The Death of Gaddafi

By Horace Campbell
Pambazuka News
October 20, 2011

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/77292

The news of the killing of Colonel Gaddafi in the
battle to take Sirte marked one more episode ion this
NATO war in Libya and North Africa. The killing has all
of the hallmarks of a coordinated assassination,
synchronised between NATO aircraft and forces on the
ground. The reports are that Gaddafi was attacked when
he was attempting to leave Sirte in a convoy. The
convoy was attacked from the air, the National
transitional Council has announced that the war is over
but the very nature of this execution guarantees that
this uprising will not end soon.

This execution comes one day after the Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton of the United States openly
called for the political assassination of Col Gaddafi,
the Libyan leader: `We hope he can be captured or
killed soon.' This statement guaranteed that although
Gaddafi was captured alive he was killed while injured.

The very management of the news of this execution
represented efforts to influence the continued
political/military struggles within the divided forces.
The hijacking of the body and its transportation to
Misrata was one more indication of the internal
struggles in the NTC and Libya.

It is still urgent that the African Union and the
United Nations work for the demilitarisation of Libya
and for the work to organise an inclusive government in
Libya. The execution of Gaddafi comes in a week of
heightened military action in parts of Africa, Kenya,
Somalia, Uganda and the Horn.

This remilitarisation of Africa and new deployment of
Africom is a new stage of African politics.

Peace and justice forces must work harder to end wars,
plunder and western military interventions in Africa.

[Horace Campbell is professor of African-American
studies and political science at Syracuse University.
He is the author of Barack Obama and 21st Century
Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA']

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