Stability in Libya will have a beneficial ripple effect across Africa and Europe, a Libyan former minister told the Burren Law School.
Dr Fatima Hamroush, a Drogheda-based ophthalmologist who served as health minister in Libya's first interim government after the ousting of Muammar Gadafy in 2011, said it was vital that a united Libya be achieved through national dialogue. "Only then a robust, reliable and lasting system will be in place," she said.
Dr Hamroush admitted to having grown despondent at times after her experiences in post-Gadafy Libya, but said she was confident the ambition of a stable united country was attainable. A stable, united Libya would have benefits far beyond its borders and would in time reduce illegal immigration, trafficking and corruption. “If the current instability and division continues and deepens, Libya as a country will never be a true State again, and the whole region will be fall into darkness,” she said. “On a macro level, the stability of Libya is the stability of Africa and Europe.”
Dr Hamroush questioned the rationale for the western-led intervention in Libya in 2011. “If justice and saving precious lives was the penultimate reason for the Libyan air raids, is it not more of a reason to intervene in Syria? The answer is painfully obvious,” she said. “The protection of civilians, be it Libyans or Syrians, is not the apparent priority, nor the aim at all.”
Journalist and author Robert Fisk told the law school that gangsterism posed a greater threat to the Middle East than Islamism. "I don't think the Middle East is going to be taken over by Islamists. I don't think we're going to see Jordanistan or Egyptistan or Syriastan. What we're going to see in Afghanistan, what we're going to see in Syria, in Lebanon, is what we've already got: Mafiastan," he said.
Mr Fisk said all the wars he had covered over the past 38 years were about money. “Money is buying the Free Syrian Army back to [Syrian president Bashar al-] Assad’s side. Money is being used for every hostage taken by the opposition and the islamists in Syria. Money is being demanded by the Government for the release of prisoners in Syria.”
He continued: “What is the most important economic institution in Egypt? It is the army. The reason [Abdel Fattah el-] Sisi was prepared to take over and now runs Egypt is to protect the fact that the senior officer corps of the Egyptian army controls shopping malls banks and real estate.
“It is a multibillion dollar economic treasure house for the Egyptian army. That is what the coup was about.”
