-From claimed ‘protection of civilians’
to ‘regime change’ by abuse of power
AS THE United States of America and its principal NATO allies — Britain and France in particular — continue to battle on for “regime change” in Libya, the question remains whether the governments of our Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are disposed to making a principled public statement on the bloody crisis in that North African state, BEFORE President Muammar Gaddafi is removed from office—dead or alive. The current chairman of CARICOM, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas of Grenada, said to me when I called last week for a response that he was personally deeply concerned over “the deterioration” of the crisis situation in Libya, and feels that as a Community interested in peaceful resolutions to conflicts that involve nations with which we have diplomatic relations, it would “be difficult to maintain collective public silence…”
Question of immediate relevance, therefore, is: Are CARICOM governments prepared to tell the people of this region where they “collectively stand” on the war by the western powers for “regime change” in Libya?
For, let there be no mistaking of the status quo that what we are now witnessing in Libya is a scenario wherein the western powers have moved from an original claim of “protecting civilians” to waging a war in support of armed rebels that coincides with their own political agenda to get rid of a Gaddafi government.
Some CARICOM governments whose economic development  programmes are linked to vital funding from Libya are in deep agony as the powerful and wealthy western nations now intensify their military battle for ‘regime change’, with direct bombing strikes last week on the office complex of President Gaddafi.
Among Caribbean leaders expressing concerns, apart from Prime Minister Thomas, were his counterparts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Ralph Gonsalves); Antigua and Barbuda (Baldwin Spencer); Dominica (Roosevelt Skerrit); St Lucia (Stephenson King) and St. Kitts and Nevis (Denzil Douglas).
As the Guardian (UK) was reporting on Easter Monday’s official Libyan complaint that two successive bombing strikes were part of a plan to “assassinate” Gaddafi, the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) was pointing to the consequences for some regional economies in view of the deteriorating situation in Libya.

Region’s economic headache
Immediate projects expected to be affected include the opening of a Libyan embassy in St. Lucia and a bank in St.Kitts. As Prime Minister Spencer contends: “Whether we like it or not, we are still very much dependent on oil from the Middle East, and most of our economies are driven by that… And we are nervously watching developments in the North African country of Libya…”
In addition to that reality, CARICOM leaders would also be conscious of another reality –beyond our dependency on oil. It is the reality that the western nations currently driving the campaign for regime change in Libya, and in the process distorting the UN Security Council’s ‘no-fly zone’ resolution to ‘protect civilians’, do not give a damn what the governments and people of the Latin American and Caribbean region think about how they wage their campaign to get Gaddafi.
Writing earlier on the ‘fig leaf’ support that the Arab League had expediently provided, at Washington’s initiative, for the UN ‘no-fly zone’ resolution of April, I had made clear that as a journalist of this region, I have no tears to shed for Gaddafi, who has been ruling Libya with an iron fist for some four decades.
Further, it was evident that the support sought from the Arab League by the USA and its allies for the UN Security Council’s ‘no-fly zone’ resolution could not mask the real but unstated objective of ‘regime change’ in Tripoli.
In contrast to the double-speak on the current bloody battles in the Middle East/North Africa region, the USA and its two most formidable ‘partners in war’ on Libya — Britain and France — have been demonstrating that ‘regime change’ in Tripoli is the name of the game — as was done in Baghdad to get rid of Saddam Hussein. Then it was done with open contempt for the UN when then President George Bush ignored the world body in launching the US military invasion of Iraq. 
The people and governments of the Caribbean are mere spectators — like people and governments in other poor and developing regions of the world — to the hypocrisy of the USA and its major European allies as they expediently engage in muted criticisms against the brutal repression of western-backed regimes in the Middle East, but pressing for regime change in Libya… Even if, as of now, it means taking out the Libyan dictator dead.                                                

Backing rebels’ war
It would be recalled that back in 1986, President Ronald Reagan had authorized the bombing of Libya — with US jets flying from British bases – including Gaddafi’s residential compound. There were more than one hundred civilian deaths, among them Gaddafi’s adopted baby daughter, Hanna.
In Libya, unlike elsewhere in that region, the USA and its NATO allies are actually involved in warfare on behalf of armed rebels committed to the goal of ending the Gaddafi regime. Not satisfied with the gains of Gaddafi’s political opponents, they are no longer pretending about simply restricting themselves to the original intent of the UN Security Council resolution on ‘protecting’ civilian.
Under enormous pressure from the Obama administration, the UN had refused Libya’s request for a hearing of its position in the current conflict. The UN had made no prior effort to seriously broker negotiations between Gaddafi’s government and the coalition of rebel forces.
While CARICOM ponders the usefulness of at least issuing a collective ‘statement of concern’ about the politics of ‘regime change’ in Libya, the  government in Tripoli has denounced what it regards “as an attempt to assassinate the (Libyan) leader and unifying figure of our country…”
Do not expect America and its NATO allies to give any credence to Gaddafi’s claim that the war currently being waged against Libya reveals a violation of the letter and spirit of the UN Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention “to protect civilians.” 
One does not have to be a political sympathizer of the Libyan leader to make an independent judgment on what’s occurring at present in Libya — in the name of ‘democracy’.
So, will CARICOM,  while rightly making no pretence about having any economic or political clout, at least raise a moral voice against the evident abuse of the UN ‘no-fly zone’ resolution to “protect civilians” in Libya to  now get rid of Gaddafi — dead or alive?