BENGHAZI: Libya's new rulers declared the country freed from Muammar Gaddafi's 42 years of one-man rule, saying the "Pharaoh of the times" was in history's garbage bin and a future of democracy and reconciliation beckoned.
But as thousands in Benghazi on Sunday heard the authorities announce "liberation", Gaddafi's rotting body, unburied and on public display in Misrata, was casting a shadow over the nation he once dominated.
Some fear National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil, a mild-mannered former justice minister, will find it hard to impose his will on his fractious revolutionary alliance, pointing to Misrata's insistence on displaying Gaddafi's body and that of his son Mo'tassim and to the lack of a clear account about how they met their end.
The lack of a clear plan for Gaddafi's burial suggests to some analysts that there is justification for fears of a descent into leaderless turmoil and armed infighting.
Some Muslims will be vexed that Gaddafi has not been given a rapid burial as demanded by Islam, although few Libyans share the outrage expressed by one of his exiled sons, Saadi, about the deaths of his father and brother Mo'tassim.
At the Benghazi celebrations there was no direct reference to what some outsiders see as Misrata's ghoulish display.
In a speech Jalil renewed an earlier promise to uphold Islamic law.
"All the martyrs, the civilians and the army had waited for this moment. But now they are in the best of places ... eternal heaven," he said, shaking hands with supporters.
There is international disquiet about increasingly graphic and disturbing images on the Internet of abuse of what appears to be Gaddafi following his capture and the fall of his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.
But the immediate reaction to Sunday's announcement in Libya was jubilation.
"We are the Libyans. We have shown you who we are Gaddafi, you Pharaoh of the times. You have fallen into the garbage bin of history," said lawyer Abdel Rahman el-Qeesy, who announced the creation of a new government portfolio to deal with victims of the conflict.
"We declare to the whole world that we have liberated our beloved country, with its cities, villages, hilltops, mountains, deserts and skies," said an official who opened the ceremony in Benghazi, the place where the uprising erupted in February and which has been the headquarters for the NTC.
Cheering crowds waved the tri-colour flag. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations would help build a new Libya. U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed the declaration of liberation.
The announcement of "liberation" sets a clock ticking on a plan for a new government and constitutional assembly leading to full democracy in 2013.
"We hope we will have an elected democratic government with broad participation," student Ali Abu Shufa said.
Gaddafi promoted tribalism to keep the country divided, he said. "But now Gaddafi is dead, all the tribes will be united."
VACUUM Gaddafi, who had vowed to fight to the end, was found hiding in a drain after fleeing Sirte, the last bastion of his loyalists. He died in chaotic circumstances after video footage showed him bloodied and struggling at the hands of his captors.
With big oil and gas reserves, Libya has the potential to become very prosperous, but regional rivalries fostered by Gaddafi could erupt into yet more violence that would undermine the authority of Jalil's NTC.
But as thousands in Benghazi on Sunday heard the authorities announce "liberation", Gaddafi's rotting body, unburied and on public display in Misrata, was casting a shadow over the nation he once dominated.
Some fear National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil, a mild-mannered former justice minister, will find it hard to impose his will on his fractious revolutionary alliance, pointing to Misrata's insistence on displaying Gaddafi's body and that of his son Mo'tassim and to the lack of a clear account about how they met their end.
The lack of a clear plan for Gaddafi's burial suggests to some analysts that there is justification for fears of a descent into leaderless turmoil and armed infighting.
Some Muslims will be vexed that Gaddafi has not been given a rapid burial as demanded by Islam, although few Libyans share the outrage expressed by one of his exiled sons, Saadi, about the deaths of his father and brother Mo'tassim.
At the Benghazi celebrations there was no direct reference to what some outsiders see as Misrata's ghoulish display.
In a speech Jalil renewed an earlier promise to uphold Islamic law.
"All the martyrs, the civilians and the army had waited for this moment. But now they are in the best of places ... eternal heaven," he said, shaking hands with supporters.
There is international disquiet about increasingly graphic and disturbing images on the Internet of abuse of what appears to be Gaddafi following his capture and the fall of his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.
But the immediate reaction to Sunday's announcement in Libya was jubilation.
"We are the Libyans. We have shown you who we are Gaddafi, you Pharaoh of the times. You have fallen into the garbage bin of history," said lawyer Abdel Rahman el-Qeesy, who announced the creation of a new government portfolio to deal with victims of the conflict.
"We declare to the whole world that we have liberated our beloved country, with its cities, villages, hilltops, mountains, deserts and skies," said an official who opened the ceremony in Benghazi, the place where the uprising erupted in February and which has been the headquarters for the NTC.
Cheering crowds waved the tri-colour flag. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations would help build a new Libya. U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed the declaration of liberation.
The announcement of "liberation" sets a clock ticking on a plan for a new government and constitutional assembly leading to full democracy in 2013.
"We hope we will have an elected democratic government with broad participation," student Ali Abu Shufa said.
Gaddafi promoted tribalism to keep the country divided, he said. "But now Gaddafi is dead, all the tribes will be united."
VACUUM Gaddafi, who had vowed to fight to the end, was found hiding in a drain after fleeing Sirte, the last bastion of his loyalists. He died in chaotic circumstances after video footage showed him bloodied and struggling at the hands of his captors.
With big oil and gas reserves, Libya has the potential to become very prosperous, but regional rivalries fostered by Gaddafi could erupt into yet more violence that would undermine the authority of Jalil's NTC.
No comments:
Post a Comment