MikeLigalig.com

excerpts from It's too soon for Libyans to celebrate 'freedom'
                     By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News
                     August 30, 2011

Gaddafi trial

Nevertheless, the $1.6 million (Dh5.87 million) bounty on his head ‘Dead or Alive' put up by two Libyan businessmen smacks too much of the Wild West for my liking.  When the revolutionaries and their backers are still an unknown quantity it is important for them to hold firmly to the rule of law rather than descend to the level of the ousted regime.

Personally, I would like to see the former leader brought before a Libyan court and given a fair trial rather than be packed-off to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.   It's hypocritical that the US is pressing for the latter option when it hasn't ratified the ICC itself.  And, in any case, until I see former US president George W. Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair in the dock over Iraq, for me, that court has little credibility.


It's also unclear just how much sway NATO member countries — in particular the US, Britain and France — will have over Libya.  It's almost a given that those countries and others that have assisted in Libya's liberation will reap the benefits of lucrative oil and trade deals but will they demand permanent military bases on Libyan soil?

In fact, given that this particular military intervention was supposedly launched on the basis of humanitarian concerns, to protect civilians, Libya should be under no moral obligation to fall in line with western diktats.


more at http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=43250.0