Before you start reading my account of the recent events in Lybia, may I recommend you an amazing audio piece titled “Protestors or Rebels: How the Label Changes Our Perception of Libya“.
It points out how the use of language stirs the readers'/listeners' perception and emotions in a certain direction. Other than the term „protester“ the term „rebel“ might lead people to disengage with what is happening. Yet, calling someone manning a mobile anti-aircraft gun a „protester“ seems inappropriate as well.
A note on the power of language
I had come across that problem before when drafting my own post on Lybia, and also the question whether the events should be called a “civil war” had already crossed my mind. Think about it: Would you really call a battle between mercenaries and special units of a dictator's military on the one side and originally peaceful protesters on the other side a civil war? (I am sure some political scientists and historians could provide, and I might also look into that issue a bit more later on, also because I am so convinced that words do matter, and because I think that Susan Chira's claim of „journalist's neutrality“ is unjustified. For now it shall suffice to raise our awareness for the force of language. Thus, please feel free and even encouraged to scrutinize and criticise my usage of terms!)
I have to admit that whenever I found myself in front of my computer the last days my attention first went to events in Lybia, not to Egypt. Of course that has some taste of „sensationlism“ as well, but I am genuinely worried about the situation in this country. What started off as peaceful and promising protests (on the surface) similar to those in Egypt and Tunisia has developed into savage, fierce and ongoing fighting, as among others reported by NY Times and the Guardian.
Fierce fighting over Lybian cities and oil ports
Benghazi in the very East was among the first cities caught by freedom fighters. In Benghazi pro-democracy forces soon after their take over started to get organised, set up a transitional administration, published a newspaper and established a radio station. The city is in freedom fighters' hands up to now, and the National Transitional Council of Lybia has been formed there. It issued its first declaration yesterday, and is now awaiting recognition as the sole official representative of the Lybian people by other states. In other parts of the country a the situation looks much different.
(This map and others can be found at http://feb17.info/libya-pro-democracy-protests/)
In Tripoli some fighting seems to be going on, with the city largely remaining in the hands of pro-Gaddafi forces. The town of Zawiyah in the far West of the country had been in the hand of anti-Gaddafi forces for a while when Gaddafi's troops launched several major attacks on the town yesterday. The first attacks in the morning with only a handful of tanks could be fought off, and apparently the anti-Gaddafi forces succeeded to even sustain another attack with 35 tanks in the late afternoon yesterday. Reports of the second attack told of continued indiscriminate shelling of all types of buildings and of the city being completeyl surrounded by Gaddafi's troops.
An unequal fight: professional troops against anti-Gaddafi forces equipped with knifes
What is astonishing is the badly equipped and non-trained anti-Gaddafi forces' ability to hold the city in face of major assaults by Gaddafi's heavily armed troops. In general it can be said that regarding the equipment, training and experience we are observing a very unequal fight. There's pictures from Ras Lanuf where rebels have shot down a fighter jet (?, well some sort of military plane:), it is very worth watching the video provided by BBC simply to get an idea of what the rebel groups and their equipment look like.
Zawiyah back in Gaddafi's hands?
This morning several major newsoutlets, among them BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12658405 reported that Gaddafi forces had taken back Zawiyah as the Lybian state media reports, yet, accounts of eyewhitnesses contradict these statements. It is the same type of information and media battle we could observe in Egypt during the 18 days of the uprising and even afterwards.
Further read-worthy articles
For those who would like to learn more about the situation in Lybia and the international community's reaction I also recommend an article that looks at the long standing relationship of Lybia and Italy and the heavy economic toll the uprisings mean for Italy.
Another article by Al Jazeera's Evan Hill describes the freedom fighter's advance to the West, questioning the military skills of both the anti- and the pro-Gaddafi forces.
Currently two private blogs are providing the swiftest and most comprehensive coverage of the events in Lybia: http://www.libyafeb17.com/ and http://feb17.info
the second one providing a series of very interesting and helpful strategic maps of the clashes in Lybia. Also with its own liveblog on Lybia Al Jazeera is doing once more a good job in covering the uprising in a MENA country.
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