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In their hastily arranged “Friends of the New Libya” Paris meeting,
Sarkozy, Cameron and Clinton were beaming with happiness. After months
of aerial bombardment, they finally managed to dislodge Qaddafi from
power. Obviously, Sarkozy, Cameron and Clinton had good reasons to be
happy, for the consequences of failure in Libya would have been immense,
not just for Nato, but also for the personal reputations and electoral
prospects of Sarkozy, Cameron, and Clinton’s boss Obama. Since Qaddafi
is still at large, however, it cannot be said yet that the victory of
Nato and its rebel allies is complete.
Needless to say, no one should shed any tears for Qaddafi an
arch-villain and despot. But with the rounding up and summarily killings
of black Africans (and even black Libyans) by the rebels, it is clear
that the rebels are no better than Qaddafi.
The mass arrests, beatings, and killings of Africans by Libyan rebels
does not come as a surprise, since it was part of their strategy from
the very beginning to delegitimize Qaddafi by portraying him as someone
who had no support among Libyans, and that the only way he maintained
his regime was through African mercenaries. It was not just the rebels
who pushed this line, but the US, French, and British administrations
did it too. The demonization of black Africans as a propaganda tactic to
subvert Qaddafi was given its widest circulation by al-Jazeera’s Arabic
broadcast, one of whose iconic and most repeated images of the Libyan
conflict was a Libyan diplomat at the UN who had just resigned after
years of serving Qaddafi, ranting about Qaddafi and his “black African
mercenaries” (another iconic al-Jazeera incendiary image is that of
Libyan rebels displaying passports from Somalia, Ethiopia and other
African countries as proof that Qaddafi was relying on African
mercenaries).
It is noteworthy that the US, France and Britain did not only follow the
same line of demonizing black Africans in Libya when Qaddafi was in
charge, but they also followed the same line as the rebels of keeping
quiet on the killings of black Africans by the rebels once the rebels
took over Tripoli. Clinton’s performance at the Paris conference stands
out in that as she deliberately ignored the attacks on black migrant
workers, she insisted that NATO will continue bombing “as long as
civilians remain under threat of attack.” By her twisted logic, armed
Libyan rebel fighters are civilians who can count on Nato’s support,
while African migrant workers are not even worth mentioning.
Oddly enough, it is not just Nato coalition and their Qatari allies who
are silent about the murder and terrorization of black Africans by
Libyan rebels. African countries, too, are keeping mum. Some African
countries, such as Nigeria and Ehtiopia, have even rewarded the rebels
for their murderous racism with diplomatic recognition. Clinton seized
on this as an opening to deliver the ultimate kick in the teeth to black
Africans by urging them to follow the example of those African countries
who already recognized the Libyan rebels. In other words, African
countries should reward Libyan rebels for detaining, torturing and
killing African nationals. What an insult! What an arrogance!
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