he grew up in a family belonging to the Gafafa tribe, which used to work as herders. However, he got to access Military Academy.
Together with his comrades-in-arms, he made use of his leadership knowledges and reached power of Libya after the coup d’etat of September 1, 1969 that overthrew king Idris Senussi –in throne since Libya’s independence of 1951.
Political extravagances
By his changing policies aiming to stand him out as an Arab leader, Gaddafi destabilized African countries, insulted Palestinian and Arab leaders, something that improved his negotiations with Israel. However, he did not support Sadam Hussein during the Gulf War of 1991.
Among his political “brilliant ideas” –apart from his Green Book-, he tried to enter into an alliance with countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria or Marocco, in order to become leader of some United States of Africa.
Libya’s income from oil allowed him to carry out all kind of extravagances and interventions in neighbouring countries during the different Chadian wars.
Qaddafi's first order of business was to shut down the American and British military bases in Libya. He also demanded that foreign oil companies in Libya share a bigger portion of revenue with the country. Qaddafi replaced the Gregorian calendar with the Islamic one, and forbid the sale of alcohol. Feeling threatened by a failed coup attempt by his fellow officers in December 1969, Qaddafi put in laws criminalizing political dissent. In 1970, he expelled the remaining Italians from Libya, and emphasized what he saw as the battle between Arab nationalism and western imperialism. He vocally opposed Zionism and Israel, and expelled the Jewish community from Libya. Qaddafi's inner circle of trusted people became smaller and smaller, as power was shared by himself and a small group of family and friends.
In these early days, Qaddafi sought to orient Libya away from the West, and towards the Middle East and Africa. He involved the Libyan military in several foreign conflicts, including in Egypt and Sudan, and the bloody civil war in Chad. In 1974, Qaddafi published the Green Book, an explanation of his political philosophy. The book describes the problems with liberal democracy and capitalism, and promotes Qaddafi's policies as the remedy. Qaddafi claimed that Libya boasted popular committees and shared ownership, but in reality this was far from true. Qaddafi had appointed himself or close family and friends to all positions of power, and their corruption and crackdowns on any kind of civic organizing meant much of the population lived in poverty. Meanwhile, Qaddafi and those close to him were amassing fortunes in oil revenue.
Qaddafi's ruling style was not just repressive, it was eccentric. He had a cadre of female bodyguards, considered himself the king of Africa, erected a tent to stay in when he traveled abroad, and dressed in strange costume-like outfits. His bizzare antics often distracted from his brutality, and earned him the nickname "the mad dog of the Middle East."
In addition to his oppressive rule at home, Qaddafi was despised by much of the international community. His government was implicated in the financing many anti-western groups, including some terror plots. The Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, and the Irish Republican Army all allegedly had links to Qaddafi. Because of Libya's links to Irish terrorism, the United Kingdom cut off diplomatic relations with Libya for more than a decade. In the most famous instance, Libya was implicated in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. A plane carrying 270 people blew up near Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. In 1988, U.S. warplanes carried out bombings in Libya, in a failed attempt to kill Qaddafi.
Gaddafi’s relations with terrorism
His refusal to hand over two suspects of the terrorist attack that took place in Lockerbie (Scotland) in 1988, in which 270 people died after a Pan Am airplane exploded, entailed him several UNO’s sanctions in 1992. However, Nelson Mandela acted as a mediator and finally Gaddafi handed over both suspects in 1999.
In 2003, the United States and Libya began a reapproachement after Gaddafi’s announcement of stopping the development of weapons of massive destruction. This reapprochement ended up with an ambassador exchange in 2008.
During the summit of the African Union, held in Addis Ababa on February 1 - 3, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, president of Libya, was elected Chairman of the Union's Assembly (summit) for the ensuing year. This is the first time he has served as head of either the African Union or its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. What is the significance of this move and what are its likely consequences?
Gaddafi has long been the most active proponent among African heads of state of the creation of a United States of Africa. If achieved, this would be the practical realisation of an ideal that had its origins in Pan Africanist conferences held over the past hundred years in the Caribbean, the United States and Britain.
Pan Africanism was promoted in Africa itself initially by Kwame Nkrumah when he led Ghana to independence in 1958.
But even today the idea of African unification is most passionately advocated by members of the Diaspora who live outside the continent and who would not have to deal with the realities flowing from the achievement of their vision for Africa.
Excepting Muammar Gaddafi, that is. Heads of state in Addis Ababa were treated to the spectacle of the Libyan leader arriving in a brilliant gold cloak and cap, surrounded by seven gold-clad figures who were announced to be traditional African kings.
