FOREIGN INTERVENTION:Attitudes towards foreign intervention have ebbed and flowed over the last few weeks, writes MARY FITZGERALDin Benghazi, Eastern Libya
EVERY DAY Hana Ben Ali grows more anxious about her son. Fathalla, a quiet, studious 18-year-old, says he wants to go to the frontline town of Ras Lanuf to join rebels trying to push west towards the capital Tripoli.
His motivation is part revenge – Fathalla knew five people out of the hundreds killed when protesters were attacked by security forces in Benghazi three weeks ago – and part desire to see the 42-year regime of Muammar Gadafy fall.
“He knows little about politics, and even less about fighting,” says Hana, an industrial engineer. “We are trying to persuade him that he can do more by staying in Benghazi and helping to distribute food and medicine.”
Ask Hana about the prospect of foreign intervention, whether the imposition of a no-fly zone or the strategic air strikes tentatively suggested by some opposition figures in Benghazi, and her answer reflects a creeping impatience shared by many here.
“It has been more than 20 days already since Gadafy started killing his own people and still we have seen nothing from the international community,” she says with exasperation. “How long more do we have to wait? Until many more thousands are killed and injured? Of course we need a no-fly zone. We needed it before now.”
Attitudes towards foreign intervention have ebbed and flowed in eastern Libya since Gadafy moved to quash the uprising that began here before spreading towards Tripoli. Early last week banners appeared in Benghazi warning against foreign intervention and stressing the Libyan people could “do it alone”.
Since then, however, with Gadafy’s forces carrying out increasing numbers of air strikes in rebel-held territory further west, there is a growing realisation that, no matter how determined the ragtag rebel fighters are, they cannot compete with the regime’s ability to bomb from the skies. The opposition are adamant they do not want intervention in the form of ground forces, but most now concede that foreign help in the form of a no-fly zone, as well as possible air strikes and supplies of weaponry, will be necessary to ensure Gadafy is ousted.
They argue that a no-fly zone would hamper Gadafy’s ability to target rebels from the air, and would also restrict his efforts to recruit mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa and move militia from southern Libya to the north. Appealing for a no-fly zone has become something of a mantra across eastern Libya, voiced not only by opposition officials and fighters, but also by doctors treating the wounded and ordinary citizens fearing their towns could be next.
“We have faced some very bloody days and we are expecting things to get much worse,” says Dr Sabri Mohammed, who has been treating injured fighters and civilians at a hospital in the rebel-held town of Ajdabiya.
“We just want to see a no-fly zone to protect the people. Then they can fight on the ground.”
Salah, an administrator in Benghazi, says he would like the international community to isolate Gadafy as much as possible.
“They should keep piling the pressure on him, whether by economic or political means, and through organisations like the UN and the Arab League, but the best option by far is a no-fly zone, especially when he is using air strikes against the people.”
Ahmed, an engineer in Benghazi, cautions that any foreign assistance would have to be delicately orchestrated so as not to be exploited for propaganda purposes by Gadafy.
Already regime officials have used talk of foreign intervention to bolster their claims that the uprising is a plot by external forces to destabilise the country.
“It seems they have an agenda and there is a tremendous conspiracy,” Libya’s foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, said earlier this week. “It is clear now that France, the UK and the USA are now getting in touch with the defectors in Benghazi. For sure there is a conspiracy to divide Libya.”
The international community should tread carefully, says Ahmed. “The regime will try to use this no matter what, but foreign help should be done with caution to minimise the regime’s propaganda.”