69-year old dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled over Libya for 42 years, was, at last killed. He died in his hometown, Sirte, where he died of gun wounds in the head and legs. In this attack, his son Mo'tassim and Army Chief Abu Bakr Younis Jabr and many of his accomplices were also killed. The rebel fighters had taken control of Gaddafi's stronghold, Sirte and NATO attacks were continuing. Gaddafi had already been injured badly even before the air raid. According to rebel fighters, he was hiding in a drainage pipe. Seeing advancing troops, he started pleading 'don't shoot-don't shoot'. But the fighters did not pay any heed to his pleadings and they shot him in the head and legs and he died. According to rebels, a golden pistol was recovered from him and he was in military uniform at the time of his death. Gaddafi had always been a controversial figure. Some people are of the view that during the initial years of his rule, when he snatched power from Sultan Idris, 42 years ago by overthrowing him, Gaddafi did some commendable works. He had developed his own ideology and wrote a book on his ideology, which according to him was much ahead of the ideologies put forward by Pluto, Lock and Marx. Not only his different attire and his pointed speeches and his non-traditional manners made him a different personality at a number of Arabian and international conferences. When in a military coup in 1969 he seized the power, Muammar Gaddafi was a handsome and charismatic young military officer. Calling himself a disciple of Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Gaddafi, after taking the reigns of the country, bestowed himself with the rank of colonel and concentrated on economic reforms as years of foreign dominance had weakened the economy to a great extent. If Nasser had chosen the Suez Canal as the medium of Egyptian progress, Colonel Gaddafi saw the progress of Libya in its oil reserves. A huge oil reserve was found in Libya in 1950s, but it was fully controlled by foreign companies, who used to fix the price of crude, which used to be beneficial not to Libya but to the buyers. Gaddafi asked these oil giants to review their old contracts; otherwise their mining contracts would be cancelled. Libya was the first oil producing country, which got a lion's share in the revenue
generated from mining of oil. Other Arabian countries followed suit and Petro-boom or a prosperous period for Arab countries started with better oil prices during 1970s. A number of scheme started in the initial period of his rule for Libyan citizens made him a hero, but gradually he started supporting terrorist elements and he became a despot, who was intolerant to any kind of opposition. Whosoever raised his voice against Gaddafi was shot dead. Gaddafi was involved in the attack on a night club in 1986. The second incident which shocked the world was the bomb blast on an airliner of Pan American Airlines near Lockerbie city. 270 persons were killed in this attack. Col Gaddafi refused to handover two suspects to Scotland. Later, the UN imposed economic sanctions against Libya, which were lifted in 1999 after the surrender of these two suspects. Revolution for change started in Tunisia in 2010, but the countries which were mentioned in that reference did not include Libya in the first line, as Gaddafi was not considered supporter of Western countries, which was the main reason for public ire. He distributed the oil money with open hands, but during last few years he had concentrated on enriching his family members. It is estimated that Gaddafi had gold worth seven billion dollars (350 billion rupees). He had 2.4 billion dollars (119 billion rupees) in Canada, 1.7 billion dollars (84 billion rupees) in Austria, one billion dollars (49 billion rupees) in Britain. All these assets have been seized after the start of the revolution in Libya. Banks all over the world have 168 billion dollars worth Libyan assets with them. The revolution lasting six months has caused Libya a loss of 15 billion dollars.
For his life style and manners, especially over his relations with US, Muammar Gaddafi had always been in headlines. Often there were reports of his security guards being women. Once, during his visit to America, he didn't stay in any House, instead he stayed in a camp. Gaddafi was born in a nomad family in 1942. He went to Libyan University to study history and later he got admission in Ben Ghazi Military Academy. After graduating from there, Gaddafi joined the Libyan Army. He was sent to Britain's Royal Military Academy, Stuart for training in 1966. In a bloodless coup, a team of military officers (Free Officers Movement) under Gaddafi killed the-then ruler Sultan Idris and established an Arab republic in Libya. Gaddafi was never been a friend to India. After the 1971 war, Gaddafi participated in the mourning along with Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was Dictator Gaddafi, who had encouraged Bhutto the most, when he had called on Muslim countries to make an Islamic Bank and an Islamic bomb. Bhutto, too was so much impressed by Gaddafi that he named the best stadium in the country situated in Lahore as Gaddafi Stadium. Gaddafi had put India in a diplomatic fix, when he supported the idea of making Kashmir an independent country and said that it could be a Ba'athist country between India and Pakistan. In his first ever address in UN in 2009, he said that India was among the countries, who were vying for a permanent seat in UN Security Council. Kashmir should not be Indian or Pakistani, but it should be an independent country. We must put an end to this struggle. This was the first occasion, when an Islamic leader outside Indian sub-continent had advocated for complete independence for Kashmir free from India and Pakistan.
Gaddafi surrendered to the West after the entrapment of Saddam Hussein and then he became friendly with America. But, with the start of Arab revolution the dictator in him woke up. During this period, he even did not abstain from using the inhuman means like mass rape to crush the democratic movement. In fact, this fate of Colonel Gaddafi is another example of dual policy of the West. Europe-America exploited Arab countries to the maximum and then left them on their own. It is clear, it could not have been possible for Gaddafi to continue with his autocratic rule for more than 40 years and now, neither the National Interim Council nor his master Europe-US have a means to take Libya on path of democracy. When the aim of establishing peace and stability has failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then how can we hope this in Libya, where ground situations are more complex. Gaddafi did not surrender till the last moment and sustained the attacks of foreign and fighters of the new regime for hours. The soldiers kicked and punched him savagely and shot him at his legs and head.
- Anil Narendra
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