Article Added On: December 11, 2004 - over 3 years ago
Title: New voice of Libya has familiar ring at times
Author: Doug Saunders
Publication: The Globe and Mail
Publication Date: January 01, 2004 - over 4 years ago
Faith Groups: Muslim
Themes: religion in politics

Abstract: Lybya's Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the second son of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, says his country wants democracy; he wants to have a reform of the Middle East. Gadhafi contends that other Islamic countries reject the idea of democracy in principle. He is quoted as saying that other Islamic countries say "democracy is against Islam, democracy is against our culture, democracy is a bad thing, democracy is linked to imperialism, we don't like it." He says that those fundamentalist Islamic countries want to invade Libya's elementary schools and mosques, by exporting their kind of Islam and kind of ideology, and that is the problem they have in Libya, and in Algeria and Morocco.

Friday, December 10, 2004

TRIPOLI -- He was raised in tents by a father whose chiselled face appears on giant banners on every street. He cowered as U.S. warplanes bombed his family, killing his young sister. As a young man, he learned that his name had become an African synonym for revolutionary freedom and a Western byword for terrorism and tyranny.

After spending three decades under his father's looming visage, something mysterious happened to Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, 32, who had spent his 20s as one of those Arab playboys who haunt the campuses and hotels of Europe. He became serious.

Beginning last year, he broke from his father's revolution, began to represent Libya abroad and became a unique figure among Arab leaders, embracing the United States and Israel, and repaying the victims of the acts of revolutionary terrorism -- the Berlin disco bombing and the jetliner bombings that had turned Libya into a rogue state and set it at war with the Western world from 1986 until only a few months ago.

I met Mr. Gadhafi recently in the desert far outside Tripoli. In a compound surrounded by a high barbed-wire fence and floodlights, a handsome young man wearing a wool skullcap and elegant, casual Italian clothes sat at a table under an umbrella on an immaculately manicured lawn. Peacocks strolled by and a minder sat under a tree a dozen metres away. Seif al-Islam Gadhafi smiled warmly.

He began the conversation.

"Why did I ask to see you? Because I don't just want a traditional, conventional interview."

He then spent half an hour explaining his strange, but clearly passionate, feelings about Canada. At his most animated moments, with his wire-rimmed sunglasses on, he bore a striking resemblance to his father, or at least to the jut-jawed images of his father featured on posters. Much of the rest of the time, he came across as a shy, somewhat insecure student, a man not quite comfortable in the role of the Voice of Libya.

I asked him what he really wants to do with himself.

"I want to stay with my tigers," he said, laughing. "Here."

As if on cue, a gurgling roar emerged from a fenced area perhaps 10 metres away. It was Freddo, his oldest pet Bengal tiger. Freddo's companion, Barney, died a few years ago, an event that reportedly devastated Mr. Gadhafi.

Yes, but had he made a real break from his father's legacy? Do they get along?

"I communicate with my father often. We agree, we disagree, it's like any family, you know?"

Well, not really like any family. I pointed out that George W. Bush doesn't get along with his father, a point that surprised Mr. Gadhafi.

"We agree on the main issues: about democracy, about the economic reforms, about rapprochement with the West, with Americans, . . . but sometimes we have disagreement about my tigers, because he doesn't like my tigers, because he thinks animals are dangerous and one day maybe they will get out of the cage and then we will be in danger."

Yes, just like any family.

Later, we will stroll inside his house, a modest and tasteful building in classic Arab style, covered in beautiful mosaic tiles. In the central room, small hillocks of books and periodicals surround the alarming figure of Barney, permanently frozen by taxidermists in a menacing pose. Some of his reading suggests the typical life of an Arab heir: Safe Diving, A Scottish Castle Through The Ages. But other volumes tell of Mr. Gadhafi's larger ambitions: The United Nations Exposed. And, more tellingly, a copy of the recent conspiratorial bestseller House of Bush, House of Saud.

