People love conspiracies. They are more fun than reality. They spread like viruses because they feed popular perceptions. For example: President Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii; the mafia killed JFK; ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they see danger; Ambassadors eat Ferrero Rocher. All widely believed; none true.
My experience of dealing with Libya is that conspiracy theories thrive. But let’s compare some of them with reality.
First: Britain and France launched an attack on Libya in 2011 to overthrow Qadhafi. Reality: the UN Security Council responded to a request from the Arab League and the GCC to protect civilians, in the first instance to prevent a massacre in Benghazi. Many NATO and Arab countries were involved in the air campaign. The fighting on the ground was led by Libyans.
Next: “The West” abandoned Libya after the revolution. Indeed, there were no “boots on the ground” because that’s what the Libyan people wanted. The National Transitional Council assured us that they could manage the transition to a new system of governance. Many countries offered to help: the UK and other countries trained police and soldiers and offered technical assistance. Maybe we could have done more, but outsiders could not have prevented the chaos that emerged.
A common one: Britain supports the Muslim Brotherhood. The fact is that we don’t back any party, group or individual; we support the Libyan people and do not take sides. We are happy to work with anyone who engages in a peaceful democratic process and rejects violence. Talking to people doesn’t mean we back them.
Similarly: the UK is behind ISIL. This one is plain silly. Why we would want to back a group of criminals, murderers and terrorists? They were behind the slaughter of 30 British citizens in Sousse; they beheaded British hostages in Syria and Iraq. Nothing they do is remotely consistent with British interests or values.
Another popular one: Britain wants to divide Libya: Cyrenaica would go to UK, Tripolitania to Italy and Fezzan to France. Divide and Rule might well have been an imperial strategy many years ago. The days when Sykes and Picot could draw lines in the sand have gone (thankfully). Carving up territory against the will of the local people is not what we do.
Next: the West just wants to exploit Libya’s oil. There is no doubt that Europe and other countries need oil. But we can’t just come and take it; it has to be purchased at market prices. The fact that the price is low shows that there are plenty of other sources of supply.
An important misperception is: Libya is a rich country. Maybe it was when oil production was over 1.5 million barrels and day and the world market price was over $100 per barrel. Libya is now spending more than it earns and is drawing down its reserves. Dependence on imported goods is high, but the means to pay for them is being eroded. The black market is thriving and the currency is vulnerable. A political solution is vital to rescue the economy.
Finally: the UK is happy with the status quo. That’s not my marching orders from London. The UK’s interests in Libya are clear: we want a stable and secure country in which the Libyan people can have a dignified life and earn their keep. We want an effective and capable government that can unify the country and work with us on terrorism and migration issues. We are ready to support that government with a programme of assistance co-ordinated with other major donors in the EU and UN.
Of course, the conspiracy theorists won’t believe any of this. The sceptics will remain sceptical and the trolls will remain hostile. Conspiracies will continue to be popular for as long as the chaos in Libya continues. Ending that chaos is now urgent.
I am no conspiracy theorist but you have to understand, conspiracy theories are believed by those who are not so naïve to believe everything the government tells them. We know that some govt departments hide things from people that they don’t need to hide.
Dear Ambassador
I tend to agree with points made. You may also be aware, being an ambassador in the Middle East for a long time, and a fluent Arabic speaker, that conspiracy theories are generally rife in the Arab world with varying degrees, and it’s usually trickled top down, to mask incompetence, corruption, and inadequacies within governments & societies. You know how it goes; we are faultless & brilliant, it’s the others who are plotting & scheming against us and generally making life difficult for us.
I am not saying that certain self serving countries do not take advantage of where there is chaos and open opportunities to further their own agendas, beit, economical, regional or just pure crude power jostling and influence.
I personally believe that the UK is there to help and assist Libya to stand on its own feet, particularly now with the current refugee crisis that is engulfing Europe, and as you know this kind of issue should be tackled at source. A stable Libya means stable neighbours & stable Europe and that is a British interest as well as a Libyan interest. It’s an all round interest.
The UK is in a unique position to step up its help to stabilise Libya.It has one of the best intelligence services in the world if not the best. They can clearly see who is throwing the spanner in the works and preventing / delaying Libya’s inevitable stability.
Last but not least, Libyans are fearful and as you know, suspicious of a UN governance framework that will turn their country / our country into another impotent country such as in Iraq and Lebanon, I think this point is one of the biggest fears of Libyans and it’s where conspiracy theories stem from. I think you understand what I mean!
Thank you for all your efforts and for everything you do & I am really disappointed to find out that ambassadors do not spend the whole day eating Ferrore Rocher.
Dear Mr Millett
In your interesting piece (MYTHBUSTERS) above you wondered: “maybe we could have done more”.
Yes Sir you could have convinced the National Transitional Council (NTC) and Mr Abdul-Jalil when they were looking up to Great Britain in the early days of the revolution in 2011 to take the step of adopting the 1951 Constitution; the nation’s Constitution which was drafted under the supervision of the UN as a pre-requisite to granting Libya its independence in 1951.
