Local factors contributed to Libya revolt

Despite the undeniable impact of the revolutions that ousted the dictatorships of Tunisia and Egypt, several other factors triggered the latest revolts in Libya, which also demand the ouster of the incumbent regime.

According to surveys conducted by the United Nations and several international organizations, development rates in Libya are deplorable as the civil, health, and educational infrastructure has proved to be unable to cater to the needs of the Libyan people.

Libyans spend more than $5 billion every year on medical services in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan due to lack of trust in the Libyan medical system especially after more than 500 children in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi were infected with AIDS because of contaminated medical tools.

Pensions of laborers and employees are estimated at an average of 200 U.S. dollars while members of revolutionary councils and those close to President Muammar Gaddafi are given unlimited privileges.

Gaddafi is also accused of committing grave human rights violations in the late 1970s and the early 1980s through forcing the Libyan people to adopt the ideas of The Green Book, which was written by Gaddafi in 1975.

In addition, Gaddafi is held accountable for the massacring of 1,200 political prisoners in the Bouslim jail in 1996 when security forces opened fire on the prison inmates, most of whom belonged to Islamist groups.

Other accusations hurled at Gaddafi include funding and supporting several terrorist organizations and separatist movements in Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and Latin America. This, of course, is in addition to involvement in the Lockerbie bombings in 1988.


(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)