The NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has condemned the violence shown to reform movement protesters in Libya as reports have surfaced of embassy staff in London leaving their posts and jets from the Libyan armed forces diverting to Malta.
The NATO boss said:
I am shocked by the indiscriminate use of violence against peaceful protesters in Libya. I deplore the loss of life. I call on the Libyan authorities to stop the repression of unarmed civilians.
The people of Libya, like many others in the wider Middle East, have expressed a strong desire for democratic change. Their legitimate aspirations must be addressed. Freedom of expression and assembly are fundamental rights which cannot be denied.
As the Secretary General of an alliance of democracies, I strongly believe that democracy is the only solid basis for long-lasting stability. In the long run, no society can ignore the will of the people, because the desire for freedom resides in every human being.
Colonel Gaddafi has ruled the former kingdom since he came to power in a military coup fourteen years after independence from Italy. He recently signed a treaty with President Berlusconi in which he described the crimes of Italy against the African nation in great detail.
Libya is sparsely populated with only 6.4 million people and the majority of its GDP is derived from oil. ExxonMobil and Shell are among the companies operating in the huge desert state.
In This Story: Italy
Italy is a republic in central Europe which forms a peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea as well as bordering France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The islands of Sardinia and Sicily form part of the main territory of Italy. Italy is part of the Eurozone, having entered the common currency on 1st January 1999.
The capital, Rome, is home to the Vatican as well as landmark art and ancient ruins. Other major cities include Florence, with Renaissance masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s “David” and Brunelleschi’s Duomo; Venice, the city of canals; and Milan, Italy’s fashion capital.
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest.
The sovereign state is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over three million of Libya’s seven million people. The second-largest city is Benghazi, which is located in eastern Libya.
Libya became independent as a kingdom in 1951. A military coup in 1969 overthrew King Idris I. Parts of Libya are currently split between rival Tobruk and Tripoli-based governments, as well as various tribal and Islamist militias.
Libya is a member of the United Nations (since 1955), the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, the OIC and OPEC. The country’s official religion is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims.
Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta and formerly Melita, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Valletta. The official and national language is Maltese, which is descended from Sicilian Arabic that developed during the Emirate of Sicily, while English serves as the second official language. Italian and Sicilian also previously served as official and cultural languages.
Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the centre of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base.
Malta became a British colony in 1813, and the British Parliament passed the Malta Independence Act in 1964, giving Malta independence from the United Kingdom as the State of Malta, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and queen. The country became a republic in 1974. It has been a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations since independence, and joined the European Union in 2004; it became part of the eurozone monetary union in 2008.
Catholicism is the state religion, but the Constitution of Malta guarantees freedom of conscience and religious worship.
1 thought on “Libya: NATO Supports Protesters as Libya Fractures”
NATO and EU and UN get ready for a protecting intervention for the case of desperate destruction of libya’s economic base and massacres by the old Libyan regime.
NATO and EU and UN get ready for a protecting intervention for the case of desperate destruction of libya’s economic base and massacres by the old Libyan regime.