Western powers exploit Libyan crisis to step up intervention plans/the fight against refugees

[Hannah Bell]

Amid preparations for a possible armed intervention, US marines have arrived in Greece for deployment to US warships off the Libyan coast, and US military cargo planes have commenced flights to the Tunisian-Libyan border.

What began as a popular revolt against the repressive Gaddafi regime is increasingly being channelled, with the help of an interim administration in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, into the pretext for an imperialist intervention. Such an operation would seek to establish a de facto client state in Libya. It would help imperialist forces assert control over the country’s large oil and gas fields and serve as a bastion of reaction against the working-class uprisings sweeping the entire region, from Morocco to Iraq.

British and European leaders welcomed President Barack Obama’s statement on Thursday, in which he demanded Gaddafi’s removal and pointedly refused to rule out the imposition of a militarily-enforced “no-fly” zone over Libya. His remarks were an indication of US readiness to support an operation to oust the regime and install a compliant government of the type being shaped in Benghazi.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/liby-m05.shtml




The poster reads: “Letter to America: Libya will not be another Iraq. Together against an American intervention”


The alliance between the EU and Libya in the fight against refugees

The Western powers are preparing a military attack against Libya, citing “humanitarian” concerns as the pretext. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said “we cannot watch as people are being murdered”. But that is precisely what the European Union has done over the past years, collaborating closely with the dictatorships in Libya and Tunisia to stop refugees breaching the perimeter of “Fortress Europe”.

Since 2003, a system of refugee camps has been created in North Africa with the help of the EU. The regime of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Gaddafi in Libya have carried out the EU’s dirty work, employing the most brutal means to prevent African refugees reaching Europe....At a meeting of EU interior ministers in October 2004, Schily earned approval for his plans. The interior ministers agreed the construction of five reception camps in North Africa, which, however, were not to be managed by the EU....these plans represented a massive violation of fundamental rights and of the Geneva Convention.

In particular, the Italian government was quick to create a fait accompli. In Tunisia, Italy financed a total of 13 detention centres, where refugees have faced torture and abuse.

In 2003, the Berlusconi government signed a secret agreement with Libya to take back “illegal” immigrants. Italy renovated a refugee camp in the north of the country and established two new camps in the south, in the middle of the desert. Italy also provided 100 inflatable boats, three coaches, six off-road vehicles, night vision devices, underwater cameras, 12,000 blankets and 6,000 mattresses. The Italian government was fully aware that the Libyan authorities did not treat refugees with kid gloves, since the deliveries also included 1,000 body bags.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/euli-m05.shtml