Narrative and reality of the Libyan crisis

 

 The Art of War

 By Manlio Dinucci (il manifesto, Italy) 

NATO is concerned about the crisis in Libya which "has direct implications for regional stability and the security of all Allies". NATO, therefore, assures us that "it remains committed to providing advice to Libya for defense and security". The US, France, Germany, Italy, and United Kingdom governments declare that "free elections will allow Libyan people to strengthen their sovereignty" and to be "ready to hold to account those who threaten the stability in Libya". They, therefore, reaffirm "their full respect and commitment to Libya's sovereignty and independence".
 
Solemn words uttered by the same powers that after demolishing Yugoslavia in the 1990s by disintegrating it from inside, and attacking it from outside demolished the Libyan state with the same technique in 2011. First, they financed and armed tribal sectors and Islamic groups hostile to the government, and infiltrated special forces, in particular Qatari, to ignite armed clashes. Then they attacked it from the outside: in seven months the US-NATO air force carried out 30,000 missions, 10,000 of them were attack missions with over 40,000 bombs and missiles. Italy took part in the war - directed by the United States, at first through the Africa Command, then through NATO under US command - with 7 air bases, fighter-bombers, and an aircraft carrier.

 

Thus, the African state was demolished. The World Bank documented in 2010 that Libya had "high levels of economic growth and human development". About two million immigrants, mostly Africans, had found work there. Thanks to energy exports the Libyan State had invested about 150 billion dollars abroad. Libyan investments in Africa were crucial to the African Union's plan to create its own financial organizations, a common market, and a single currency for Africa. 

Emails from Obama Administration Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, subsequently brought to light by WikiLeaks, show that the United States and France wanted to eliminate Gaddafi before he used Libya's gold reserves to create a pan-African currency at the alternative to the dollar and CFA franc (currency imposed by France on 14 former colonies). Before the bombers went into action, banks went into action: they seized the 150 billion dollars invested abroad by the Libyan State, right after most of them disappeared thus blocking the entire African project.
 
All this about the Libyan crisis is erased in the political-media narrative, allowing the main responsible for the social catastrophe caused by the war on Libya to present themselves as its saviors. Today in Libya, revenues from energy exports are hoarded by militias and multinationals. Large quantities of Libyan oil are sold to European Union countries by smugglers through Maltese companies that recycle them disguising their origin. The living standard of the population has collapsed. 

 

Libya has become the main transit route of a chaotic migratory flow that caused more victims than the war in 2011. According to IOM (International Organization for Migration) data about 1,500 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in 2021, but certainly more as many cases are not reported. In 2021, about 30,000 migrants were intercepted on the sea and brought back to Libya by the "Libyan" Coast Guard, that was created, trained, and financed with 33 million euros by Italy. Many of them ended up in detention centers of both Tripoli's "government" and militias. 

Today over 600,000 migrants of about 45 nationalities are trapped in Libya, practically reduced to a state of slavery, forced to work without pay, and beaten. More and more migrants ask not to be taken to Europe but to return to their own countries to escape this condition. Particularly dramatic is the situation of young women, sold at auction, raped, and forced into prostitution.

All thanks to the "Unified Protector" Operation which, according to the Ministry of Defense, was carried out by NATO in 2011 for "the protection of civilians in Libya".