The Libyan Revolution

Synopsis The Libyan Revolution: Diary of Qadhafi’s newsgirl in London I decided to write about the twenty years I spent working as a correspondent in the London office of JANA News Agency, the official news agency of Qadhafi’s government as I wanted to reflect on my work for almost a quarter of my life and to provide an insight into life working for the Libyan regime. I am one of the few Westerners who actually worked within a Libyan institution. I was in fact a Libyan government employee. The Sudanese in the office joked that I was a Libyan bastard I am 54 years old and started working for the JANA in 1991. In those days Libya had no diplomatic relations with Britain and Qadhafi was an international pariah. During my time with JANA I watched the rehabilitation of the country and its leader to the point where he was accorded the honour of addressing the United Nations, whose charter he tore up. Tony Blair and Condolezza Rice visited him. He spoke by video link to students at the London School of Economics and Oxford University. But when he brutally began to crush the popular demonstrations in Benghazi in February 2011 he fell from grace and was once again an international pariah whom the West felt it had to knock off his perch. In August 2011 the rebels, with the help of NATO’s air cover ended Qadhafi’s 41 years of eccentric, despotic rule. There was no lavish celebration of his 42nd anniversary in power at London’s Dorchester Hotel. This book answers the question I was so often asked when people discovered I was working in JANA : “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like that?” I started idealistically believing I could change the content of the news from Libya and take the agency into the 21st century. I failed. JANA, like Libya, was frozen in a time warp of old slogans and ideals which could not be implemented. After visiting Libya five times I could not keep going to the country with a clear conscience as it became painfully obvious to me that the people do not, and never would, “rule themselves by themselves” and the people’s democracy Qadhafi could not stop talking about was a sham. But I continued working in JANA. The hours were convenient: at first 8am to 2pm then 10am to 3pm. These hours gave me a chance to engage in many other activities. I also worked for the Iraqi opposition, wrote two books about Iraq and a report about human rights violations in Bahrain. There was time for freelance writing and from 2007 time for ‘Visit London’ with Alex my partner from Nairobi who wanted to see the London I never had time to enjoy. Many who read these words will not believe me when I say I never wrote in favour of or supported Qadhafi’s regime. A lot of my work consisted of typing translations of news items and of course Qadhafi’s speeches. I monitored the newspapers and the internet for articles about Libya but the reports of the events and press conferences I covered were never written with a pro-Libyan stance. I told it like it was and the editors in London and Tripoli gave it a Libyan spin. Qadhafi’s brutal suppression of the demonstrations in Benghazi and his attempts to mercilessly crush the popular uprising which followed is of course horrific, one of the greatest violations of human rights in the 20th century. NATO intervened on the side of the Libyan people and city after city fell to the rebel forces who captured Tripoli after six months of heroic struggle. But the West’s intervention is selective. What about the brave people of Yemen, Syria and Bahrain who are also fighting against repressive and brutal dictators? Qadhafi’s rehabilitation suited the West’s political agenda and when he no longer served their interests NATO assisted in the dismantling of his regime. In one of histories ironies peoples committees were set up in Benghazi and the cities of the east liberated from the dictator’s clutches. Perhaps now the people really will rule themselves by themselves. I was of course fired by the transitional council as soon as it took over the Libyan embassy in London as the representative of the Libyan people. The first chapter of the book is an account of my work with JANA since 1991. I describe my visits to Libya to the commemoration of the anniversary of the Battle of Al Ghardabiya a major victory in the anti-colonial struggle and Qadhafi’s press conference on the break up of the Soviet Union as well as my experiences with the Ministry of Foreign Liaison and International Co-operation. I write about my colleagues, the people I met while working for JANA, the major events I covered in Libya’s modern history including the announcement of the Lockerbie trial at a Scottish court in the Netherlands. JANA was the first agency to report on this announcement, perhaps more by good luck than good management. Chapters two to four are a diary of my work in JANA from March 2011 (when the NATO intervention began) until May. Included are the news stories I wrote during this time, a day by day description of the Libyan revolution official statements and a selection of insightful articles from the international press. Chapter five describes my decision to leave JANA and my visit to Tanzania in June 2011. I was still following the news so the history of the revolution continues in this chapter and in Chapter six which covers events in July and August 2011. In the epilogue I describe a party I organised for my former colleagues in JANA and friends of Libya on 1st September on what would have been the 42nd anniversary of Qadhafi’s coup. The book also has a timeline of the Libyan revolution from 15th February 2011 until 1st September 2011 and an appendix with UNSC 1973 and a description of Libya’s new rulers.