No

by Mariam Demian

Created on: October 25, 2011

I begin with trepidation, realizing that 'no' is the less favorable answer to this question. However I cannot see the alternative as being one that will bring comfort to the families of those who lost their lives under the Gaddafi regime. In fact I was perplexed at hearing of the multiple sources who demanded that a coroner determine the exact cause of his death; not because I believe in capital punishment or am against fair justice systems but because of the simplified fact that 'he got what he deserved'.

To put him on trial would be to give him a certain amount of dignity that he took away from an unquantifiable number of people. I understand that this, perhaps, elementary way of thinking is somewhat archaic and barbaric. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind was what Mahatma Gandhi taught us a long time ago, but Gaddafi's fate was befitting of a man who turned the world against him.

In the midst of the Arab Spring, seeing the way in which his neighbouring dictators, Ben Ali and Mubarak, were forced to leave their self-entitled 'thrones' and humiliated on a global scale, one can almost be certain someone like Gaddafi rationalized his stubborn grip in Libya and refusal to step down with the fact that 'the other two were not as good at fighting'. Ghaddafi literally fought to the death and while there are conflicting reports on his last words or the truth of his last moments, there is certainty in the joy that befell the country and its citizens at hearing of his demise.

There is a sweet and sick justice in his never getting to be held accountable formally in a public domain in my view. Gaddafi fought dirty and the boomerang effect took hold in his final days. His enemies had no mercy on him as he had no mercy on them. Quite similar to Mubarak's days of 'leadership', yet somehow Mubarak's sins never quite added up to the atrocities and human injustices that Gaddafi had inflicted on innocent people.

If Muammar Ghaddafi had in fact been brought to trial in Libya or an international court what would have followed would without doubt include lengthy hearings where he is displayed on television screens and plastered on newspapers as the headline of the day every time there was a turn in the trial that was deemed news- worthy. Most likely, depending on where he'd be held, he would have also gotten some sort of prisoner protection and the entire world would be watching, until an illness or age got the best of him.

Once again, that all adds up to him being treated with a level of respect that he did not bestow on the men and women that were killed and buried in the desert sands, never to be tracked until recently. To give him a fair trial would also be, in my opinion, a slap in the face of those who lost loved ones in the 1988 Pan Am flight  whose bombers were protected by Gaddafi, who also did not offer compensation to victims until 2001 when he wanted to secure lifting of sanctions on his country.

He was a mad man, an evil genius and a showman who wouldn't settle for anything less that all eyes on him. Our eyes should now be focused on a renewal in the North African region where hope now resides, not on a man who had no regard for anyone but himself.

Learn more about this author, Mariam Demian.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.