Enigmatic Gadhafi lets people rule
Enigmatic Gadhafi lets people rule
Agence France Presse, Tripoli, Libya
Libya's mercurial leader Moamar Gadhafi, who has led the north
African country for 34 years, has again surprised the world by
renouncing his weapons of mass destruction and vowing to allow
international experts to inspect installations.
The move, announced late Friday by the United States and
Britain, was yet another taken by Gadhafi in recent years to tone
down his image as the "enfant terrible" of world leaders and help
bring Libya back into the fold of the international community.
Gadhafi came to power in 1969, aged just 27, when he deposed
King Idriss. He immediately altered the calendar and renamed the
months of the year to herald his new era.
He insists he no longer rules the oil-rich state, whose
economy has been crushed by years of crippling sanctions, and
that all power lies in the hands of the people.
"The ignorant, the superficial and those driven by hate ask
how I've stayed in power for 34 years. But I do not govern. It is
the people who have ruled since 1977, which is why the United
States could not effect regime change in Libya," Gadhafi said in
September in a televised speech to mark the anniversary of his
accession to power.
In 1977, Gadhafi proclaimed what he called the Jamahiriya --
or "state of the masses" -- governed by elected committees. His
official title is "guide of the revolution".
The veteran leader has said his revolutionary Green Book, also
published in 1977, offers "a third theory of the world," between
capitalism and socialism, and provides the only real solution to
humanity.
Attacks on Rome and Vienna airports by Libyan-based
Palestinian militants prompted Washington to break off diplomatic
relations in January 1986.
And the bombing of a Berlin discotheque which killed a US
servicemen sparked U.S. air raids from British bases in which 37
people, including one of Gadhafi's sons, were reported killed
later the same year.
A Libyan agent was convicted for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am
jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, and Libya
has also been blamed for the downing of a French UTA DC-10 after
it exploded in 1989 over Niger.
The United Nations lifted sanctions imposed on Libya over the
Lockerbie bombing, after Washington and London brokered a deal
for Tripoli to pay 2.7 billion dollars in compensation to
relations of those killed, but Libya remains under U.S.
sanctions.
Long a champion of Arab nationalism, Gadhafi has led his
country through numerous abortive projects at Arab unity and
earned the wrath of the West through his support of radical
Palestinian and other Arab groups.
For someone who has cast himself a champion in the Arab
struggle against Israel, Gadhafi has recently backtracked
somewhat.
He has called for the formation of a bi-national Israeli and
Palestinian state called "Israetine" as the means to solving the
Middle East conflict.
Gadhafi, who has been accused of bankrolling a number of
African rebel groups and extremist organizations, has also been
busy trying to carve out a role as an international mediator,
partly using the leverage afforded by Libya's huge oil reserves.
In 2000, he brokered the release of German hostages held by
Islamic radicals in the Philippines. More recently, he aided the
freeing of 14 Europeans being held captive in Algeria.
He has also tried in vain to shore up pacts with other Arab
states such as Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia, but remains a volatile
character.
His government withdrew last year from the Arab League, but
later recanted, saying such a move "should be decided by the
Libyan people."
He has also retreated somewhat on his socialist past.
Last June he unveiled intentions to privates the floundering
state monopolies, particularly oil, on which the economy depends,
admitting that the public sector had failed.
Making that announcement, he dropped his insistence that
Libyans are "partners not (company) employees".
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Libya-Kadhafi-profile
AFP
GetAFP 2.10 -- DEC 20, 2003 17:28:52