The Libyan Civil War - Essay Example

? Running Head: LIBYAN CIVIL WAR Libyan Civil War The paper is disintegrated into two main parts. The first part deals with the background of the conflict describing the causes of the civil war in several contexts like political, economic and social scenario. In addition, it analyzes the driving forces behind the extension of the war along with the analysis of the main actors acting as the chief influence machine coupled with their aim, interests, capacities and different types of relation at different points of time. The second part deals with the different aspects of conflicts and peace including several negotiations and their impacts and the after effects of such negotiations inculcated with them along with a brief ex-post and ex- ante analysis. Part 1: Background of the conflict Type of conflict: Is it an interstate, intrastate, extrastate or internationalized conflict Libya became an independent state with the enactment of its constitution in 1949 and the crowning of Muhammad Idris as Libya’s first king two years later. The regime of Idris dissolved in 1969 when Col. Muammar Qaddafi suddenly appropriated power-abolishing monarchy by changing the constitution with the establishment of Libyan Arab Republic (Joy, 2011, p.1). A Muslim Nasserite, Qaddafi held strong feelings against the western countries and started various anti west policies such as expelling the western military personnel and Libya being a prime resource of oil Qaddafi cut loose dealings and imposed several restrictions with the western world regarding the dealings in oil industry (Ogunbadejo, 1983). Qaddafi participated in the civil wars in Chad and there was an attempted assassination on him by the US troops. Al Qaida also believed that Qaddafi followed anti Islamic law and tensions aroused in Libya followed by civil wars. The Libyan uprising that started in February 2011 appears to be the most serious challenge faced by Qaddafi in his 42-year-old rule. Thus, it is an intrastate conflict which was internationalized owing to the issues concerned and later peace making attempts (Anderson, 1984; Thackrah, 2008) Social, political, economic and socio-cultural context The main centre of conflict culminated in the city of Benghazi located in the eastern Cyrenaican region of Libya following anti-establishment movements. In the past, also there have been conflicts in eastern Libya, which was also the center of rebellions against Ottoman and Italian rule many times. From Benghazi, the revolt spread like fire while Qaddafi ordered his troops to suppress the rebellion and he announced the intention to “fight to the last drop of blood” and also further added that the rebels were “nothing more than Al Qaeda extremists, addled by hallucinogens slipped into their milk and Nescafe” (Joy, April, 2011 p.2). Ruler Qaddafi followed an anti American policy, but he contributed greatly for the development of the people of Libya. For instance, he built a magnificent irrigation system in this arid desert land of Libya with an estimated budget of around $40 billion dollars, which provided ample water supply in this arid land. He was also successful in alleviating poverty and helped people attain sustainable standards of living in contrast with the subhuman conditions prevailing in its sub Saharan counterparts like Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea. However, the main agenda behind the culmination of the conflict was that the people of Libya wanted change and were rigorously desperate for achieving fundamental freedom rather than economic or social freedom. Qaddafi himself overthrew the monarchy rule of King Idris in 1969 and established democracy that he failed to apply in his 42-year rule in the country, which he executed like his private business, and this became the centre point for the civil war in Libya (The Libyan conflict in perspective, March 7, 2011). Causes of conflict: Structural causes of conflict and Qaddafis’ domination The root cause of the conflict in Libya can be attributed to the negligence of the civil rights and democratic rule with tremendous dominating environment along with an undercurrent of autocratic behavior by the leader, Muammar Qaddafi (The Libyan conflict in perspective, March 7, 2011). Proximate causes of conflict In the welfare paradigm as compared to the other African and Middle East countries Qaddafi did a good job but the underlying fact is that he used the money obtained from oil in his country and became the instigator of terrorism all over the world. As an instance it can be said that the Polisario Front (the Peoples front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra [red canal] and Rio de Oro [gold river] was supported actively in their independence and liberation movements. Qadddafi supported the Irish Republican Army (IRA) with their revolt against the British. During the conflict in Lebanon, he played an active role supporting one of the leaders of a political group of the same ideology named Sunni Moussa. Later when he clashed with the leader of this group, Qaddafi arranged for him to be kidnapped and brought him to Libya and nothing is known about him to date. His dictatorship and conflicts with almost every African country made him cornered and tremendous hostility grew against him from these countries except few countries like North Korea, Zimbabwe or Venezuela where he had a few friends to support him. Thus, these external factors can be regarded as driving forces of agitation and cause of conflict (The Libyan conflict in perspective, March 7, 2011). Factors prolonging conflict dynamics and internal mechanics Influence of underworld The city of Benghazi can be considered as the epicenter of migration of African immigrants. Moreover, rigid religious constraints like women were given minimum freedom and their life style was almost at stake. Due to migration of large numbers of African people into the country, it became the center for human trafficking. Huge sums of money crept into the economy from this illegal trade. The area became a mafia-dominated area that created a corrupt environment but it was finally resolved with the help of the Italian government, which can be regarded as another proximate cause for the revolution. Because the business disappeared it sowed the seeds among these underworld people and it has been known that they helped the rebels in carrying out their revolution by financing them and carrying on random loots and killings of African people who came from several countries like Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan etc (LIBYA: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE, 2011, p.15). Effect of social networks: The effect of social networks has played an important part in the revolution in Libya. Saif- Al Islam, son of Qaddafi with the help of Facebook, prohibited the entry of new ideas. However, it was later suppressed by several blogs, social networking sites which were also predominant in Libya, Egypt etc which succeeded in gathering thousands of followers and their impact had a spill over effect in the disturbance of the Libyan government and thus initiating the revolt mechanism in Libya (LIBYA: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE, 2011, p.15). The role of media and social conflict: Arab channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabia are more frequently seen in Libya than the domestic channels and the Arabian channels played an important role in building up the revolt in Libya. For example, news of bombing in the Tripoli, the capital of Libya was declared which was not true and this led to the rise in disturbances. News also spread that Libyan rebels were making open firing which was also not true .Thus the hype in media can also be considered as a cause for the conflicts in Libya (LIBYA: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE, May, 2011, p.16). Actor analysis: Main actors –their goals, interests, positions and relationship The herald of the Libyan revolution began in mid-February 2011 with disturbances in the north east of the country and in the Nafusa Mountains in the North West along with small local protests in Benghazi on the issue of detaining a lawyer. The unrest took an ugly shape and accelerated with rampant fire in government offices. Unlike the other nations like Egypt and Tunisia there was no role played by the social organizations , trade unions and opposition parties as they ceased to exist under the rule of Qaddafi. In the first few days of the revolt, some groups of young people who had a very ordinary educational background with low IT skills and general techniques came into the limelight. Since the private sector of the country is in a very bad state with a phenomenal underemployment rate and the income status of the people being very meager in case of public sector jobs agitation crippled up among the majority of the forces, which can be said to be a driving force of the revolt. Again, because of the protests several civilians were killed by the security forces that far more accelerated the heat of the situation and militants, tribal people joined the protest that gave the shape of the revolution. Civilians also joined the protests by arming themselves and initiating an open revolt. Apart from that defection of the ministers, diplomats can be also regarded as a chief driving force for weakening the regime (Asseburg, Feb 2012, p.11). Part 2: Conflict and Peace Conduct of hostilities Within one year after the onset of the revolt in Libya there grew public frustration and armed militias. Young men without formal military training with arms controlled Libya’s airports, harbors and oil installations and the desert areas of the south were controlled by the smugglers and tribal people along with severe clashes and conflict for power rage (Gowan, Aug 2011). Conflicts in different areas In Benghazi, the movement was led by a lawyer and upon his arrest; tremendous conflict originated which was followed by attacks on police stations, barracks and public buildings. Students of universities carried on revolts threatening the professors to support them, Islamist and criminals taking advantage of the situation broke jails freed their friends started attacking police stations and public buildings. Followed by Benghazi noteworthy traces of revolt were witnessed in the towns of Tobruk and Derna where slogans and demonstrations were carried out by young people along with mass firing by the police and demolition of ammunition-depots by the people loyal to Qaddafi (Holding Libya Together: Security Challenges after Qadhafi, Dec, 2011). The civil war took its ugly shape when towns under Tripolitania were brought under the rule of Libyan government along with mass scale killing, terrorist attack and even sharing of fire with the Tunisian armies (LIBYA: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE, May, 2011, p.17). Peace keeping attempts It was difficult for the Libyan government to control the conflicts and militias. Government forces were ‘outgunned