The TV news refers to a liberated Libya soon to have democratic elections for the first time in 42 years (the length of the reign of Gaddafi).
In fact Libya has never ever had democratic elections. The Italians replaced the Turks in 1911. They (and Rommel) were forced out by us Brits in 1943 during World War II.
We in turn handed it over (undemocratically) to King Idris in 1951. All of these regimes were dictatorships as was that of Gaddafi who engineered his Coup d'état in 1969.
His brutal death on Thursday was typical of the removal of dictators who practice corruption and mismanagement, not to mention murder, torture, etc. We had this in Britain ourselves some five hundred years ago. They are now the norm not just in Arabia but also Africa. Ex-rulers are liable to extreme retribution.
They don't open their own foundation (Bill Clinton), travel the world as a revered ambassador (Tony Blair) or wait 20 or so years for the pomp of a full state funeral (predicted for Margaret Thatcher).
They can expect to be killed together with many of their family and tribe as now with Gaddafi. Prior to this, the last example of this reluctance to go quietly was Sadam Hussein and look what happened to him and his sons. We in the west gloated over his downfall in November 2006 when he was sentenced to death.
His execution was clandestinely videoed and shown on British TV. The Sun newspaper had a picture of him in his underpants with the headline You're Well Hung Now. Iraq is still a major headache years later.
As with Gaddafi initially the death of Tito was welcomed way back in 1980. Not now 30 years later when Yugoslavia has split up into 9 unrecognisable countries mostly at daggers drawn with each other. Libya used to be split in Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and the Fezzan. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.
Mike Lillico
Playa de Palma
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