Adopting the 1951 Constitution at that key phase in the very early days of the revolution would have prevented much if not all of the present chaos. It would have prevented the political vacuum that developed after the removal of Gaddafi and turned Libya into a playground for lawlessness and corruption. Furthermore, it would have shut the door on competition between rival factions of the Libyan society to exploit that political vacuum to impose their demands, by force if need be, in the absence of a strong civil government. At that early stage the NTC and Mr Abdul Jalil listened to our government and called the UK their friends.
The British government (relevant systems) was in the best of positions to do so because we had warned about this danger repeatedly and the British system was fully aware of our analysis and warnings.
We have been campaigning on the Constitutional platform since the establishment of the Libyan Constitutional Union in 1981 in Manchester[1] . Our analysis and information have always been available to the British authorities. Therefore I believe that the relevant offices are aware of everything we said about the Libyan case. Our knowledge of the Libyan society and its make up made us warn time and again of the dangers of the political vacuum after Gaddafi and that such a period would undoubtedly lead to a civil war [2].
We failed to convince our fellow Libyans in the NTC [3] and before that in the Libyan opposition groups of the danger and consequences of ignoring the Libyan Constitution of 1951 and the perils [iv] of choosing to follow an alternative option such as that fatal step taken by the NTC in the constitutional declaration (August 2011). It is my belief that my fellow Libyans are the product of the Gaddafi legacy which deprived them of seeing the vitality of this singularly important issue to the stability and statehood of the Libyan nation. The temptation of entering history as authors of a new constitution and dreams of being king makers by some prevented them from comprehending our analysis and listen to our warnings.
However, they (The NTC and Mr. Abdul Jalil) were listening to you and you could have made a significant difference. Your offices must have understood what we have been saying and advising the adoption of their own Independence Constitution to prevent chaos and enable smooth transition without perilous periods of political vacuum. Had this been the case you would by now have “a stable and secure country in which the Libyan people can have a dignified life and can earn their keep”, a basic right they were denied for over 40 years of Gaddafi’s rule of terror, and which they earned when they re-wrote their own history in February 2011.
It is a safe bet to assume that this is the first time you hear of us? There is a question to be asked here. Why we and our analysis appear to be absent from your records? Our government is not making use of our analysis even when everything we warned of has actually materialised.
The historical decision by the British government along with their European allies to stop Gaddafi’s forces marching toward Benghazi with the aim of destroying it and the uprising, clearly shows that there are no conspiracies. But I do think that there are some gaps of information that need to be looked at. This is particularly relevant now since there is a genuine need and wish for a frank post-mortem of the events that led to the present chaotic situation in Libya and the over spilling into the illegal immigration issues and ISIL entrenching in Libyan towns.
Yours faithfully,
Mohammed Ben Ghalbon
Chairman of Libyan Constitutional Union
———
[i] http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/aboutlcu.htm
[ii] GADAFI’S POLICIES PUT THE LIBYANS IN DANGER OF CIVIL WAR. (A Awsat, London, 10 July 1992) http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/aaajuly92.htm#aaaeng
[iii] I call upon the Transitional Council to adopt the Constitution of the Independence Era (A Awsat, London, 25 Mar 2011): http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/aaa25feb2011.htm#aaa4eng
[4] Violating the Constitution and Ignoring it are Two Faces of the Same Coin (4 June 2005) : http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/prmay05.htm#Eng2
More relevant links:
The Honour of Liberating the West of Libya from Gaddafi Belongs to the Tribes in the West of the Country by right (al-Hayat, London 11 May 2011) http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/aaa25feb2011.htm#hyt
A brief summary of my contacts with US officials (Al-Hayat, London, 6 Sept 2005) http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/hyatrtcl.htm#eng
“Did Washington facilitate Gaddafi’s rise to power” (A Awsat on 4th October 1992 )
http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/civilwar.htm#aawsatoct92
Who would restrain civil strife in Libya if it erupts and exacerbates? (Al-Hayat, London, 3 Aug 1994) http://www.libyanconstitutionalunion.org/hyataaa.htm#civil
one of the very important issue that governments such as UK should help at, is the rebuilding of the education system in Libya. Eduction will enlighten people and stop those conspiracies!
Let’s say something Mr peter that all what you wrote is rabish and there is no truth in it because you did destroy a country that was have everything and you left it without everything now there is no army no government no police and there no Isis before in my country but we have it now !
So you have to apologize to us not tell lays no body will believe
Thank you for the piece, it is a fresh breeze that might help clear the air. It’s not the responsibility of the UK to fix a broken Libya. That duty falls on us Libyans but any positive help would be greatly appreciated.
Unless People see improvements and stability on ground , conspiracy theory will always be there ..
The UK has a history of dismissing facts as conspiracy theories. Let’s take for example Jack Straw’s dismissal of UK involvement in renditions as “conspiracy theories”
Let me quote him,
“Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States, and also let me say, we believe that Secretary Rice is lying, there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition full stop.”
We now know his stance was a lie.
So why on earth should any Libya believe what you say?