Muammar Kadhafi Frightens Libyan Rebels… Even After His Death

The former right-hand man of late Libyan Colonel Muammar Kadhafi, Ahmed Keddaf Eddam, breaks his long-standing silence in this exclusive interview granted to Echorouk in Cairo (Egypt).

• Echorouk: How do you see Libya nowadays?
• Ahmed Keddaf Eddam: The war has turned Libya and Africa into a battlefield and a bloodbath. The region has become a real conflict zone. Loads of weapons circulate freely across the troubled region, blood is spilled, women are raped and imprisoned, and nobody is safe. In a nutshell, the future is quite uncertain…

• Echorouk: That’s why you have put forth a plan to bail the country out of its acute crisis?
• Ahmed Keddaf Eddam: Absolutely, my plan is aimed at settling the current crisis besetting Libya and healing its wounds.
• But this initiative can succeed only with the establishment of a genuine and all-inclusive dialogue involving all the real Libyan patriots. The Libyans have now only two alternatives to choose from: “a sincere dialogue or a collective suicide”.
• I have met for this purpose with representatives of several Libyan tribes among them youngsters to expound my initiative hoping that it will snowball among the majority of the Libyan people.

• Echorouk: Do you think that the ruling NTC is able to hammer out a an efficient solution to Libya’s current turmoil?

• Ahmed Keddaf Eddam: As a matter of fact, the NTC has the will but has not the necessary capacities to deal effectively with the manifold crisis because it is not deeply entrenched at the grass-roots level among the Libyan population.
• Most NTC members have come from the outside and they don’t quite understand the Libyan demography and mentality.
• They see the current crisis from a tight angle and I can assure you that several pro-Kadhafi tribes are biding their time and looking for the best opportunity to muster enough forces to avenge him and rise up against the new rulers.
• Even those who were against the Kadhafi regime are not content with the current bleak situation. However, the only viable solution to the current turmoil goes through an all-inclusive dialogue and reconciliation away from any confrontation or settling of scores.