OPINION:Army defections are adding muscle to anti-Gadafy forces but any battle would pitch untrained youths against well-armed soldiers
EVERY CITY in Libya has a library devoted solely to the study of Muammar Gadafy’s Green Book, the rambling hodgepodge of political, social and economic theory that forms the ideological bedrock of his regime.
The library in Benghazi, cradle of the uprising that has swept along Libya’s eastern belt and west towards the capital Tripoli, was burned and ransacked more than a week ago. Outside, a gigantic sculpture of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, whom Gadafy idolised, stands spray-painted with slogans of the revolution.
Yesterday a crowd of several hundred chose the anniversary of Gadafy declaring Libya a jamahiriya (a neologism that can be loosely translated as “a state of the masses”) in 1977 to build a bonfire of all the copies of the Green Book they could get their hands on. Hardback, paperback, pocket and coffee-table sized, the books, in translations including English, French, German and Italian, were piled up next to the library and set alight to loud cheers and whooping.
“Today it is your book Gadafy, tomorrow it will be you,” yelled one young man, his shoulders draped in the red, green and black of Libya’s monarchy-era flag.
Meanwhile, Gadafy was giving another long defiant speech in which he repeated the same wild claims about the revolt that has shaken his 42-year-old rule to the core.
The rebels were high on drugs and aided by al-Qaeda, he thundered. He had the support of his people, he insisted, and he would never step down.
The address was greeted with ridicule here in Benghazi. Indeed, many in “liberated” eastern Libya have even stopped listening to what Gadafy has to say, preferring instead to focus on how they will ensure their revolution is completed.
All stress that theirs is very much a people’s revolution – they bristle at being described as “rebels” or “the opposition” – but military officers who have defected to the opposition are playing a crucial role in co-ordinating tribal sheikhs and volunteers across the east to prepare for the final push to oust Gadafy. Most expect the dictator, believed to be hiding in his Tripoli stronghold of Bab Bin Gashin, to resort to whatever methods he can to keep hold of the capital but the earnest revolutionaries in Benghazi are adamant that their struggle is for the whole of Libya.
The banners outside their courthouse headquarters on Benghazi’s Mediterranean seafront read: “Libya, one body. Tripoli, our heart.”
It is difficult to get a measure of how well prepared the anti-regime forces are for an advance on the capital. There is no shortage of volunteers, especially among the young men, or shabab as they are known in Arabic, who mass in downtown Benghazi loudly proclaiming their willingness to take on Gadafy’s forces.
Many are fired up after seeing brothers and friends cut down by bullets during the protests that prompted the uprising last month.
But given they are untrained, these youths are little match for the superior weaponry of Gadafy’s loyalist forces and mercenaries.
Many in Benghazi hope a fierce battle for Tripoli may not come to pass, that instead the territory under Gadafy’s control will continue to shrink as his authority frays even further. Reports in recent days that his right-hand man and brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi has been sacked have fed into the perception that Gadafy’s inner circle is falling away and he is increasingly isolated.
Even so, no one here expects Gadafy to go quietly. Yesterday, in the first significant sign of a counter-offensive to retake the east, his forces moved on the eastern port of Brega, which contains an oil export terminal, though the opposition say the attack was quickly repelled. A Libyan warplane later bombed the town.
“[Gadafy] is trying to create all kinds of psychological warfare to keep these cities on edge,” said Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the opposition.
Most in “liberated” eastern Libya insist they do not want the kind of foreign intervention that would undermine sovereignty. Banners have appeared in Benghazi which read in English and Arabic: “No foreign intervention. Libyan people can do it alone.” But yesterday Gheriani suggested the rebels would be amenable to the idea of strategic air strikes.
“We are probably going to call for foreign help, probably air strikes at strategic locations that will put the nail in his coffin,” he said.
Given fears that Gadafy may order an aerial bombardment of the east, especially Benghazi, given its importance as the heart of the uprising, many here call for a no-fly zone to be enforced across the country.
Even if the battle remains on the ground, Gadafy’s forces are well-equipped, and his son Khamees’ eponymous – and notorious – battalion includes some 3,000 soldiers, about half of whom are mercenaries, according to the opposition.
With an embattled Gadafy refusing to back down, and a euphoric opposition determined to bring an end to his hated regime, the fate of a whole country hangs in the balance.
Mary Fitzgerald is Foreign Affairs Correspondent