as French need the oil in order to cater there industrial and domestic needs.
Its an obvious development that after the dust settles, the so called helpers of the libyan people will try to fetch their interests.The facts shown in the article are grim and should be carefully examined by the world community.It seems the whole process of overthrowing of Qaddafi regime was a wrong practice.This could happen with any country which is not good for the western allies.The wealth of libya is of libyan people and it should be used for the betterment of libyans and to establish democracy in country.
Shades of the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected head of Iran? In 1953, just to get to Iran's oil the CIA helped the UK to overthrow the government and bring back the Shah. In Libya as in Iraq, the same system in the west, in their greed for oil have waged war yet again unmindful of the consequences to follow. Yet the west, shamefully has never taken a step to better lives of Africans by removing the ruthless and greedy dictators that rule them. Instead they give aid to African countries that disappears into the pockets of their rulers.
I very much agree on this BEHIND THE SCENES politics by the OIL CZARS who contributed to the CONFLICTS in ths IRAQ now in LIBYA.We as Indians should also take active part in the REBUILDING measures and claim it's stake and investments in LIBYA.
After destroying Libya, how many billions of dollars, pounds and francs will NATO allies make by selling weapons and re-constructing Libya (to re-destroy after a few decades)? It seems a creative way of solving western economic problems (worth including in the basic books on Introduction to Economics).
These western war-mongering oil sharks have well rehearsed lines when targetting a vital country's resources. First paint a regime with the dirtiest mud, if it's on the wrong side of cooperation(eg Sadam, Gadaffi)(yet - not Saudi, Bahraini). Once the world is onboard, forment discord in the country, then attck in the name of rescuing the population. Like Gadaffi, Sadam was accused of killing his own people and so was invaded, yet the invading forces slaughtered way more people, refusing to count them as they considered them collateral damage(expendable). In libya, its clear the lure of oil contracts is too good to turn down.
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