and outfought’ in the town of Bani Walid when they attempted to subdue Qaddafi holdouts in that town. Declarations were made by government officials that the untrained young fighters could be absorbed by the military in order to gain public confidence but there was no organized army structure. However, the scene was different in NATO countries and allies like Jordan and Qatar started training their security forces (Wehrey, Feb 2012). Several strategies for peacekeeping attempts were made by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and United Nations. Alternatively, the United Nation Security Council was also thought to be a driving force for attaining peace which was visible when it authorized creation of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2001 (Michel and Herbst, 2011) Peacekeeping operations, peace building and the results In bringing peace, post Qaddafi rule Rebel forces, aided by NATO’s air support infiltrating into western Libya ending in cutting supply lines to Tripoli which was the stronghold of Qaddafi. Coming to the foreign help as compared to grants paid to other Libya’s neighbor, United States provided an aid of $350,000 for the training and education of the Libyan military (Wehrey, Feb 2012) United Nations made the infiltration of its troops to dissolve the peacekeeping activities. The military operation in Libya named ‘Odyssey Dawn’ was sanctioned by the United Nations to dissolve the situation. But the condition was not stable and keeping in mind the instable political condition, the French government as well as many nations tried to seize power from Libya into their hands (LIBYA: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE, May 2011, p.33). In fact, international powers like France, the UK and US have proceeded to hold strikes against Libya but this in turn hampered the military targets and resulted in civilian deaths. Based on the UN Charter the mass has expressed opinions against such strikes. The initial military actions in fact led to further probability of an even more serious uprise of armed conflict. In addition, this led to humanitarian crises. Therefore, as proven by history, the application of power and force can only increase further conflicts instead of effectively resolving a crises (Zhongsheng, 2011). Part 3: Conclusions Coming to an end one may infer that the civil war of Libya ushered as a result of deep down frustration among the people in Libya. This was due to a four-decade term of dictatorship by the autocratic ruler Muammar Qaddafi and different factors which led to the evolution of extreme agitation. This ultimately brought about the end of regime as well as different peace making attempts to resolve the conflicts. Such attempts have been partly successful and some strong attempts to protests even led to further conflicts and severity. Three of Qaddafi’s sons have been taken into custody (Cole, 2011). Though there was a hint for Saif-al-Islam Qaddafi to be the ‘de-facto’ ruler, his arrest has ended that hope (Profile: Libya's Saif al-Islam, 2011). Qaddafi had already lost support from Tripoli and other places. The revolution initialized with peaceful protest campaigns and armed conflicts began later (Cole, 2011). Hence, one might say that the Revolutionary war of Libya has brought a political opportunity and the success of the young people cannot be ignored. Yet a lot of work remains since law and order need to be re-established in the cities, which underwent massive revolutions. References Anderson, L. (1984), Nineteenth century Reform in Ottoman Libya, Int. J. Middle East studies, 16, 325-348, retrieved on March 21, 2012 from JSTOR Asseburg, M, (Feb 2012), Protest, Revolt and Regime change in the Arab World, Actors, Challenges, Implications and Policy actions, SWP Research paper, retrieved on March 21, 2012 from: http://www.swp-berlin.org/fileadmin/contents/products/research_papers/2012_RP06_ass.pdf Gowan, R. (Aug 2011), Does Libya really need European Peacemakers, Foreign Policy, retrieved on March 21 from: http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/08/26/does_libya_really_need_european_peacekeepers Holding Libya Together (2011), International Crisis Group, retrieved on March 21, 2012 from: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/Middle%20East%20North%20Africa/North%20Africa/115%20Holding%20Libya%20Together%20--%20Security%20Challenges%20after%20Qadhafi.pdf Joy, A.P. 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(1983), Qaddafi’s North African Design, International Security, 8(1), 154-78, retrieved on March 21, 2012 from JSTOR Profile: Libya's Saif al-Islam (2011), Aljazeera, retrieved on March 21, 2012 from: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/02/20112212175256990.html Thackrah, J R., (2008), The Routledge companion to military conflict since 1945, London: Taylor & Francis The Libyan conflict in perspective, The Nigerian Voice, March 7, 2011, retrieved on March 21 from http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/nvnews/47442/1/the-libyan-conflict-in-perspective.html Wehrey, F., (Feb 2012), Bringing Libya under control, New York Times, retrieved on March 2012 from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/opinion/bringing-libya-under-control.html?_r=2&scp=5&sq=libyan%20civil%20war&st=cse Zhongsheng, (2011), Do not abandon hope for peaceful resolution to Libyan crisis, People’s Daily Online, retrieved on March 21, 2012: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/98649/7326329.html Read More