• Today we are learning how NATO was involved in the recent uprising in Libya.

NATO & LIBYA

Arab SpringThe Arab Spring is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world against Government repression .

These began on 17 December 2010 in Tunisia when Mohamed Bouaziz set fire to himself in protest at Police corruption .

Since then rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

There have also been uprisings in Bahrain and Syria and major protests have broken out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Oman.

NATO & LIBYA

MUAMMAR GADAFFI(COLONEL GADAFFI)

• Gadaffi ruled Libya from 1969 to 2011.

NATO & Libya• Libya was effectively a

dictatorship and human rights were restricted e.g. freedom of speech.

• Over the years, countries in the West have been concerned about Gadaffi’s links with other African leaders who were also dictators.

• The 1988 Lockerbie bombing – when a Pan Am flight from London to the USA was blown up killing 270 people, was also blamed on Libya.

• Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Megrahi was released in 2009 on compassionate grounds.

• Protests erupt in Benghazi, Libya’s second city after the arrest of a human rights campaigner.

• Over several months there is continual fighting between Libyan Government forces loyal to Gaddafi and the opposing National Transitional Council.

Libya

• 26 February 2011 - The UN Security Council votes to refer Colonel Gaddafi to the international criminal court for war crimes.

• A further UN Security Council resolution authorised member states to establish and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, and to use "all necessary measures" to prevent attacks on civilians.

• NATO took control of all military operations for Libya under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1970 & 1973 on 31 March 2011.

• The aim of Operation UNIFIED PROTECTOR is to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under attack or threat of attack.

• The mission comprised of three elements: an arms embargo, a no-fly-zone and actions to protect civilians from attack or the threat of attack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_Unified_Protector_logo.png

• On Thursday 20 October 2011 Muammar Gaddafi was found by rebel forces hiding outside Sirte in a drain. He and others had taken shelter there after their convoy had been hit by a NATO air strike as it attempted to escape.

•He was captured and killed by National Transitional Council forces. A spokesman for the National Transitional Council – Libya's ruling body – said Gaddafi was alive when captured but died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

• The National Transitional Council "declared the liberation of Libya" and the official end of the war on 23 October 2011.

• At no time were any forces under NATO command on the ground in Libya - NATO's success was achieved solely with air and sea assets.

Overall, its warplanes flew more than 26,000 sorties, including nearly 10,000 strike missions. More than 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns were destroyed, along with Col Gaddafi's command and control network.

NATO warplanes bomb Libyan ships at the Tripoli port.