Brother Leader was described as "King of Kings". All that was missing was the coronation itself.
The first serious decision on the steps needed to set up a Union Government of Africa was adopted at the AU's Accra Summit in 2007. African leaders were far from unanimous about the concept itself and the steps needed to establish it.
The usual committees were established to work out the modalities and fudge the profound differences that exist among African leaders.
The Libyan proposal was to start with a Ministry of Defence to administer an African army and a Ministry of Transport and Communications to oversee the improvement of Africa's infrastructure. The latter is a commendable objective that could improve the quality of life of Africans and make intra-African trade and travel a more realistic prospect.
Indeed, the main item on the agenda of the 2009 Summit was Infrastructure Development in Africa.
But there are two major problems: First, the ability of African nations to meet the costs and provide the capacity, and secondly the fact that most African countries trade with the developed world, rather than among themselves. Because of disagreements among leaders meeting behind closed doors, the summit was unable to complete its work in the allotted three days, even after sitting until 3 a.m. and the meeting continued into a fourth day. In the end they agreed to change the name of the African Union Commission to the African Union Authority, a nod to the ideal of a Union Government.
At the political level there are two major stumbling blocks. While all African leaders give token support to the concept of African unity, they also demand recognition of the principle of national sovereignty. At least part of the reason why the Zimbabwe issue has been so difficult to deal with has been the insistence that Zimbabwe's national sovereignty should not be infringed. The second issue is the point of view graphically expressed by former President Thabo Mbeki in an address at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana during the 2007 AU Summit. He said that he had never heard of anyone who started to build his house from the roof down.
The Abuja Treaty of 1991 provides for the creation of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as the building blocks for progressive African unification. While RECs for all regions in Africa have nominally been set up, the record of their achievements range from reasonable to non-existent. If it has proved so difficult to create effective regional communities and regional rapid response brigades, how much more difficult would it be instantaneously to set up and run a single government with a single military force for all of Africa.
Crudely put, it would boil down to this: Who will get the big car? Would 52 African heads of state be prepared overnight to cede their trapping of power and prestige and their nation's sovereignty to one among their number, whether he styles himself as "King of Kings" or some other outrageous title? I think not.
Sadly for him, Gaddafi's year as head of the African Union will produce nothing more substantive than the tenure of all his predecessors, but it may be more flamboyant!!
After more than four decades in power, Qaddafi's downfall happened in less than a year. In January of 2011, the Tunisian revolution forced out longtime dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and set off the Arab Spring. The next month Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak was forced out, providiing a morale boost to protesters in several Arab capitals. Despite the atmosphere of severe repression, demonstrations broke out in Benghazi, and spread throughout the country.
Qaddafi used aggressive force to try to suppress the protests, adn the violence quickly escalated. Police and foreign mercenaries were brought in to shoot at protesters, and helicopters were sent to bombard protesters from the air. As casualties mounted, Libyans grew more determined to see Qaddafi's ouster. As violence spread through the country, Qaddafi made several rambling speeches on state television, claiming the demonstrators were traitors, foreigners, al Qaeda, and drug addicts. He urged his supporters to continue the fight, and small groups of heavily armed loyalists battled against the rebels.
By the end of February, the opposition had gained control over much of the country, and the rebels formed a governing body called the National Transitional Council. The opposition surrounded Tripoli, where Qaddafi still had some support. Most of the international community expressed support for the NTC, and called for the ouster of Qaddafi. At the end of March, a NATO coalition began to provide support for the rebel forces in the form of airstrikes and a no-fly zone. NATO's military intervention over the next six months proved to be decisive. In April, a NATO attack killed one of Qaddafi's sons. When Tripoli fell to rebel forces, it was seen as a major victory for the opposition, and a symbolic end for Qaddafi.
In June, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Qaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam, and his brother-in-law, for crimes against humanity. In July, more than 30 countries recognized the NTC as the legitimate government of Libya. Qaddafi had lost control of Libya, but his whereabouts were still unknown.
Death
On Thursday, October 20, Libyan officials announced the death of Muammar al-Qaddafi near his hometown of Surt. Early reports had conflicting accounts of his death, while some said he was killed in a gun battle, and others said he was targeted by a NATO aerial attack. For months, Qaddafi and his family had been at large, believed to be hiding in the western part of the country, where they still had small pockets of support. As news of the former dictator's death spread, Libyans poured into the streets, celebrating the what many hailed as the culmination of their revolution.
