Tripoli has been given over to huge posters proclaiming 40 years of Gaddafi's rule. Photograph: Ammar Abd Rabbo/AFP/Getty Images
Libya launched a week of lavish events tonight celebrating Muammar Gaddafi's 40 years in power despite a near total boycott by western leaders signalling their distaste at the welcome home given to the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
Thirty African presidents flew into a city draped in flags, posters and banners proclaiming the achievements of the "Great al-Fateh Revolution" on 1 September 1969 that overthrew the pro-western monarchy and paved the way for the Jamahiriya, the "state of the masses", in which power is meant to be held by thousands of "peoples' committees."
But other leaders – including most European heads of state – are avoiding the event, as the fallout from the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi continued to contaminate relations. Diplomats revealed that Britain's ambassador to Libya, Sir Vincent Fean, has gone abroad and will not be joining envoys and VIPs at the gala events – another deliberate snub after a planned visit by the Duke of York was cancelled as the Lockerbie row erupted in Britain.
Yesterday Libyan officials reported that Megrahi's condition had worsened.
The centrepiece of the celebrations is an enormous stage constructed in Green Square overlooking the Mediterranean, Tripoli's main public space and the scene of many of Gaddafi's famously rambling speeches. The main streets of the capital have been cleaned up and decorated with green flags and giant posters of Gaddafi in flamboyant uniforms.
Banners vaunt Libya's "New Dawn" and the achievements of the revolution.
Because it is Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting from dawn to dusk, events will be held only at night.
Italian air force jets – the equivalent of Britain's Red Arrows – will stage a display tomorrow, prompting comments about how things have changed since the US air force bombed the capital in 1986.
Other plans involve concerts of Arab and western music, a son et lumière spectacular at the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna and a heavily promoted enactment of key periods in the country's 5,000-year history – highlighting Phoenician trade, Roman civilisation and Arab learning.
Camels, horses, fireworks, hot air balloons and a brass band from Wales are just part of an extravagant lineup.
Libyan officials are dutifully exultant – though most ordinary people seem bemused rather than excited at the scale of the fuss. "Of course we love our leader," said Naji, a 32-year old driver who lives with his mother because he cannot afford to marry. "But this is a rich country with a lot of poor people."
Earlier, Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan – wanted for war crimes in Darfur – rubbed shoulders at an African Union summit called by Gaddafi, the organisation's current chairman.
And there was a reminder of the Libyan leader's taste for controversy when he told fellow leaders that Israel was "behind all of Africa's conflicts", including Darfur and Somalia. "As African brothers we must find solutions to stop the superpowers who are pillaging our continent," he urged them.
The Libyan regime seems keen to limit the damage done by the reception for Megrahi at Tripoli airport so it is thought unlikely he will appear in public.
Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the leader's influential younger son, insisted that Megrahi had not been given a "hero's welcome". No official reception had been held to mark Megrahi's return and both Libyan and foreign media were barred from covering the event, he wrote in the International Herald Tribune.
But the boycott of the anniversary celebrations by western leaders sends its own stark message to a regime that had been relishing its emergence from isolation.
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, was in Tripoli for a few hours on Sunday, but left after opening the first stage of a new highway linking Tunisia to Egypt and which Rome is paying for in reparation for the horrors suffered by Libya when it was an Italian colony. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is expected.
• This article was amended on Tuesday 15 September 2009. A remark that Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez is a current contender for the "pariah" status Muammar Gaddafi held for so long was removed. "Pariah" was the wrong word; we did not intend to suggest that other countries have broken diplomatic relations with Venezuela: we meant to convey that Venezuela's president is regarded by some as a controversial figure.
(The Guardian, London)
Periódico británico The Guardian rectifica falsa acusación que describe a Chávez como paria |
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| El periódico británico The Guardian tuvo que retractarse el día de hoy de la falsa acusación que publicara recientemente Ian Black, editor de asuntos del Medio Oriente, en la cual catalogó al presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, como “aspirante al título de paria que Gaddafi ha mantenido por bastante tiempo”. Ian Black formuló este comentario, sin basamento alguno, en un artículo intitulado “Las sombras del Megrahi tiñen la gran celebración en Libia de los 40 años de Gaddafi (31 de agosto de 2009). El Embajador de Venezuela en Londres, Samuel Moncada, se comunicó con el periódico The Guardian para exigirles una rectificación, y posteriormente Siobahin Butterworth, editora de la sección de lectores del Guardian, le informó al Embajador que su periódico “eliminó la citada oración de la página web, y agregó una nota a pie de página en donde se explica el cambio” y que señala lo siguiente: "Este artículo fue corregido el martes 15 de septiembre de 2009. Removimos un comentario que señalaba al presidente de Venezuela Hugo Chávez como aspirante al título de "paria" que Gaddafi ha mantenido por bastante tiempo. "Paria" no era la palabra correcta; no fue nuestra intención sugerir que otros países han roto relaciones diplomáticas con Venezuela. Quisimos expresar que algunas personas consideran que el Presidente de Venezuela es una figura controversial". Esta es la segunda vez que una publicación británica se retracta por versiones erradas en relación con Venezuela. El mes pasado The Economist se retractó de afirmaciones infundadas sobre una presunta participación de tropas militares venezolanas en Bolivia. Al respecto, el embajador Moncada afirmó: “me complace saber que The Guardian se ha retractado de las falsas acusaciones que califican al presidente Chávez de paria. Desafortunadamente, han sido muchos los artículos de desinformación y manipulación en los medios británicos acerca de los avances en Venezuela. Razón por la cual siempre estaremos dispuestos a agotar todos los esfuerzos para contrarrestar dichas desinformaciones. Por encima de todo debe reportarse adecuada y honestamente para que sean los mismos lectores quienes lleguen a sus propias conclusiones”. Prensa Embajada de Venezuela en Reino Unido e Irlanda del Norte / 18/09/2009 |
