Is Qaddafi an anti-racist?

Professor Maximilian Forte

Over on MRZine (where else, of course) you will find a lengthy article (The War in Libya: Race, “Humanitarianism ” and the Media) by a Professor Maximilian Forte from Concordia University in Canada that is a tortured defense of the idea that Qaddafi and his opponents represent the best and worst of Libyan society. Qaddafi is painted as a kind of John Brown fighter for African liberation and those fighting to overthrow him are a Libyan version of the Ku Klux Klan. To give you an idea of how loaded this article is, you will not find a single reference to “Berlusconi” throughout.

It starts with a reference to the BBC report that quotes an unnamed Turk to the effect that 70 or 80 of his co-workers from Chad were cut dead with pruning shears and axes. As I have pointed out before, this managed to escape the attention of other reporters. A search of Nexis for articles containing references to Turk, Chad and Libya reveals absolutely nothing but that does not seem to prevent pro-Qaddafi leftists from repeating this charge. This is especially ironic given that Forte is complaining about media bias in this article. Imagine if the BBC had the same kind of report about Serbs butchering Kosovars that was unsubstantiated. Well, it did as a matter of fact. That’s how the war in Kosovo started.

Although Forte is a tenured professor, he seems rather averse to providing footnotes for statements such as this:

First, it was right from the intended start of the national protests (that is, Feb. 17 — although protests in fact began two days earlier) that several opposition spokesmen, anonymous “Libyan” Twitter accounts, and other persons who would become associated with the insurgents’ “Transitional National Council” (TNC) produced the paradox of racial/racist hysteria and humanitarian intervention.

Who are these opposition spokesmen that were calling for intervention on February 17^th? Again nothing turned up in Nexis. As for anonymous Twitter accounts and “other persons”, the less said the better. Now it is possible that there were media reports to back up Forte’s allegations but without providing citations, one is at a loss to figure out what he is talking about.

But things go downhill from here. He quotes from articles that appeared in The Economist and the LA Times in 2000 about the well-known mistreatment of sub-Saharan immigrants. However, any responsibility on the part of Qaddafi is denied:

While Gaddafi denounced the violence in 2000, members of the state’s own security forces reportedly took part in some of the attacks.  The UN also noted that over the years members of the state security forces have been complicit in attacking African migrants.  One would like to know if they did so, spontaneously, on their own initiative, or were ordered to do so from higher ups.  We should note that the former Libyan Interior Minister, and a former Minister of Public Security, Abdul Fatah Younis, is now a rebel military commander.

In other words, Qaddafi stood apart from the pogroms unleashed on sub-Saharan Africans in 2000 and all the blame rests on his subordinates who have now unleashed the Benghazi rebellion whose true aim is to persecute Blacks rather than get rid of a family dynasty. One wonders if Professor Forte was resurrecting the refrain heard so often in the Soviet Union in the 1930s: “If only Stalin knew”. We are led to believe that the racist attacks were orchestrated by Qaddafi’s subordinates and without his approval. This is a convenient fiction that will only be believed by those who continue to view Qaddafi as some kind of anti-imperialist leader despite all the evidence to the contrary.

One of the signs that you are dealing with a cruder form of propaganda is if the author does not bother to address evidence that contradicts his or her own. To be taken seriously on the question of Qaddafi’s commitment to pan-African values, you have to take a close look at his overall record, something that does not interest Forte who is so anxious to tilt the scales in favor of Qaddafi that he does not bother to conceal the fact that his hand rests upon the scale.

As I said at the outset, Forte’s article does not contain a single reference to Berlusconi or Italy. Does he think that people are unaware of the sordid connections between Qaddafi and one of Europe’s most racist politicians? While there is a mountain of evidence that would lead to the verdict that Qaddafi is no John Brown, this one should suffice:

The Guardian
Comments Are Free,
June 14, 2009

Treating refugees as refuse

Berlusconi’s deal with Gaddafi to use Libya as a dumping ground for migrants who arrive in Italy rides roughshod over their rights

by Bill Frelick

With the visit of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to Rome this week, Italy and Libya are celebrating their recently ratified Friendship Treaty. But this pact, which has already resulted in joint naval patrols that run roughshod over refugee and migrant rights – as Tana de Zulueta commented – is hardly cause for celebration.

About 500 migrants have already been summarily returned to Libya since early May, and boat departures from Libya have been sharply curtailed. Today, the migrant detention centre and asylum reception centres on Italy’s outpost island of Lampedusa are empty, a dramatic contrast to the way they looked in January, when 1,850 people were crammed in space designed for 800, with many sleeping on the floor. But asylum seekers don’t simply disappear. Many will be denied the opportunity to seek asylum from war and persecution and almost all will be subjected to indefinite detention, poor conditions and perhaps abuse.

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to provide $200m (£121m) a year over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects in Libya. Italy provided three patrol boats to Libya on 14 May, and has promised three more. Italy has also said that it will help construct a radar system to monitor Libya’s desert borders, using the Italian security company, Finmeccanica.

In building their friendship agreement, Berlusconi and Gaddafi seem to be regarding migrants and asylum seekers from other countries as expendable. The deal enables Italy to dump migrants and asylum seekers on Libya and evade its obligations while Libya gets investment, bolstered security infrastructure and acceptance as Italy’s friend and partner.