SUMMARY
The Government of Libya is first included as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, but it was responsible for major one-sided attacks earlier, notably the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland and the bombing at the “La Belle” Discotheque in West Berlin in 1986.
In 1989, the explosion of a bomb on flight UTA 772 from Congo-Brazzaville to Paris was attributed to Libyan officials. The airplane crashed in the Sahara desert. All passengers and the crew were killed. A French investigative judge, who spent more than eight years reconstructing the incident, concluded that the Libyan government was responsible for the bombing.
The motive often attributed to the Government of Libya for the bombing of the French UTA aircraft is that of revenge, as France had militarily supported the Government of Chad against various rebel groups that were supported by Libya.
Upon the initial refusal of the Libyan government to cooperate in the investigations of the one-sided attacks, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Libya in 1992. The sanctions led to the economic and political isolation of the country for most of the 1990s. In 1999, the Government of Libya finally agreed to pay $34 million in compensation for the families of the victims of the UTA 772 bombing. In 2003, it generally “accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials” according to a UN statement and the Qaddafi Foundation paid an additional $170 million to the families of the victims. Subsequently, the UN sanctions were lifted. However, the Libyan government denied responsibility for the UTA 772 airplane bombing and maintained that the Libyan officials convicted in absentia by a French court were innocent.
The demonstrations that swept through the Middle East and North Africa during the beginning of 2011 reached Libya in mid-February. The events in Tunisia and Egypt did encourage the Libyan population to demand change, but the spark that ignited protests in Libya was in fact not connected to the events in the neighboring countries. It was rather the repressive and heavy-handed manner in which Col. Muammar Gaddafi had on previous occasions countered internal dissent. The instigation of protests came as a prominent human rights lawyer, Fathi Terbil, among others was arrested in an attempt to stave off the kind of popular uprisings that had occurred in Tunisia and Egypt. On 17 February, a day that marked the five year anniversary of a popular uprising in Benghazi that was forcefully cracked down by Gaddafi, Libyans took to the streets to protest the authoritarian rule of Gaddafi. The demonstrations in Libya were initially centered in the eastern parts of the country. The eastern towns Benghazi and Ajdabiya quickly became hotspots of demonstrations and voicing of dissent. The reactions from the Gaddafi regime towards the uprisings in the eastern parts of Libya were harsh and swift; brutal crackdowns were instigated and prisoners were released from local prisons, armed and given orders to scatter protesters. As demonstrations took place the repressive efforts to curb them were stepped up, and when on 16 February the first death was recorded a vicious spiral of death was instigated. As had been the case in several of the other Arab Spring countries the funerals of killed demonstrators became congregation points, and in turn, new demonstrations that were met with repression by the military. This spiral of demonstrations and killings escalated quicker than elsewhere in Libya. This development was particularly intense in Benghazi. As the news of violent repression on behalf of the government forces reached other cities in Libya demonstrations in support of the victims were organized. The spread of protest was westward, starting in the eastern cities Benghazi and Tobruk, moving on to Misratah and the western Nafusa mountains. The capital Tripoli lagged behind the other cities, but protests against Gaddafi’s rule soon broke out there as well. As protests had engulfed the major cities in Libya repressions became worse. In Tripoli security forces fired indiscriminately into demonstrators as they congregated on the green square in central Tripoli.
As a first official response to the on-going protest in Libya Gaddafi appeared on Libyan state television on 22 February. He described the protesters as “rats manipulated by foreign interests”. He further threatened to stop at nothing to “purge Libya inch by inch, room by room, household by household, alley by alley, and individual by individual until the country is purified”. Against the backdrop of this explicit rhetoric the manner in which Gaddafi handled the demonstrations became increasingly violent.
It was in this context that the international community became increasingly involved in the Libyan situation; the UN did pass resolutions handing out severe sanctions and condemnations towards the Gaddafi regime. These sanctions did however not have the desired effect and Gaddafi defiantly appeared once again on Libyan state television, again blaming foreign elements; al-Qaeda, as well as the U.S., were blamed for the unrest. He further stated that the youths protesting were intoxicated as drugs had been slipped into their milk. Gaddafi ended the speech by warning for the possibility of a protracted war where he assured that “every Libyan would fight to the last man, women and bullet”. Shortly after the aggressive speech by Gaddafi the formation of NTC (National Transitional Council) was announced in the eastern city of Benghazi. With the formation of NTC, and the subsequent statement of an incompatibility, much of the one-sided violence in Libya became part of the state-based conflict over governmental power between the Government of Libya, i.e. Gaddafi, and NTC. After the formalization of the parties to the conflict the characteristics changed, the fighting was fought between the Government of Libya and rebels, rather than attacking civilians. Further the tactic of indiscriminate shelling of towns where rebel presence was high became common.
The Government of Libya first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 19 September that year following the bombing of the UTA 772 airplane.
