‘Zero hour’ in Libya

Shouts of “Libya is free” rang out in Tripoli’s central square this week as thousands of Libyans celebrated the overthrow of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi. Beyond the capital, the fight against the fugitive dictator’s forces appeared to be entering its final stages. As The Week went to press, rebels were preparing to launch an assault on Sirte, Qaddafi’s birthplace and the last major bastion of regime support. “Zero hour is quickly approaching,” said rebel official Col. Ahmed Omar Bani. Qaddafi’s whereabouts are still unknown. Some rebels speculated that the despot was hiding in Sirte, while others contended that he had fled across the border to Algeria, which this week took in his wife, his daughter, and two of his sons. Rebel officials demanded their return for trial, calling Algeria’s decision to host the family an “aggressive act against the Libyan people’s wish.”

Qaddafi is all but beaten, said Dirk Vandewalle in TheDailyBeast.com. Can the rebels now win the peace? The fact that their fledgling government, the Transitional National Council, has shown a skill for statecraft should inspire optimism. It has established diplomatic relations with dozens of countries, drawn up a constitution, and developed detailed “plans for elections, and for dealing with the incendiary issues of retribution and justice.” To achieve all this “in the midst of a civil war and with scant resources” is hugely impressive.

“But corralling Libya back into a state of law and order” won’t be easy, said Kristen Chick in CSMonitor.com. Some rebels are unlikely to heed any central government’s calls to disarm. There are “old scores” to settle against regime loyalists, some of whom were apparently killed last week with their hands bound. The patchwork rebel alliance could also divide along tribal lines.

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With so much chaos, it’s impossible for Qaddafi to get a fair trial in Libya, said Geoffrey Robertson in the London Guardian. So if the rebels ever catch the tyrant, they should hand him over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. That would promote law and order in Libya by showing that justice trumps revenge, and send a “chilling signal to all other governments tempted to kill their own people.”