EXCERPT:
In Benghazi, the turning point was when protesters turned on the katiba, the military base from which they had been coming under fire for days, attacking it with home-made grenades used to catch fish, and bulldozers. By the 20th, Mehdi Zeyo had seen enough dead teenagers. He filled his car with gas cannisters and drove towards the katiba. Bullets sprayed his car, and the explosion blew a hole in the wall, allowing the protesters and defectors in. There was no turning back.
Some have questioned the speed with which events happened, the speed of defections, and the speed with which the protests became an armed movement. They question the claims that it was the violence unleashed on the protesters that resulted in the army defecting and the weapons coming over to the other side. I would argue that over 400 deaths in 5 days (from the 15th to 20th) don’t happen as a result of tear gas and rubber bullets. I would refer those people to the photographs of people whose bodies were literally torn into two, and the photographs of people, including children, whose heads were pulverised. That is not the result of normal live ammunition.
By now, with the estimated death count somewhere around 6000 [ed. - there are no reliable figures] and the regime still clinging to the number of 100, the lies are too barefaced to be believed. Like Mubarak, Gaddafi sees the media as a weapon. Beneath the wild claims of Al Qaeda, Nescafe, and hallucinogenic pills, the regime conducts an Orwellian propaganda operation, accusing the revolution of everything the regime has done – from hiring mercenaries to burning bodies to kidnapping people. Bombing an oil depot and then regretfully informing the world that the “terrorists” are burning the oil allows the regime to appear like a government instead of criminals with battalions at their disposal. In the early days of the uprising, spreading news of air strikes on the civilian population allowed them to accuse Al Jazeera of running false stories and being “discredited.” It allowed Saif to steeple his fingers and say: “Where are those areas? Show me those areas now.”
Under the circumstances, it’s no surprise that Libya’s revolution has been “chaotic.” There was no Kefaya or April 6th movement in Libya, because there was no space for opposition. Any sign of dissent was brutally suppressed, and civil society was decimated. While Tunisians and Egyptians demanded the changing of articles in their constitutions, Libyans don’t even have a constitution. As I read recently in a tweet, most people knew nothing about Libya except that its leader was mad, and that silence is as clear a sign as any of just how oppressive the regime is. Libya was a country ruled and stifled by a megalomaniac madman so jealous of power that he had kept all others out of any kind of spot-light. At one point, even football players in Libya were known only by their numbers. The only cultural figures given room to flourish were the “poets” who lauded the “King of Kings” of Africa. His sons are as deeply disturbed as he is. Saadi, for example, once decided that a crowd that had cheered the “wrong” team at a football match should be rewarded with a hail of bullets. A few days ago he expressed his dissatisfaction with the revolution for upsetting his safari plans, while Saif and Gaddafi insisted that the “rebels” were Al Qaeda fighters and drug addicts and teenagers and communists and foreign agents and mercenaries.
Its worth remembering that before the uprising, the last protest Libya had seen was in front of the Italian embassy in Benghazi – not against the regime but against an Italian minister who had worn a T-shirt with the Danish cartoons satirizing prophet Mohammad. The unarmed protesters were shot dead, and a spokeswoman for the regime came on Al Jazeera to say she hoped Italy would “appreciate the gesture.” That was on February 17 2006. It was to mark that day that the Day of Rage was planned for February 17 2011.
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