authoritarian administration systematically violated human rights and financed global terrorism in the region and abroad.[1]
Reception
According to Bearman, Gaddafi "evoked the extremes of passion: supreme adoration from his following, bitter contempt from his opponents".
typhoid being contained and life expectancy raised.[4]
Gaddafi was a controversial and highly divisive world figure. Supporters lauded him for his willingness to tackle the unfair economic legacy of foreign domination as well as his support of pan-Africanism and pan-Arabism. Conversely, he was internationally condemned as a dictator whose authoritarian administration violated the human rights of Libyan citizens, persecuted dissidents abroad, and supported international terrorism.
—Yuval Karniel, Amit Lavie-Dinur and Tal Azran, 2015[1]
Biographers Blundy and Lycett believed that under the first decade of Gaddafi's leadership, life for most Libyans "undoubtedly changed for the better" as material conditions and wealth drastically improved,
Paris 8 University were hailing Gaddafi as "the only Third World leader with any real stomach for struggle".[14]
Pro-Gaddafi demonstrators
Anti-Gaddafi demonstrators
According to critics, Libya's people lived in a climate of fear under Gaddafi's administration, due to his government's pervasive surveillance of civilians.
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.[27][28][29]
Gaddafi's government's treatment of non-Arab Libyans came in for criticism from human rights activists, with native Berbers, Italians, Jews, refugees, and foreign workers all facing persecution in Gaddafist Libya.
neo-colonial control over Libya.[32] During the Civil War, various leftist groups endorsed the anti-Gaddafist rebels—but not the Western military intervention—by arguing that Gaddafi had become an ally of Western imperialism by cooperating with the War on Terror and efforts to block African migration to Europe.[33] Gaddafi's actions in promoting foreign militant groups, although regarded by him as a justifiable support for national liberation movements, was seen by the United States as interference in the domestic affairs of other nations and active support for international terrorism.[34] Gaddafi himself was widely perceived as a terrorist, especially in the US and UK.[35]
The Libyan anti-Gaddafist movement brought together a diverse array of groups, which had varied motives and objectives.[8] It comprised at least five generations of oppositional forces which included Islamic fundamentalists who opposed his radical reforms, a few active monarchists, members of the old pre-Gaddafist elite, conservative nationalists who backed his Arab nationalist agenda but opposed his left-wing economic reforms, and technocrats who had their future prospects stunted by the 1969 coup.[36] He also faced opposition from rival socialists such as Ba'athists and Marxists;[37] during the Civil War, he was criticized by both left-of-centre and right-of-centre governments for overseeing human rights abuses.[38][39] Gaddafi became a bogeyman for Western governments,[2] who presented him as the "vicious dictator of an oppressed people".[9] For these critics, Gaddafi was "despotic, cruel, arrogant, vain and stupid,"[40] with Pargeter noting that "for many years, he came to be personified in the international media as a kind of super villain."[41]
Posthumous assessment
Former president of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo discusses the impact of Gaddafi's death on Africa in September 2012
International reactions to Gaddafi's death were divided. US President Barack Obama stated that it meant that "the shadow of tyranny over Libya has been lifted,"[42] while UK Prime Minister David Cameron stated that he was "proud" of his country's role in overthrowing "this brutal dictator".[43] Contrastingly, former Cuban President Fidel Castro commented that in defying the rebels, Gaddafi would "enter history as one of the great figures of the Arab nations",[44] while Venezuela's Hugo Chávez described him as "a great fighter, a revolutionary and a martyr".[45] Former South African President Nelson Mandela expressed sadness at the news, praising Gaddafi for his anti-apartheid stance, remarking that he backed Mandela's African National Congress during "the darkest moments of our struggle".[46]
Gaddafi was mourned as a hero by many across sub-Saharan Africa;
Daily Times of Nigeria for instance stated that while undeniably a dictator, Gaddafi was the most benevolent in a region that only knew dictatorship, and that he was "a great man that looked out for his people and made them the envy of all of Africa".[48] The Nigerian newspaper Leadership reported that while many Libyans and Africans would mourn Gaddafi, this would be ignored by Western media and that as such it would take 50 years before historians decided whether he was "martyr or villain".[49]
^Nwonwu, Chiagozie (27 October 2011). "Remembering Gaddafi the Hero". Daily Times of Nigeria. Archived from the original on 31 July 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
Karniel, Yuval; Lavie-Dinur, Amit; Azran, Tal (2015). "Broadcast Coverage of Gaddafi's Final Hours in Images and Headlines: A Brutal Lynch or the Desired Death of a Terrorist?". The International Communication Gazette. 77 (2): 171–188.
Ronen, Yehudit (1986). "Libya". In Shaked, Haim; Dishon, Daniel (eds.). Middle East Contemporary Survey. Volume VIII: 1983–84. Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. pp. 578–603.
Zoubir, Yahia H. (2009). "Libya and Europe: Economic Realism at the Rescue of the Qaddafi Authoritarian Regime". Journal of Contemporary European Studies. 17 (3): 401–415.
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