On the 17 of February, protests erupted in the Eastern region of Libya against the 41 year rule of Col. Moammar Gaddaffi. The protests, like its predecessors in Tunisia and Egypt, quickly engulfed the oil-exporting country. The protesters called for the ouster of Gaddaffi and his sons-the apparent heirs to the throne.
Shortly after the protests started, one of Gaddaffi's sons, Seif Islam Gaddaffi, made a statement on the national television vowing to crush the protest and threatened bloodbath, but also promised economic and political reforms.
Within days, starting with Benghazi the entire eastern half of the country-long been marginalized from Libya's oil wealth- fell to the protest movement and Gaddaffi had no option but to hunker down in the capital Tripoli. When Gaddaffi himself appeared on televison, it was the usual eccentric, delusional self-style dictator. Dressed in colorful Beduin gabe, just one of Gaddaffi's long evolutionary descend, he denied there was any protests in Libya, then blamed it all on Al-Qaeda, and cited western imperialism and their intent to take Libya's oil fields. Gaddaffi then urged his supporters, many of whom are mercenaries and dissidents from sub-Saharan Africa who Gaddaffi had harbored, trained and armed over a long period of time to export his 'revolution' across the continent, to go out and kill the protesters whom he referred to as "rats and cockroaches".
To be continued...
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