(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Truls Lie writes in Ny Tid no. 10 a comment on Audun Lysbakken's book and SV's decision to deploy Norwegian military forces in the war against Libya in March 2011. Truls Lie points to the catastrophic consequences of the war, but the matter is worse than that . The talk that Benghazi was threatened by a massacre in March 2011 was a complete lie. Behind the claim was a well-oiled propaganda machine, which SV and the Norwegian government (and many others) fell victim to. Here is a summary from my book Libya War geopolitics (2012): Libyan oppositionists sought by all means the ability of the UN to intervene. They said that if Gaddafi's troops reached Benghazi with 650 inhabitants, "it will be a real carnage, a massacre like the one we saw in Rwanda". Senator John McCain said: “Gaddafi was standing at the gates of Benghazi. He said he would go from house to house and kill everyone. Benghazi has 000 inhabitants. "National Security Council Dennis Ross said in the White House:" Up to 700 people could be massacred and everyone would blame us. "President Obama said shortly after NATO's intervention that if we waited a day Benghazi could suffer a massacre that would have "stained the conscience of the world." We were to get a new "Rwanda", it was said. This was the image that had been created before the UN resolution, but what was the basis for this statement? Libyan opposition said the "genocide" had begun. The media trusted them. But according to Amnesty, the number killed at this time was a few hundred. Many were black immigrants slaughtered by racist rebels in Benghazi. Others had been killed when the rebels took over the military base in Benghazi. In Egypt, 000 civilians had been killed, but no one was considering a military intervention there. United States Ambassador Susan Rice said there were strong echoes of the 100 genocide in Rwanda, when Muammar Gaddafi had said that his forces would kill rebel supporters in Benghazi as "rats." Gaddafi had said in his speech that the Libyans would hunt down the "rats" in Benghazi, but he also said that by "rats" he meant the foreign agents and the armed "al-Qaeda" rebels. He said the young people, the civilian protesters, were not responsible. They looted police stations and barracks, but they should go free, he said. Those who handed in their weapons would receive an amnesty. The others would be given free rent to Egypt. If one refers to Gaddafi's speech, this would not indicate an impending massacre. Of course, we do not know what would have happened if the government forces had clashed with the rebel forces in Benghazi, but we do know that the government forces heading for Benghazi were small (14 tanks, two rocket launch trucks and 20 armored vehicles). They had never been able to take Benghazi, but they had been able to stop the rebels' journey west towards the oil cities of Ras Lanuf and Brega. We also know what happened when government forces entered Misrata at the same time (Libya's third largest city with 300 inhabitants): a couple of hundred people were killed in the fighting between Libyan army forces and the rebels. Alan Kuperman writes:
The myth of an impending massacre in Benghazi with up to 100 dead, if the UN did nothing, was constructed by the Libyan opposition along with some Americans and Britons
"In almost two months of war, only 257 people – including combatants – have died there. Of the 949 injured, only 22 – less than three percent – are women. If Gaddafi had indiscriminately targeted [shot at] civilians, women would make up about half of those injured. [These figures come from the local hospital and from Human Rights Watch]. " Kuperman writes further in International Security (2013) that 5. – 15. In March, government forces withdrew Zawiya, Ajdabiya, Brega, Ras Lanuf, Bani Walid and, to some extent, Misrata. No massacres were carried out anywhere, and there is no reason to believe that Gaddafi would have massacred civilians in Benghazi if he had not done so in Misrata. The myth of an upcoming massacre in Benghazi of up to 100 dead, if the UN did nothing, was constructed by the Libyan opposition along with some Americans and Britons ahead of the UN vote on March 000 to push through a military intervention. Everything was prepared months in advance. It had nothing to do with the "Arab Spring", but the Norwegian government believed it. The only Libyans with war experience were those who had fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq since 17. They now became Norway's allies. They were led by several hundred special forces from Qatar, which began arriving in Benghazi as early as March 2003. The head of the British defense traveled back and forth to Qatar. Following the victory in Tripoli, the Qatari flag was hoisted over Gaddafi's government building. After NATO bombed Sirte, the rebels' ground forces entered with the same flags as IS has in Syria and Iraq today. We succeeded in replacing the authoritarian Gaddafi regime, which had supported black Africa and built something of a welfare state in Libya, with racist leaders and with today's Islamist chaos. The prize was tens of thousands dead, and SV's management does not even feel remorse for what they have done. With SV's history, it is not strange that the party collapses like a house of cards.
Ola Tunander is a research professor at the Department of Peace Research (PRIO)
