South Africa may yet  be proven right

As unity within the National Transitional Council (NTC), formed between the diverse elements of the rebel force in the Libyan civil conflict is increasingly proving fragile, as reports mount about Africans suffering racist ill-treatment at the hands of the rebels and as hopes of peace returning to this oil-rich North African country in the near future fast fading, South Africa and the African Union (AU) stance on the situation might just be proven the morally and strategically correct one.

Some commentators -- especially in South Africa itself -- have been critical of the South African and AU stance that the AU roadmap is the best way forward in Libya. Some have  described it as naïve.

There are, however, reputable commentators who have seen it differently. In an in-depth article last week for Pambazuka News Horace Campbell, professor of African-American studies and political science at Syracuse University, writes: “Even at this late moment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in South Africa is correct to stick to the call for the African Union roadmap. Experience elsewhere in Burundi and Uganda after wars of intervention showed that it is only the long-term and pedantic work for peace that can end the fighting.

“There must be negotiations with an international peacekeeping force that excludes the eight Nato countries that violated the mandate of the Security Council. The National Transitional Council is deeply divided and negotiations will be needed so that they do not kill each other as they already started to do when they killed Abdel-Fattah Younis, the general who had defected from Gaddafi to the Benghazi side.

“It is only a matter of time before it becomes clear how Abdelhakim Belhadj (sometimes written Belhaj) of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), graduated from detention at Guantanamo Bay to be one of the ‘rebel’ leaders and leader of the Tripoli Military Council. Anyone who followed the US destabilisation of Somalia can understand how those who are one day called the worst terrorists are the next day the best allies of the USA.”

In fact it might be the Nato-faction (only nine members of the 28-nation alliance have been involved in the Libyan-intervention) who have been the naive ones to think that  in the NTC they have reliable and loyal partners.

How realistic is it to expect that Belhadj will  remain their friend once, and if, he succeeds in becoming the new strongman of Libya considering his previous experience of the expedient nature of Western friendship? The founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and current military governor of Tripoli was captured by United States secret services in Malaysia in 2003, detained and interrogated in a secret Bangkok prison until 2004 before being handed over to the Gaddafi-regime in Libya who released him in only March last year.

United Nations

In less than three weeks, the General Assembly of the United Nations will meet and the leaders of the Nato-faction are likely to  seek to silence the members of the African Union and other disagreeing  nations. The African Union has been lobbying the Group of 77 as it seek to bring to the attention of the world the reality that support for the UN Security Council mandate of responsibility to protect Libyan civilians did not extend to black Africans.

Countries like Russia and China have also been opposed to the European intervention in Libya and do not consider it to be a success, while India at the time also refrained from voting for the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1973 from which the Nato-intervention was launched.

In what is probably part of the first shots at bringing pressure to bear on emerging countries with the upcoming UN-debates, US-ambassador  to the UN Susan Rice said last week the US has not been encouraged by the performance of India, Brazil and South Africa during their temporary tenure on the UN Security Council.

In arrogant rhetoric, making her sound more like a school principal than a diplomat, Rice told reporters at a media briefing: “It’s been a very interesting opportunity to see how they respond to the issues of the day, how they relate to us and others, how they do or don’t act consistent with their own democratic institutions and stated values. Let me just say, we’ve learned a lot and, frankly, not all of it encouraging.”

Judged by the lack of reaction on the part of the US and its European allies in Libya to the plight of  Africans at the hands of their rebel partners, their record in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, the US has hardly been an ideal role model for emerging powers.

According to a report by Bloomberg , Fabienne Hara, the vice-president of multilateral affairs at the International Crisis Group said that Rice’s criticism is simplistic since the BRIC nations responded to the Libya situation in terms of their own set of concerns. “They were all quite surprised that this turned into a Nato-led operation with a bombing campaign with a variety of targets including Tripoli.”

If the AU, however wants to gain stronger influence over the fate of the continent, it should probably take note of the opinion of president Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, the first of 11 African states to break ranks and recognise the NTC in Libya. Ondimba said last week that the AU was weak and efforts had to be made to build its capacity to respond swiftly to any crisis.