Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Featured on Press TV World News: 'Libya Turmoil Results From Lack of Uniform Political Ideology'

Libya turmoil result of lack of uniform political ideology: Abayomi Azikiwe

Interview with Abayomi Azikiwe

Sun Jun 9, 2013 5:15PM GMT

Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of the Pan-African News Wire, about the issue of fresh clashes in Benghazi between protesters and militia members as the NATO-installed governments struggles to take control of what is left of the country.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Two years after the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi tension still reigns in Libya. Why is that and what is preventing democracy from being implemented?

Azikiwe: It’s important to understand first of all that the people who were utilized by the United States and NATO to carry out various ground operations against the former government of Muammar Gaddafi had no uniform political ideology or view in regard to what the future of Libya should look like.

So therefore it is not surprising that today we see all of this turmoil and chaos and conflict that’s going on not only in Tripoli, but also in Benghazi where the counter-revolution against Muammar Gaddafi had its origin.

It’s interesting to note that some of these militia groups are using terror tactics and with this the integration of weapons; at the same time they are not being condemned by the United States State Department or by the so-called human rights organizations who in fact played a key role in isolating the Gaddafi government and accused them of human rights violations, but we don’t hear hardly anything from these same entities who actually served the interests of NATO and the United States in 2011. So, I think it’s quite interesting... It’s quite interesting that these same entities now are not speaking out forcefully against the human rights violations that are going on in Libya.

Press TV: What is the fate of Libya’s territorial integrity because some say the country is on the brink of being divided?

Azikiwe: Well of course. We’re going back to the period of Italian colonialism, to the Ottoman Empire when there was a concerted effort to divide Libya into a partitioned state. And of course the whole concept of a national state is very important to any country that is being targeted by imperialism.

We saw the same situation in Iraq where there were proposals even by current Vice President Joe Biden back during the period of the US occupation of Iraq to divide the country.

We hear the same thing in regard to the situation in Libya as well. But Libya has to maintain its territorial integrity and its sovereignty and this is the only way that the country can mobilize and reorganize to take control of its own affairs.

NATO just announced recently that they were going to send a delegation back to Libya to assess the General National Congress government there in regards to security issues.

And I think this is appalling. People in the international human rights organizations and anti-war and peace movements should be speaking out against it because they in fact helped to destroy Libya so I don’t see how they can be involved in the security at this point.

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