Libya lead the UN Security Council? Is this some king of a Joke or is the world smoking some drug that i am not aware of? Libya is on the list of the few nations not qualified to lead any international organization and should fix its own problems before getting involved in world issues.
On August 2002, US State Department confirmed that Libya is pursuing means of production of biological weapons - a program that is banned by numerous UN and International laws. In fact the UN's official position on these weapons is that they are "illegitimate and inhumane weapons." So how can a nation developing such weapons be in charge of the UN security council?
Libya has a long shadowy history of supporting terrorism and has been on the list of state sponsor of terrorism for significantly numerous years during the past five decades. Its leader considers these groups are "downtrodden" so he has been actively supporting their cause. Libya has also terrorized its own people through torture, persecution of political opposition, suppression of workers rights, and arbitrary prison detainment of innocent people considered a threat to the state. In fact, Libya still has political prisoners in its jails from the 80s.
So when Libya was made the chair of the Human Rights Commission in 2003, it was a slap to the face for all Human Rights activists and organizations. One of the worst violator of Human Rights was put in charge of combating Human Rights violations throughout the world - and even worse, it was a Arab country that hated Israel. So as one can expect, Libya's most significant achievement in the Human Rights Commission was to pass over 30 resolutions condemning Israel for everything from the Palestinian issue to the attacks on Terrorist groups. Meanwhile, Sudan was experiencing a genocide in Darfur that Libya conveniently forgot to bring up in the Commission. But Sudan is not alone here. There was Burma, Sri Lanka, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other regions of the world that experienced Human Rights violations that Libya could not address because it was busy calling emergency sessions on Israel. Better yet, how can a nation that will not ratify the treaty on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography be the chair of this important committee?
Libyan Leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi uses his oil money to ensure that his country gets an important voice in the African Union and thus the reason for the country's nomination from the African nations to lead the UN Human Rights Commission. Libya is smart, it decided to review its policy on the western nations. Since Libya accepted the responsibility for the Lockerbie airliner bombing in 2003, the US has been working more closely with Libya and developing a friendly relationship. Since the acceptance of the responsibility, Libya and Western Nations began to have more diplomatic contact and is now working out several of their past grievances and issues.
More recently, this month (August 2008) Libya announced that it will sign a free trade accord with the European Union and has already entered into talks with Italy, Belarus, Belgium, Britain and Canada. Since its warming of ties with Western nations, Libya has come out of diplomatic isolation and economic stagnation and is emerging as a powerful voice in the mainstream of international politics. But some suspect that the friendly relations with Libya comes because of the cheap oil that Libya is willing to sell to its western friends. Currently Libya exports over 1.34 Million oil barrels per day and oil buys friends.
So as of 2006, US restored full diplomatic and trade links with Libya. Of course, Libya's dismantling of weapons of mass destruction in 2003 helped justify this but the new US-Iranian chess match has contributed to the sudden warming of relations with Libya. But is Libya ready?
Some say they are. They are becoming one of the closest allies of US from the Arab states and is exporting alot of oil to the West. With a bit more foreign investments, Libya promises to be capable of exporting more than enough oil to lower the price on the markets. So having a newly developing nation becoming head of the UN is good?
I think not. Libya is still controlled by a dictator and has numerous political, civilian, social and economic issues that need to be dealt with internally. A dictator leading a world that is majority of Democracies does not make sense at all. What is even more suspicious is the sudden change of heart in the Libyan leadership. Why would a nation that hated the west and supported terrorist organizations all of a sudden kick out those organizations and ally with the west within a time gap of only 2 years. In fact, Libyan leader Qaddafi at one point said "I have no time to lose with Arabs" when most of his subjects consider themselves as African-Arabs.
But more important, the issues Libya so stubbornly refused to acknowledge or cooperate with, Libya is now thinking over. Libya for example started paying money to the victims of terrorism in France due to Libya sponsoring those groups and even surrendered those involved in the 1988 Pan Am bombing case to the European authorities.
So what makes Libya not qualified for leading the UN security council? In short, Libya has a long history of diplomatic isolation, supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and biological arms, sponsoring espionage missions and a strong ties to the Arab-middle eastern nations. Now all of a sudden, it has switched its views and has begun a new pan-African movement and a new foreign policy that links with the western governments. So what is Colonel Qaddafi and his government really have in mind?
The new changes are just too young and too radical to determine the effects of such actions within Libya and with its former relationships with terrorist organizations and Arab countries. I think Libya is taking the right steps towards the right direction. But Libya is just not ready yet to take on the international world. I suggest we hold off on Libya for a few more years as it fixes its internal issues before taking world stage.
Colonel Qaddafi also needs to rethink his country's civil, political and economic stances more before taking up a leadership role in the UN. In short, lets wait and see how well Libya progress before we start pushing on more responsibility onto that government.