END OF JAMAHIRIYA

The leader of the October Revolution once said - it happened! After more than six months of incessant NATO air strikes on Libya, Muammar Gaddafi was destroyed - he was hated by the whole West and an unknown number of his countrymen - unknown because the Benghazi opposition, which undertook the mission to express the will of the Libyan people, took such an impressive time to put an end to decades of dictatorship, despite the fact that the North Atlantic alliance originally planned to deal with the Gaddafi regime as soon as possible. In any case, now it does not matter at all whether or not the whole Libyan people hated the founder of the Jamahiriya so fiercely.

Will the Libyans love the new government? That is the essence of the moment for the country, which has opened a new chapter in its history, in which there will be no room for either "the leader of the Libyan revolution" or the Jamahiriya itself.

Murder in Sirte

Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, died after he was captured by supporters of the Transitional National Council (TNC) that led the rebel movement. This happened in the dictator's hometown of Sirte. The world saw the video footage showing how TNC fighters dragged Gaddafi, who was still alive. The video showing dead Gaddafi left no doubt that he was literally torn to pieces by people who captured him. This was confirmed by a representative of the TNC who admitted that Gaddafi was deliberately killed by the rebels who captured him.

Immediately after the publication of the video, Gaddafi's relatives announced their intention to appeal to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In their view, NATO pilots committed a deliberate war crime by firing at the Jamahiriya leader's convoy. According to Marcel Ceccaldi, the lawyer of Gaddafi's family, NATO helicopters opened fire at a government convoy, which posed no threat to the civilian population. Furthermore, the defence drew attention to the fact that the colonel's corpse was desecrated and put on display in a Misrata shopping pavilion.

The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) also demanded an investigation into the death of Gaddafi. The special advisor to the UN secretary general for post-conflict planning in Libya and head of the UN mission in the country, Ian Martin, also demanded an investigation into the death of Gaddafi. A similar demand was put forward by the international human rights organization Amnesty International.

Under pressure from the international community, the TNC agreed to investigate Gaddafi's murder and even prosecute his killers. Meanwhile, the standing of the new Libyan leadership suffered a significant blow not only from the fact that Gaddafi was brutally murdered and the bodies of the colonel and his son Mutassim were put on public display, but also from their burial in a strictly secret location. Indeed, why are the rebels so afraid even of a dead Gaddafi? Why did they hide his place of burial?

The TNC does not even hide that they feared that Gaddafi's grave could become a centre of unity for supporters of Gaddafi. This means that there are quite a few Gaddafi supporters, although the Libyan rebels and Western propaganda have been trying to prove the opposite in recent months. For this reason, public access to the dictator's grave could pose a real danger to the new authorities, not to mention the fact that the TNC hastened to kill the former dictator and avoid a sensational trial that could result in unpredictable consequences both in terms of the stability of the new Libyan government and the reputation of Western leaders who recently shook hands with Gaddafi so zealously.

Whatever it is, the military operation to topple Gaddafi's regime is over. Power in Libya - one of the world's largest exporters of oil - has been taken over by the TNC. But will Libya now become calmer and how will this country develop in the future?

Repeal of the no-fly zone

A remarkable fact: Immediately after the elimination of Gaddafi, the UN Security Council repealed the no-fly zone in Libya, which was introduced on 17 March to protect the population from the government forces and authorized NATO air strikes on the country. The official date for the end of the military operation was also named - 31 October. All 15 member states of the UN Security Council voted unanimously for the termination of the mandate.

However, the Libyan TNC requested that NATO extend the operation at least until the end of the year. According to TNC head, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the Alliance will help to stabilize the country. Speaking in Qatar at a meeting of chiefs of staff of the states participating in military operations in Libya, Abdel Jalil substantiated his request with the need to "guard the border and prevent armed incursions from neighbouring countries and protect Libya from the remnants of Gaddafi's forces hiding there".

As for the "remnants of Gaddafi's forces", they can really inflict a lot of damage to the new Libyan authorities. The most politicized son of the murdered colonel - energetic Saif al-Islam who swore to avenge his father - also survived. Gaddafi's supporters are now likely to unite around him. His exact whereabouts are unknown. Saif al-Islam is definitely outside Libya - in an African country.

However, according to some sources, a number of Libyan tribes, specifically the Tuaregs - one of the most influential Berber tribes who supported Gaddafi's regime - have taken the oath of allegiance to him. There are assumptions that Gaddafi's supporters might use the Tuaregs to create an independent state in the southern part of the former Jamahiriya.

Meanwhile, the TNC may have problems not only with the Tuaregs, but also many other tribes, or rather the threat of confrontation between tribes that were held in relative unity for a long time due to Gaddafi's iron hand. As this "hand" becomes weaker, the unity of the Libyan tribes may be subjected to a severe test.

In addition, it appears that many forces inside Libya want to be represented in the new government and divide the cake inherited from Gaddafi's reign, including coveted revenues from oil and gas. Among these forces are the so-called Libyan Islamists, who played an important role in the overthrow of the Jamahiriya. In particular, the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood seems to have directly contributed to the fact that shortly after Gaddafi's death, the TNC proclaimed that Libya will now live under Shariah.

The West did not expect such a move by the new Libyan authorities. They immediately came under pressure from NATO, who elevated them to the Libyan throne, and rushed to soften the wording, stating that Shariah will be one of the sources for new Libyan law. Yet the very desire to impose Islam has already been expressed. This confirms one of the most powerful motivations of the Arab revolutionary movement that has swept through the Middle East since the beginning of this year.

The example of Tunisia - the first country where the "Arab Spring" flourished - is noteworthy. The recent parliamentary elections in this country were won by the An-Nahda Islamist party. This fact clearly shows: Islamist forces act as an alternative to authoritarian dictatorships in Arab countries. And Western strategists are surely racking their brains right now, trying to find a kind of alternative to the Islamist movement.

Given this, US President Barack Obama's statement that "Gaddafi's death should be a warning to dictators around the world" is intended to remind them why the West supported the Arab revolution. Syrian President Bashar Assad is clearly on the "black list", which was indirectly mentioned in the US president's extremely expansive statement.

But let's return to the moves of the new Libyan authorities, who asked NATO to stay in Libya as they lack confidence in their own abilities. The West heard the TNC appeal through its faithful ally - Qatar. The Commander-in-Chief of the Qatari Army Maj-Gen Hamad bin Ali Al Attiyah declared: "When it became clear that NATO can withdraw its troops at any time, Libya's friends in the West proposed establishing a new alliance to support Libya and demanded that it should be headed by Qatar, because Qatar is a friend of both the West and Libya."

It must be noted that Qatar was one of the initiators of the no-fly zone over Libya. Furthermore, it is exactly Qatar that controlled the delivery of Libyan oil to world markets during the war in Libya. And obviously, given Qatar's consent to continue to play the role of an engine for Western interests in Libya, the US State Department said that the "Transitional National Council may provide a role for NATO in Libya in the future". So it is possible that the foreign military presence will remain an integral part of the Libyan reality for a long time.