Last month, the BBC had asked Mr. Gadhafi if he planned to take over his father's job. His answer had been cryptic: Hereditary rule, he said, was incompatible with a democratic society.

Did that mean that he wanted to stay out of politics? No, he said, just hereditary politics. Does that mean he wants to run in a genuine election for Libya's top office? "This is the only choice we have. I hope so."

Democracy is a tricky subject in Libya. According to the Green Book, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's manifesto, the country is ruled by direct democracy and has no need for representative leaders (who are "a form of dictatorship," the book says). The younger Gadhafi seems eager to introduce a form of democracy that would be more recognizable to the rest of us, and acknowledged that his father's system isn't working.

"We are not free at this instant, not 100 per cent, certainly not. But we want democracy. We agreed in principle that we want democracy. This even itself is an achievement. Because other Arab countries, Islamic countries, they reject the idea in principle. They say, democracy is against Islam, democracy is against our culture, democracy is a bad thing, democracy is linked to imperialism, we don't like it. Do you see the difference?"

This was quite an acknowledgment. Was it true, as some have suggested, that the Gadhafi family finally gave in to Western demands because they saw what happened to Saddam Hussein?

Nonsense, Mr. Gadhafi said. Look at the record: His attempts to renounce terrorism began long before the Iraq war. He listed the reasons for his transformation:

"Because we wanted to have a strategic relation with the West, with Americans, we wanted to have new allies. We wanted to counter the common enemies like fundamentalism. We wanted to have a real reform of the Middle East, and you can't do that without co-operation with the superpower of the West, and we want to secure ourselves. We want to bring peace and security to the people. We want to restart a bit. We want to rebuild the nation. For those reasons, not because of Iraq."

At the root of these issues, he believes, are nations like Saudi Arabia: "Many of the problems we have now, like fundamentalism, it's because of some Middle Eastern or Arabic states, because of their state-sponsored activities. And there's oil money in that, and they have to stop that. . . .

"We cannot accept these other Arab countries, they want to invade our elementary schools and mosques, by exporting their kind of Islam and kind of ideology . . . this is the problem we have here, and in Algeria and Morocco."

This all seems very far removed from the Libya of Moammar Gadhafi. After all, English textbooks in Libyan schools still teach past-tense verbs by repeating the phrase: "Israel has occupied the Palestinian nation since 1948." Now, 35 years after his father's revolution, is he throwing away its radical principles for something more Western?

"We are coming back to those principles. Because we deviated from those principles a long time ago. We deviated. And now we have come back to stick to our ideology. The ideology is talking about the rule of the people, the rule of the mass and direct democracy. And in the last years, we did maybe the opposite thing."

He is not a socialist, he said, but a social democrat. Norway is his model. Or Switzerland, with its endless referendums, "and its human rights -- now, we are very proud of our record on human rights. Our human-rights record is better than that of America, even."

That is a controversial statement. In April, Amnesty International released its first report on Libya in two decades, after finally being allowed in to interview prisoners and dissidents. While it noted some significant improvement over the dark days of the 1980s and 1990s, the report was damning: a complete lack of due process in the courts, terrible prisons containing people locked away for no reason or for purely political reasons, arbitrary arrests, reports of torture.

After all the talk of democracy and friendship with the West and new beginnings, I am ready for a contrite and quiet renunciation of past sins. Instead, Mr. Gadhafi sits up, thrusts his chin forward, and starts looking and sounding very much like his father.

"They are liars," he says of the human-rights group. "I will give you full proof of that. . . . I am suing them, I am suing their director. They said, in Libya they are still conducting torture and executions, and so on. I told them, give me one example, and they failed. They couldn't bring half an example. Therefore, this is my response to Amnesty International . . . human rights in Libya are very well protected and maintained, and I think Libya is a good example for the Middle East. And I can say this very proudly." After this outburst, he was quiet, seeming almost embarrassed, for a few moments. The still desert air was broken only by Freddo's hungry growl.

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