Libyans see many similarities between the Syrian uprising and their own, writes MARY FITZGERALD,Foreign Affairs Correspondent
DURING THE celebrations that marked last month’s anniversary of the beginning of Libya’s revolution, the extent of Libyan popular support for the Syrian opposition was clear.
It was in the numerous Syrian national flags held aloft by revellers next to the red, black and green standard of pre-Gadafy Libya adopted by the new government.
It was in the impassioned chants against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in solidarity with those seeking to overthrow him.
That support also extends to the political level.
Libya was one of the first foreign states to recognise the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) as the country’s legitimate authority in October – a gesture it said demonstrated solidarity following its own efforts to topple Muammar Gadafy.
Assad supported Gadafy during last year’s revolution, and the former Libyan leader used Al-Rai, a Syria-based TV station, to broadcast defiant messages as his regime crumbled.
Last month Libya’s interim government gave Syrian diplomats 72 hours to leave the country, just days after it handed the Syrian embassy in Tripoli to the SNC – the first country to make such a move.
Representatives of the SNC visited Tripoli for several days of meetings with Libyan officials following the 60-nation “Friends of Syria” conference in Tunis on February 24th.
“The Syrian people are in the midst of revolution and there are a lot of similarities between their revolution and ours.
“They are facing a leader who is using force and torture instead of resolving the situation in a political way,” Libyan foreign minister Ashour Bin Khayal told The Irish Times. “We are fully supporting the Syrian revolution. Our position is very clear and we will participate in any international effort that keeps the pressure on the Assad regime.”
Khayal, however, was careful to stress that the support was purely diplomatic and humanitarian in nature.
Two weeks ago the interim government announced that it would donate $100 million (€76.5 million) in humanitarian aid to the Syrian opposition and allow them to open an office in Tripoli.
Anecdotal evidence suggests a number of former rebel fighters from Libya have joined the Syrian opposition forces. Several Libyans from Misurata and the eastern cities of Benghazi and Derna have died fighting in Syria, according to sources in those cities.
Late last year, Mahdi al-Harati, the Libyan-Irish former commander of the Tripoli Brigade, one of the first revolutionary units to enter the Libyan capital last August, told journalists in the border area between Syria and Turkey that he was there to “assess the needs of our Syrian revolutionary brothers”.
Khayal said the interim government could not stop Libyans from joining the Syrian uprising.
“We are supporting [the Syrian opposition] politically and if there are Libyan individuals fighting over there, they are acting on their own initiative, not with the backing of the government.
“As a government, we don’t have a policy of interfering in that way. We have our own challenges here in Libya.”
Last week Russia accused Libya during a UN Security Council meeting of helping to train and arm Syrian opposition fighters in their battle to oust Assad.
“We have received information that in Libya, with the support of the authorities, there is a special training centre for the Syrian revolutionaries and people are sent to Syria to attack the legal government,” said Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin.
Churkin argued that this was “completely unacceptable” and would only serve to undermine stability in the region.
Libyan prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keeb rejected Russia’s accusations but expressed strong support for Syrians “who are raising their voice asking for freedom”.
El-Keeb said Libya had been the first to recognise the SNC because it felt that “the Syrian cause is a good cause”.
He added: “As far as training camps, unless this is something that is done without government permission, which I doubt, I am not aware of any.”