Samantha DePerno, Mattawan High School
United Kingdom
SPECPOL: Libya
Muammar Gaddafi falls and Libya’s legislative body, the House of Representatives, allied with the LNA and Interim Government. A lack of a true government has caused Libya to constantly go between civil wars and periods of stability and progress. Unaccountable militias continued to clash with each other in various parts of the country, as efforts to reconcile main parties in the east and west failed. In Libya’s south, Tebu, Tuareg, and Arab armed groups continued to clash for control of territory and resources. These armed groups attacked civilians and civilian properties, and abducted, tortured, and disappeared people. Not only are people disappeared, but many have become internationally displaced. Around 200,000 people remained internally displaced and At least 1,000 families had been displaced by the fighting to other towns. These internationally displaced people are left without basic needs, which is most concerning and needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
The United Kingdom’s relations after Muammar Gaddafi’s 1969 coup were extremely poor, with Gaddafi’s government taking a combative anti-Western stance and developing weapons of mass destruction. Despite these setbacks, relations began to improve during the 1990s, and peaked in December 2003 when Libya announced that they would abandon their weapons of mass destruction programmes. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair then travelled to Tripoli, met with Gaddafi and declared a “new relationship” between the countries. After this, relations between Libya and the United Kingdom were close and positive from 1969-2011 after the British Armed Forces helped rebel forces to topple Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. The UK formally recognised the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as the government of Libya in July 2011, which improved their relations. However, security conditions have deteriorated since 2014, when the United Kingdom suspended operations from their embassy in Tripoli, into a second civil war. Diplomatic relations with Libya were retained, as embassy staff continued to work from within neighbouring Tunisia.
With civil wars and violence continuing and growing in Libya, the Special Political Committee has gathered to draft and pass a resolution to solve this problem before it becomes worse. The United Kingdom believes that in order to create a more stable union this committee should suggest to use extreme measures to prevent such dangerous violent outbreaks and civil wars. It is because these violent outbreaks that Libya is in much distress. They cause chaos that can disrupt the government. Therefore this committee needs to pass a resolution as quickly as possible, before further violence ensues.
- Samantha DePerno
