Longstanding autocratic ruler of Libya, Colonel Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, was found and executed Thursday. This was part of an ongoing revolution and civil war in Libya that began in February of this year.
The revolution began when protestors, inspired by successful revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, gathered peacefully to express their unhappiness with the Libyan government and Col. Gaddafi ordered they be fired upon.
In his attempts to quell his opposition, Gaddafi had hired mercenaries from other countries. He ordered snipers to fire upon protesters and even deployed artillery and helicopter gunships against the demonstrations. Assailants armed with swords and hammers attacked people in their homes.
When approached about Gaddafi’s death or the Libyan revolution in general, most Eastern Michigan University students seemed unaware or simply uninterested. Several students shrugged, and a few even asked, “Who’s that?”
Most who had anything to say expressed concerns about the way Gaddafi was treated upon being captured.
Blake Swift, a junior majoring in international business, expressed such concerns.
“I think there could have been a more professional way to take over,” he said. “They didn’t have to kill him and post videos of them torturing him all over YouTube. I feel things could have been handled in a more civilized manner. Maybe you don’t take him to court. Maybe you do execute him. But do you have to put him in a meat locker with contusions all over his body, cut up and obvious gunshot wounds; plaster it all over the Internet and show videos of his sons being tortured as well?
“Maybe he had it coming to him, but I feel like it could have been handled better, especially if the rebels want to show that they are for the country and they’re going to handle situations in a professional manner. It was a bit much.”
David Roggenbuck, a computer science education major, shared Swift’s disapproval at Gaddafi’s treatment.
“It is nice to see that democracy is spreading,” he said. “It’s also nice to see that people are seeking justice. However, I do not know if how they’re carrying out their justice is the best approach. Originally they were going to follow the traditional Muslim burial of the body. Now they have his body on public display and people are lining up to walk past his body.”
There is evidence to suggest Gaddafi provided his troops with Viagra-like drugs to promote the raping of women who were affiliated with the rebel movement. The International Criminal Court is currently investigating this.
An anonymous international student from the Middle East currently studying at EMU expressed ambivalence about Gaddafi’s ousting and execution.
“On one side you are happy he got killed, because he was killing many people,” she said. “Many children lost their parents because of him. But on another side, you feel bad about him. I think they should have put him in jail. It’s more fair. He could be judged like other people not killed in the street. I know he was a bad man, but he deserved a trial.”
As enthusiastic as this student was that many nations in the region she is from are overthrowing
dictatorial regimes in efforts to establish more liberal forms of government, she also expressed tremendous fear for the number of lives these revolutions have taken and will presumably continue to take.
“I am excited because some people will finally get their freedom,” she said. “But I’m also worried that many people will die to get that freedom, because ‘freedom isn’t free. I don’t want it to happen in my country because a lot of people would die. I don’t want to lose my family or my people.”
Estimates of the total death toll from all of the revolutions and demonstrations that have been part of the Arab Spring, as the wave of revolutions is being called, are quite rough. There are many countries that have been a part this movement, making data collection daunting. Furthermore, some of the regimes in power have relatively successfully inhibited the exchange of
information. Therefore, reliable data is difficult to gather.
However, frequent estimates state total casualties exceed 30,000.
Terefe Ejigu, a junior majoring in international affairs, was born in Ethiopia. He moved to New Zealand and lived there for about 10 years and ultimately came to school at EMU. Having been born in Africa, he had perspective of Gaddafi’s relevance as an African leader.
“When he came into power, a lot of people looked up to him,” he said. “He was a liberator of Africa. All Africans were going through independence at that time. Everyone had a good feeling about him. But over time, he got spoiled. He used his power against his own people. He ran over them.”
Gaddafi’s simultaneous status as brutal dictator and renowned African leader is jarring. In a 2008 meeting of over 200 African rulers, Gaddafi was bestowed with the title, “King of Kings.”
Regional reverence aside, his strategies for crushing the rebellion were ruthless. The International Federation for Human Rights described his tactics as being part of “scorched earth” warfare and accused him of engaging in the systematic elimination of his opposition.
As to Gaddafi’s treatment upon capture, Ejigu also expressed slight ambivalence, but overall affirmed Gaddafi’s fate was deserved.
“Nobody wants to see somebody die,” he said. “But when you look back at the history of the country and the experience that people went through, it’s nothing compared to what he and his followers did.
“He was a brutal dictator for forty years. He executed thousands of people in secret prisons. This is what was coming for him. That’s what he said from the start ‘I’m going to fight to the end. I’m going to fight until I die.’ And that’s what he did.”
America and the West’s involvement in the revolution is also a major issue. It became apparent while interviewing EMU students how accustomed the Western perspective is to intervention and police action.
Roggenbuck spoke candidly about America’s involvement:
“I think the push for democracy in the Middle East is a good thing. But I think at the same time we need to maintain some structure of integrity so that we don’t have total chaos over there. We need to be careful not to lend our support to anyone that is actually just supporting chaos. We want some sort of structure over there.”
In interviews and special reports, American politicians have lauded the contributions of France and the United Kingdom to the revolutionary movement in Libya, almost as though their efforts and sacrifices were greater than those of the Libyan people.
Roggenbuck’s initial attempt to summarize his hopes for the Libyan revolution was very unintentionally Western-centric.
“I just hope that the outcome of this is beneficial for the United States and the world as a whole,” Roggenbuck said.
Talhah Jaffar, a premed sophomore whose family immigrated to America from Pakistan in 1989, is quite aware of the schism between North Africa and the Middle East and the West and expressed deep concerns for the West’s involvement in the Libyan revolution.
“I think being able to destroy a dictator who’s been ruling a country for that long is a good thing,” said Jaffar. “But the way they did it, especially the United States, kind of gives me the idea that it was in their interest to knock him out. So I don’t feel too great about it.
“The future looks very similar for Libya to me. All I see in the future is that they’re going to put someone into power who favors the West. He’s also going to be corrupt in many ways.”
When asked whether he thought the revolution could bring legitimate change and prosperity to the Libyan people, Jaffar expressed conditional hope.
“I think the biggest factor is always the West,” he said. “What you see historically is that when a developing nation decides to go with the West, the West destroys it from the inside out. They to take the resources; they corrupt the government. There’s no progress at all. You start to understand why some of these countries feel that the only way to progress is to go against the West.”
