State media are turning up the volume of bile, fury and condemnation of the opposition in a key propaganda battle, writes Ian Black in Tripoli
“NO TO foreign intervention in Libya’s internal affairs,” proclaims the biggest banner on the platform overlooking Tripoli’s Green Square, swaying gently in the afternoon breeze as giant loudspeakers blare out ear-splitting songs of defiance.
Strangely perhaps, the message is signed by the International Libyan Childhood Association, but it too is doing its bit to defend the Jamahiriya – Muammar Gadafy’s unique “state of the masses” – as the UN cranks up efforts to respond to the crisis.
Talk of a no-fly zone or even direct military action against the regime and in favour of the Benghazi-based rebels meets a strident and uniform response in the palm-lined plaza in the heart of the capital.
“Everything is fine here in Tripoli, but not in Benghazi,” admits a leathery-faced old man, jigging an arthritic leg in time to rhythmic chants by youngsters waving pictures of Gadafy. No one has forgotten the American bombing in 1986, a key element of the national narrative of resistance to foreign aggression.
The best slogan is a customised version of the one that has gained currency across the region since the “Arab awakening” began in neighbouring Tunisia last December. But instead of “the people want the regime to fall” the Libyans say: “The people want Muammar the colonel.” It rhymes catchily in Arabic.
Watchful men in leather jackets mingle with the crowd, and the appearance of a reporter’s notebook produces both curiosity and nervousness. “Libya doesn’t need foreign intervention,” volunteers Ahmed (26), who works in a medical laboratory. “No one is worried about the Americans,” insists his friend, a taxi driver, who adds, without prompting: “Everyone loves Gadafy.” Admiration for the leader is a constant, perhaps the main point of the kind of rent-a-crowd events that have taken place in the square every afternoon since the uprising began a month ago.
Gamal al-Sayid’s loyalty to Libya’s 1969 revolution is evident from 100 metres away. Clad from head to toe in a bright green suit with matching tie, this gap-toothed 50-something activist is loudly on message.
“The situation is calm in Zawiya and Misurata” – nearby towns where opposition has been crushed – “but the rebels are still in Benghazi. They will have to be dealt with, and I hope it can be done peacefully.” Schoolchildren with a homemade banner march purposefully past a popcorn stand followed by a chain of exploding firecrackers, a junior version of the volleys of gunfire that erupt every time a new military advance is claimed by the government.
Themes from Arab and Islamic history were being invoked by pupils from the Khalid bin al-Walid school, who had decorated a placard with the Koranic injunction: “Sedition is worse than killing” – a lightly-coded reference to the sins of the anti-Gadafy forces.
But despite the regime’s strenuous attempts to lay down a uniform line and control visiting journalists, some Libyans are just not buying the official story. “Things look very bad,” said Abu Salah, a former government employee who drives a taxi to make ends meet. “The rebels don’t want Gadafy and he won’t go. I was pessimistic before this crisis began, and yes, it’s a crisis. Some people thought Saif al-Islam [the leader’s son] would bring change. But he’s no better than his father. We need dialogue, not killing.”
State media, however, is turning up the volume to a climax of bile, fury and condemnation of the opposition. Treachery, conspiracy, rats, agents of imperialism, colonialism, lies and al-Qaeda: this is the vocabulary of the propaganda war being waged in the Libyan press, radio and TV.– (Guardian service)