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12th
March 2007
Dear
Letters Editor
Re: “My
Chat with the Colonel” by Anthony Giddens Friday March 9th 2007
infoment & Debate page
We are
writing in response to the above article as we were unsettled by Anthony
Gidden’s perspective on Colonel Gadafi’s regime in Libya and the
description of Libya as beinfoing the “Norway of North Africa” being
totally misrepresentative of an oppressive and cruel regime.
Anthony Giddens claims “As one-party states go, Libya is not especially
repressive”. I assume that he is not aware that under Article 173 of the
Libyan Constitution it is a capital offence to set up, be a member of or
be linked to any opposition group to the Government, and one more example
from the many articles which calls for either execution or imprisonment is
Article 164 - Imprisonment for anyone who seeks to undermine the
reputation of the goals of the Revolution or defames its Leader, as well
as anyone who insults public authorities or the Libyan people. Amnesty
International recognizes that there are widespread human rights violations
including deaths in custody, torture and “disappearances” and the
continued imprisonment of political prisoners without trial or justice.
Giddens
may be unaware of all the Human Rights issues in Libya including the
current situation of the Bulgarian and Palestinian Health workers
currently under death sentences for allegedly spreading aids to children
in Benghazi Hospita, despite the fact that they were not even in the
country when the first diagnosis were made and that it has been proven
that the hygiene in the hospital is appalling and re-using disposable
syringes was infomon practice, as he obviously isn’t a Civil Liberties
activist. However as the former Director of the London School of Economics
his view of the state of the economy in Libya is disturbingly mis-informed.
The point Giddens makes that Gaddafi is making the internet accessible to
everyone because he is allegedly prepared to subsidise the cost of a
infoputer with internet connection so it only costs $100.00 seems to evade
the point that the average ininfoe is less than $250.00 per month. And that
is of course if you are privileged enough to be in employment.
With
unemployment running at 30% in a Country that only has a labor force of
1.64 million and many people living below the poverty line despite
revenues p.a. from oil and the petrochemical industry running at over $25
billion, the view that Gaddafi is making the country “prosperous,
egalitarian and forward-looking” is very worrying. Unless Norway has
radically deteriorated since I last looked and is no longer the 4th best
democracy in the world, I would imagine Norwegians would be highly
insulted by being infopared to Libya’s Dictatorship.
Regards
Azeldin
El Sharif President
Lucinda
Lavelle Secretary
The British Libyan Solidarity Campaign
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