By Amadi Ajamu
The orchestrated attack on Colonel Muammar Qaddafi for the past few months from the Western Alliance, the United States via NATO and the CIA, and most mainstream international media; demands a strong response from Africans world-wide. The vast wealth of natural resources in Libya and Colonel Qaddafis’ decades’ long effort to form a United States of Africa to strengthen the continent has made him a target of western imperialism during this global economic crisis.
Western backed “rebels” have opened the door to NATO intervention through United Nations (UN) collaboration. A UN resolution approved by the Security Council declared a “no fly zone” to protect civilians “by all means,” after a vote in which the principal veto power players, China and Russia, chose to abstain. The resolution has an open-ended date. Western allied forces have stated unequivocally “the need for a regime change in Libya.”
Two critical assassination attempts on Colonel Qaddafi have occurred in the past month.
The first attempt occurred on April 25 with the attack on Qaddafis’ sprawling Bab al-Azizya compound, destroying a multi-level library, offices, and a reception hall for visiting dignitaries. The Washington Post reported on Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim stating the airstrike was “worthy of the mafia, of gangs, but not of governments and would not help civilians”
The hit on Qaddafi's compound on April 25 and a separate strike on a Libyan TV broadcasting center highlighted a shift in NATO's focus to government installations in Tripoli instead of purely military targets in the field.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi called on the African Union to hold an emergency summit meeting to discuss how to deal with the NATO airstrikes, accusing the West of aiming "to punish Africa through Libya" and to "steal its wealth and colonize it again."
According to a Reuters report, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whose government abstained from voting on U.N. resolutions against Libya, sharply criticized the attack in Tripoli and said it had gone beyond the mandate granted by the United Nations.
"They said they didn't want to kill Qaddafi. Now some officials say, 'Yes, we are trying to kill Qaddafi,' " Putin said during a visit to Denmark. "Who permitted this? Was there any trial? Who took on the right to execute this man?"
Again on Saturday, April 30, NATO airstrikes reigned down on the Colonel Qaddafi’s Tripoli compound killing his youngest son and three of his grandchildren in their home. Saif al-Arab Qaddafi, 29, was hosting a gathering of family and friends when three missiles struck his house just after 8 p.m., causing huge explosions that could be felt more than two miles away.
The Libyan leader and his wife, Safiyah, were also there, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said, describing the attack as an assassination attempt.
Ibrahim said “the attack was neither permitted under international law nor morally justifiable, [I]t contravened NATO's mandate under Security Resolution 1973 to protect Libyan civilians. Intelligence about Qaddafi's whereabouts or plans must have been leaked to NATO.”
"We ask the world to look into this carefully, because what we have now is the law of the jungle," he said. "How is this helping in the protection of civilians?''
Earlier that day, Colonel Qaddafi called for a cease-fire and negotiations with NATO but refused to surrender power. Even as he spoke, NATO warplanes struck a government complex in the capital. Ibrahim said NATO's response was proof that it was not interested in peace or in protecting civilians. "We renew our call for peace and negotiations," he said.
This pattern of aggression can be seen in western relations with nations who have opposed the establishment of a U.S. African Command (AFRICOM - now headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany) on the African continent. African nations in opposition include Zimbabwe, Somalia, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Libya. All of these nations face the same fate as Libya. Zimbabwe has been under attack for years due to the land reform program which President Robert Mugabe implemented to redistribute over 80% of their arable land seized by British settlers under colonial rule.
Pan African activists in New York call for a mass mobilization in support of Africa and the sovereignty of Libya. The December 12th Movement and others will commemorate May 19, the anniversary of the birth of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Malcolm X, with the annual “Black Power – Shut ‘Em Down” march and rally. The rally will assemble at 12pm on 125th Street and Adam C. Powell Blvd in Harlem. A City-wide Forum focusing on Pan African Unity and an End to the Attack on Africa Now, will be held that evening in Harlem, location will be announced. For more information call (718) 398-1766
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