Gaddafi’s shameful disposal
Muammar Gaddafi’s barbaric lynching by a gang of bloodthirsty avengers armed with submachine guns and cellphones, and totally unaware of any international convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, doesn’t shake the souls of our generation’s “champions of democracy” warlords. A few hurried and uncomfortable words, from those politicians who just a few months ago kneeled in front of the Coronel and his oil fields.
It’s an ominous start for the “new Libya”. Its leaders (some of them until recently on the Mad of Tripoli’s payroll) have initially tried to pass off the cold blood execution as the result of a crossfire, but were swiftly belied by their own men’s merciless cellphone videos. Nato, on a UN mandate to “protect the civilian population”, repeatedly targeted with missiles the convoy carrying Gaddafi and his son Mutassim out of Sirte. Also Mutassim, unharmed after he was captured, has been executed and his body exposed, along his father’s corpse, in a meat market in Misurata.
And so what? The tyrant got what he deserved, they say. Why should we waste time with a trial? It could be risky. That crazy guy could speak out names, produce embarassing documents, prime ministers’ letters, lucrative contracts, arms purchases’ invoices…
Rough justice is now the rule. Hipocrisy is the game of the day. Gaddafi wasn’t useful anymore and he’s been thrown in the garbage can. Like Saddam before him: suddenly our man in Baghdad, so helpful in keeping the Iranian ayatollahs at bay, became “the butcher of Baghdad” and was hanged after a farcical judgment that will be remembered only for the victim’s dignified stance on the gallows.
In his last will Muammar Gaddafi asks to be buried as a muslim and wishes his family – especially women and children – will be treated well. He also asks his people to “protect its identity” and to “continue the resistance and fight any foreign aggressor”. Nobody will.
In his last moments, a pistol pointed to his head, he shouts: “God forbids this! Do you not know the difference between right and wrong?" They don’t.
Do we?
