THIS MONTH both Libya and Syria are celebrating anniversaries with totally different outcomes. The dilemma is that Syria continues to appear to be given special treatment by the international community.
Although Libyans are now observing the first anniversary of the revolution that toppled former president Muammar Gaddafi, they seem increasingly frustrated with their new leadership.
There are several complaints by Libyans that the interim government, known as the National Transitional Council (NTC), has not moved quickly enough to purge and prosecute senior Gaddafi officials, or to rein in the militias that overthrew his regime.
The problem is that Libya has never been blessed with a professional bureaucracy. And almost two decades of international sanctions prevented a generation of Libyans from gaining the necessary technical skills.
Such inertia does not sit well with the many Libyans who are still undecided about the revolution.
The NTC is still hamstrung because since its inception last February, it is still a transitional body that would cede power to an elected government once the country was liberated.
With elections set to be held no later than June 23, the NTC has three months to prepare Libya for its first free vote in 60 years. Consequently, it simply does not have the time necessary to implement the changes the Libyan people want. So in effect little has changed since the revolution.
March 15 was the day the first Syrian protests began a year ago, with no end in sight. All six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states decided to close their embassies in Syria for the regime’s “massacring its people and rejecting all initiatives aimed at finding a solution to the crisis”.
This collective decision by the GCC states is a strong rejoinder to the Syrian government for failing to heed all diplomatic calls to resolve the crisis peacefully over the past year.
Frantic efforts undertaken by the GCC and other member states of the Arab League were met with resistance by President Bashar al-Assad, who has refused to stop the use of force against civilians, thus escalating the situation to an extent that external military intervention to stop the ongoing massacre now seems the only choice.
While this is the last option the major powers would like to exercise, their drive to obtain a Security Council resolution for sanctions has been frustrated by the vetoes of both Russia and China.
Despite United Nations Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s recent meetings with the Syrian leader, there was failure to secure a truce and to gain access for humanitarian groups. In the meantime, the carnage continues.