A betrayal that would shame us all

The Paul Richards column

The eye-witness accounts from north east Libya are laden with descriptions of the crack of bullets, the rumble of tanks, and the sound of explosions. There’s something else in the air too. It’s the stench of betrayal. Benghazi’s armed uprising is the pivotal event of the Arab Spring. Like Prague in 1968, it is giving hope to the young across the region. And like the Prague Spring, or the Hungarian Uprising a decade earlier, it is a battle which pits lightly-armed irregulars against tanks and infantry.

If the rebellion fails in Libya, Gaddafi’s reprisals will be swift and bloody. There will be dawn raids, torture, executions, a generation of ‘the missing’ whose unmarked graves will be unearthed by future investigators. Young men fighting for democracy will be murdered in droves. Like the pro-democracy uprisings in Iraq in 1991, crushed without mercy by Saddam, Gaddafi will wipe out his opponents, their families, and anyone else in the way.

The real tragedy is that it can be avoided in the next 72 hours if the battle can be tipped in favour of the rebels by nations who consider democracy a greater prize than diplomatic niceties. This is Spain in 1936. For Madrid, read Benghazi. We need a new international brigade to make a stand. Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary, has called for Egypt to send a brigade of troops to defend Benghazi. Last night British and French efforts (backed by the Arab League) at the United Nations (UN) to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya were being blocked by Germany and Russia.

The no-fly zone is a necessary start. As with Franco’s bombing of Madrid, Gaddafi has total air superiority over the rebels, and aims to use bombing as the decisive factor in the battle. While the UN squabbles, the bombs are dropping on Benghazi’s rebels and civilians alike. The UK, US and Arab League members should enforce the no-fly zone immediately, regardless of opposition within the UN. The US, UK and France established no-fly zones over northern Iraq after the first gulf war in 1991, without a UN resolution, to protect the Kurds from Saddam’s bombers.

David Cameron should act now. Using Britain’s sovereign bases in Cyprus, the RAF should be at the heart of an international effort to prevent further bombing raids by the Libyan air force. Second, the democracies should provide the rebels with munitions, medical supplies and food. These could be supplied by sea or air, over the next few days. Without the threat of bombing, and with the weapons to take on tanks, the rebels stand a fighting chance. But more than that, they will know that their dreams of a free Libya are supported by their friends around the world. Third, if necessary, ‘military advisers’ should be deployed to assist the rebels. The Special Air Service (SAS) regiment is already in Libya; they remit should be extended beyond the rescue of British nationals. Air cover, arms, and boots on the ground – this is what the rebels need right now, not wrangling at the UN and hand-wringing by the likes of the Guardian.

A huge disaster, which would put progress in North Africa back by decades, is in the making. We made the mistake in 1991 of not supporting those Iraqis fighting Saddam, and having to pursue a much costlier and bloodier war later on. In Spain, western democracies allowed the fascists to triumph, and paid a far greater price within a few years.

To stand by as Benghazi falls would be a betrayal which shames us all.