Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, has been interviewed on numerous occasions on Press TV. Azikiwe has discussed U.S. foreign policy toward Libya and the African continent., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Interview with Abayomi Azikiwe
Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:42AM GMT
To watch this Press TV The Debate program with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/11/17/335118/west-meddling-behind-libya-violence/
Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, a New York-based editor of Pan-African News Wire, to discuss the violent clashes in Libya’s capital city of Tripoli.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: What do you think are the main reasons that we are seeing this chaos take place today?
Azikiwe: Well, obviously it stems from the war of regime change that was waged beginning in February of 2011 with the unrest that started in the eastern part of the country in Benghazi. And of course the intervention of the Pentagon and NATO and the Central Intelligence Agency in early 2011 and the beginning of the massive bombing campaign on March 19th of 2011 broke down and destroyed the national infrastructure of the country.
The whole character of this war of regime change did not create any type of uniform ideological or political direction for those who in fact took power beginning in August and of course consolidating in October of 2011.
There is a huge vacuum but also there is a major power struggle that is going on between the various militias. The Misrata militia which gained a horrendous reputation during 2011, it appears now they are attempting to stage a coup d'état against the General National Congress in Tripoli and as a result of that, militias that are allied with the Prime Minister Ali Zeidan are attempting to resist this effort aimed at regime change.
So I think that until there is some widespread dialog between the various militias and groups inside the country, the struggle will intensify and of course the fighting will escalate.
Press TV: Do you think that the western countries played any role in getting more arms inside of the country and also do you think that this is a continuation of what he [Sabri Malek, the other guest of the program] called the revolution?
Azikiwe: No. I do not see what happened in 2011 as a revolution. We view it as a counter-revolution from the standpoint that it was supported by the Pentagon and by NATO. They were the decisive elements in the conflict during 2011.
We have to recall that the Pentagon and NATO flew 26,000 sorties over Libya. They dropped 9,600 ordinances over the country. These are according to the figures released by the US military and by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]. And of course when you have that type of massive blanket bombing of a country, it is going to have a long-term impact.
Now in terms of the so-called Arab Spring Revolution, if we look at all the countries that have seen these uprisings, none of them have been able to stabilize the political situations.
In Egypt, there has been almost total chaos since February of 2011. The military now has assumed power again in Egypt. They have banned all opposition parties including particularly the Muslim Brotherhood and in Tunisia they are having a very difficult time as well. Not being able to establish any type of political system in Libya of course is the most stark of these so-called revolutions.
They have not been revolutions. In fact, many of the activities that have taken place in these countries have been the direct result of Western intervention in these societies.
And many of the people who cheered on the bombing of Libya in 2011 have to account for their political advocacy some two and half years later where there has been no peaceful resolution to the conflict inside the country and at the same time, the conditions are worsening.
If there is another puctshe or coup d'état in Libya which is a strong possibility that could happen, then we are really going to be on the verge of a potential ground invasion by NATO in order to stabilize the situation.
Libya’s main export is crude oil. They also have a large reservoir of natural gas and those industries have been virtually shut down over the last several months because of this internal conflict that is going on inside the country.
Press TV: What about those comments [on Press TV’s Facebook page which state that Libya is] not going into anarchy but pushed into anarchy and basically blaming western powers such as the United States? How accurate do you think that assessment is?
Azikiwe: I think it is very accurate. If we look at the situation in Libya, the Obama administration of course provided the military, political and diplomatic cover for these rebel militias, that in fact they provided air cover for them doing the war of regime change in 2011. And then of course when you talk about the situation in Syria, it is very similar.
They have targeted numerous governments throughout the region including Libya, Syria, the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are targeting the resistance movement in Southern Lebanon -Hezbollah- for destabilization and regime change. And this is part of the same pattern that has been carried out by successive U.S. administrations.
It just did not start with the Obama administration. It began to a large degree with the Bush administration with their intervention in Iraq and also with the continuing war in Afghanistan in central Asia as well. So, the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have to bear responsibility for this type of destabilization going on inside the country.
Now my colleague in London mentioned that they called for the United Nations to send in a peacekeeping force to Libya. But the question is what countries and which soldiers are going to constitute the so-called peacekeeping force? As soon as they arrive in the country, they are going to be hit by hostile fire from numerous elements inside the country who are not united, who are extremely divided, who are heavily armed.
So this is just going to create even more confusion inside of Libya as the Libyan people themselves have to come up with a solution to this crisis. I do not believe that the solution will come from the United Nations. It is not going to come from NATO. And in fact, Ali Zeidan’s government has already been discussing with NATO the potential for them to come back into Libya with a ground force. And I think they are very reluctant to do so because it will just further destabilize the situation.
And of course the war and destabilization in Libya has spread into Mali and Tunisia as well as Algeria and the potential for further conflict in North Africa as well as West Africa is very much in evidence right now.
Press TV: In our guest’s opinion out of London, the key now for establishing democracy in Libya is the United Nations and the United States. What about that?
Azikiwe: Well it depends on how you define democracy. The government that was established in 1951 was done under a monarchy. The King had absolute power inside the country between 1951 and 1969 when Qaddafi and the Revolutionary Command Council took power.
During that period the Libyan people enjoyed a higher standard of living than any other country on the African continent. Libya was respected as a leading member of the African Union. They were also heavily involved in various international organizations throughout the world.
And as a result of that, you had the targeting of Libya by its enemies both externally as well as internally. And today Libya has fallen in terms of its status not only in Africa, not only in the so-called Middle East, but throughout the international community in general.
The intervention of the United Nations forces, if it is carried out without the support of all the forces inside of Libya itself, it has no potential of being successful. The United Nations has intervened in many countries over the last 50-60 years. Most of the interventions have not been successful.
It was not successful in Congo. In 1960 and 1961, it led to the assassination of the founding leader of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. The United Nations was not successful in resolving the conflict in Somalia and during the early 1990s, it was forced to withdraw from Somalia.
So it has to be an alliance of national forces inside of Libya itself. If political parties that are operating in Libya or external to Libya have no faith in the people of Libya themselves to resolve their own internal problems and to reestablish the country as a major political force in the international community, then they are forfeiting in a real way any potential involvement in resolving these conflicts.
You cannot rely on external forces to solve your own internal problems. The internal problems of a country in the final analysis have to be solved by the people themselves. And if you have no faith in the people themselves to solve these problems, then the problems will never be resolved.
Press TV: What can get Libya out of this state of chaos at this point in time?
Azikiwe: I do not believe that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Pentagon or the United Nations can resolve the internal conflicts inside of Libya.
The question is, who is going to reopen the ports for the export of oil? Who is going to secure Libya’s national borders? Right now, there are all types of criminal activities and activities by armed groups taking place. Who is going to organize an election that has some legitimacy that the people inside the country can accept?
There has already been a process. There has already been elections held. But apparently this is not resolving the internal problems inside of Libya.
We can only hope that the people inside of Libya themselves can organize and form some type of an alliance to disarm these militias and to rebuild Libya as a respected and well-organized and stable society which they enjoyed for over 40 years.
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