A UN Peacekeeping force should be sent to Libya….

Following the rather rapid implosion of the Gaddafi regime, the situation in Libya is fluid and dangerous. Distressing and disgusting reports that the NTC government is targeting black people and launching indiscriminate attacks on them are simply too numerous to ignore:

Human rights groups have expressed concerns about beatings and detentions of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

”I really fear vigilante justice and retribution and attacks by civilians against other civilians,” said Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who completed a fact-finding mission in Misrata in June.

Meanwhile, the situation between Libya and Algeria is tense. Algeria have admitted to giving Gaddafi’s family shelter. I have little sympathy for the NTC here, yes Gaddafi and those of his family who took an active part in the regime (like his now infamous sons) should be held to account but hounding his wife and younger sons and daughters and demanding they stay in Libya leaves justice far behind and is well into revenge and retribution territory. Algeria is also stoking tensions by refusing to recognise the NTC government.

Meanwhile, NATO continues to help the NTC and shows little sign of any immediate plans for withdrawal. As can be seen however, NATO’s presence is not what is needed. What is needed is a ground force to ensure some stability; to protect innocents from vigilante action, and to dissuade the NTC from starting a shooting war with Algeria. NATO can obviously not perform any of these functions and its core countries are unlikely to oblige in any case. So, the burden falls on the United Nations to act principally in concert with the African Union. The AU needs to put its selfish posturing aside in refusing to recognise the NTC and think and act in the interests of the Libyan people. Whatever you think of the NATO intervention and the UN Resolution that led to it, whatever your opinion of the NTC even, these issues should be secondary to that primary concern.

It is time for the United Nations to take the lead, for NATO to withdraw, and ultimately, in the current context, that must mean a peacekeeping force be established and sent to Libya with utmost rapidity.