After being freed from 42 years under the ruling of megalomaniac madman Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, Libya can finally achieve its long-awaited freedom. A long period of continuous protests, just over 8 months, has spread the news worldwide like wildfire. After continuous protests, the involvement of the United Nations, United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the assassination of their leader finally occurred, bringing Libya to a new era; to freedom.

“THIS IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PROTESTORS AND GADDAFI: THEY ARE WILLING TO DIE SO THAT LIBYA CAN LIVE, WHILE HE IS WILLING TO LET LIBYA DIE SO THAT HE CAN LIVE!”

- Sarakenos (protestor)

The road to achieving this, however, is quite gruesome and we must remember in our hearts the tens of thousands being killed for the freedom of Libya. Some say it’s a blessing in disguise because through the hatred being expressed to Gaddafi alone, the nation was able to achieve the unity that was long gone.

Inspired by major protests in Tunisia and Egypt through social media, Libya too have fallen with the domino, known as the Arab Spring. However, unlike Tunisia and Egypt Libya took a different approach as they weren’t given the freedom of speech of utilizing social media. Apparently, Gaddafi thinks that social media is a weapon, and he isn’t wrong!

THROUGH A LIBYAN’S EYESJoining the protests in Libya, Tasnim projected her anger through words, very much upset of what is happening in Libya. Written on March 2011, not long after the Day of Rage, a lot of gruesome details were portrayed in her blog post.

The Day of Rage was scheduled to be on the 17th February 2011, exactly 5 years after a protest against an Italian minister who wore a t-shirt satirizing prophet Mohammad. Two days before that, a demonstration in Benghazi occurred. An estimated number of 1200 prisoners in the Abu Sleem prison were slaughtered. There were cycles of protests, deaths, shootings, burning buildings and throwing grenades.

According to Tasnim, the protests in Libya and the ones in Tunisia and Egypt are very different.

When Egypt and Tunisia come to maintain order, in Libya orders were given for the army to deploy against protestors. In Libya, those who refuse orders were burned alive and executed and not to mention the fact that no one came out and pretended that they ‘understood’ the protestors. According to Tasnim, the situation in Libya is much worse.

While the government kept insisting that they didn’t put any force into it, Tasnim argued that tear gas and rubber bullets don’t kill 400 people in 5 days and that force were put into controlling the people. Bombs were also being planted and though the fingers are pointed on Al’Qaeda, Tasnim strongly argues that this is all the doing of the government.

Having no constitutions, the rights of the citizens aren’t being protected. The physical force isn’t a surprise as it has been executed a fair amount of time in Libya. Pre-Gaddafi flags can be seen everywhere during the protests as it is a symbolic way of erasing the Gaddafi era and serves as a representation for the country’s unity. Being divided into several parts such as Eastern, Western and Southern parts of the country, they don’t have much opportunities to

LIBYA FINALLY

LIBERATED

unite as a nation. What is upsetting, according to Tasnim is that Libyan people’s wealth are spread like confetti in the west side, leaving other parts to suffer. All Libyans crave for freedom and wishes to be untangled from the situation of Gaddafi’s terrible ruling. This uprising is said to be of the people and for the people. Tasnim is concerned to who will lead Libya if Gaddafi decides to step down and surrender. However she expresses that it couldn’t be worse than a leader who divides his people into three categories; stray dogs, domesticated dogs and rats and cockroaches.

THE SONS’ PERSPECTIVEAn interview with 2 of Gaddafi’s sons emphasizes on the fact that there certainly is a gap between the protestors’ perspective and the governments’. From footages gathered regarding the protests, gunshot victims and angry protestors were reported and fire along with armed guards were evident as well. However, Gaddafi’s sons’ side of the story is all calm and denies all of the evidence above.

According to his son Saif, the government didn’t use force and that 5 to 10 thousand people compared to the 2.5 million people living in the cities is nothing. He thinks that just a few thousand doesn’t define the whole country’s stance on his father. Saif also thinks that the United States need to ‘mind their own business.’ He encourages reporters to go to all the cities and get evidence of any attack, bomb and causality as he believes that all is calm in Libya.

The reason that he thinks that the country is deserting his father is that they think that the boat is sinking and that the best idea is to move to another ship. Saif thinks that people are hearing false rumors about Libya because according to him, it is very peaceful. He blames this on the media as he thinks that they are not capturing the situation correctly.

Threats such have giving sanctions and taking family assets away have been put across. Saif’s reply is that his family doesn’t have money as they are a very modest family. However, this doesn’t seem likely as his brother travels out of Libya all the time.

