Libya: Reform Insurgency Seeking to Impose Radical Reforms

By African Bulletin on June 29, 2011

Trying to end the Libyan conflict, the African Mediation Committee held a meeting where the South African president,

Jacob Zuma, declared that by voting the resolution 1973, the security Council of the United Nations did not authorize a “regime change or the political assassination of Muammar Gaddafi. He denounced the NATO continuous bombing on Libya, noting that they were originally intended to protect the Libyan people and the facilitation of humanitarian efforts. This meeting comes on the eve of the 17th African Union Summit in Equatorial Guinea, scheduled from June 30 to July 1. The Committee invited the Libyan parties to accept the African good mediation as this is likely to encourage Africans to solve their problems by themselves. The committee statement is urging the Libyans to immediately enter in dialogue and define the contours of the transitional phase that will establish security, rule of law and state institutions that has been always precarious. These were the causes and precipitating factors that caused the outbreak of an armed résistance, frustrated by blocked political aspirations, almost in the whole country and acknowledging Libya as an environment dominated by the process of state collapse, violence and weakness. Moreover now, the rebels are claiming the departure of the colonel, raised for so long as the Leader of Jamahiriya revolution, but today rejected because of failures, bad governance and desperation. The multitude of social, political, and economic factors are acting concurrently and causing a nonstop endemic unrest, forcing though Muammar Kadhafi to agree on not being part of the negotiations on Libya. The Mediation Committee has welcomed the decision of the Colonel and reiterated the African Union call for a cease-fire to allow immediate negotiations that might pave the way of establishing democratically elected institutions capable of achieving the aspirations of the Libyan people to freedom and democracy.