When Christiane Amanpour, the reporter, asks Saif Al-Islam the question that threats have been expressed in terms of sanctions and travel ban and she asks him for his thoughts, he responded by saying that the travel ban will directly affect him because he likes to travel for his hobby of hunting in Safaris.

The reason that they are making the revolution, according to Saif Al-Islam, is that the people in Libya have what they need but they always keep wanting more. He describes this revolution as an ‘earthquake’ and ‘fever’ because it’s going to spread and nobody can stop it. He thinks the situation happening in Libya now is more powerful than freedom and thinks that if his father steps down, Civil war will happen.

Both brothers agree that it’s been a result of miscommunication and

that their family along with the government is a victim.

QUESTION: DO YOU THINK THEY (PEOPLE OF LIBYA) WILL GET RID OF YOU? “NO. THEY ARE JUST LOSERS. THEY HAVE NO FUTURE. THEY WANT TO JOIN THE YOUTH REVOLUTION!”

- SAIF (SON OF GADDHAFI)

Obviously, the protester’s and Gaddhafi’s sons’ perspectives are very different. However, they both can agree that Libya is facing a disagreement. While the protester describes the chaos this event creates, the sons deny the event altogether. But which side to believe?

A B D O U L - H A Z I Z T A B A A R M A N T ’ S THOUGHTSGovernment failure in Abdoul-Haziz’s mind is simple: when the government upsets the people, the people will react. When they do react, chaos will happen. Tabaarmant believes that Libya’s uprising to overthrow the government is a perfect example to explain the anger buried deep inside until the Tunisia and Egypt protests triggers the anger to be expressed. In Libya, even the basic human rights such as freedom of speech and expression isn’t being granted and a constitution isn’t even signed. A lot of the wealth are being spent for nonsense and corruption to Gaddhafi’s family occurs. According to the Corruption Perception Index, from the scale of 10 to 0, 0 being highly corrupt, Libya is 2.2. Eventually, everyone gets angry and unite to

become an unstoppable force to overthrow the government. 13% of the population are unemployed, 16% of families have none of its members earning a stable income, and not to mention bad infrastructure throughout the country. Long story short, Gaddhafi misused the power he had for over 4 decades and made Libya seem like a Kleptocracy (ruled by thieves.)

Started by the youth in Libya, people are reacting very brutally to this government failure. Armed weapons are being used and an estimated number of 30,000 people are killed. However, all the anger that has been built up for a long time, come to one and unity have been formed. From that moment on, everyone who joined the revolution is set to overthrow the government.

We all wouldn’t care if there were tear gas, water cannon and water bullets because we too are armed with petrol bombs and stones. The whole work also seem empathetic of the situation as they are aware of the ‘madman’ ruling the country. Libyans across the world and other people of different nationalities tried to spread information and awareness through social media. Social media is actually a big deal to communicate the information outside of Libya. Because freedom of speech is limited, social media isn’t much use in Libya as it is in other cases of the Arab Spring.

The aim of the protest is to overthrow Gaddhafi and hold free elections. This dictatorship of 4 decades needs to come to an end!

THE REBUILD OF LIBYA BY THOUSANDS, NOT ONEThis photograph represents liberty and hope, something that Libya needs after being ruled for over 4 decades by the same person who misused his power. This photo is very fitting with the title of this article: Libya Finally Liberated. This is also a much happier and lighter version of the event of Gaddhafi’s assassination as this represents the people and future of Libya.

This picture very much represents government failure because firstly, this is a demonstration, which means that the government isn’t doing something right. Second, from this picture we can see that the people are taking the matter into their own hands. The people carrying the flag is a symbol that represents the fact that the Libyan people care about their future and would want the best for it, thus the fact that they are trying to lift it. This could also symbolize desperation for a brighter future.

But above all, this symbolizes the unity that they bring. This picture shows that they may be different people but they are under one flag and one nation. The main reason to why this picture is a great pick is that is can represent so many things: not just one. It all depends on how we interpret it.

Libya finally got the freedom it’s been patiently waiting for. The assassination of the Gaddhafi is brutal and some may so immoral. However, taking into consideration how many people he killed when they oppose to him and how much deaths and destruction has been caused during his office, he quite deserve it.

The death of Gaddhafi brings in a much brighter and hopefully better future for Libya. This means an election, better leadership and better human rights and economical stance for Libya. His death screams: Libya: Finally Liberated!

THE REBUILD OF LIBYA BY THOUSANDS, NOT ONE

Protesters have their say by marching while lifting up the Libyan flag in Benghazi, 9th March 2011

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