Mbeki criticises West's Libyan intervention

Western powers are determined to bring about regime change in Libya regardless of the cost to that country, former president Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

In a speech to students at Stellenbosch University, delivered in his capacity as patron of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, he said the major Western powers had intervened in Libya to "advance their selfish interests".

They had used the United Nations Security Council -- which, in March this year, adopted a resolution to, among other things, enforce a no-fly zone over Libya and take all necessary measures to protect civilians -- to achieve this.

"They were and are bent on regime-change in Libya, regardless of the cost to this African country, intent to produce a political outcome which would serve their interests," Mbeki said.

Citing a report on Libya compiled by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, he said the ICG had been "absolutely correct" in its assessment that the insistence on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's departure as a pre-condition for negotiations would prolong the fighting.

"To insist that he both leave the country and face trial in the International Criminal Court is virtually to ensure that he will stay in Libya to the bitter end and go down fighting," Mbeki quoted.

He then told the students: "Bitter facts on the ground, showing the loss of African lives and the destruction of property in Libya, demonstrate that the ICG was absolutely correct.

"The naked reality is not that the Western powers did not hear what the ICG said. Rather, they heard but did not want to listen to anything informed by the objective to address the real interests of the African people of Libya."

Mbeki also quoted from an article in The Boston Globe newspaper in April this year, which suggested the US had entered into military action in Libya under "false pretences" and that President Barack Obama had "grossly exaggerated" the humanitarian threat to justify such action.

He also quoted veteran Guardian correspondent Jonathan Steele, who earlier this month had said: "Thanks to its crucial role in tipping the military scales in Libya, Nato and the rebels are inextricably linked.

"Gaddafi had few supporters in the Arab world, but there is a justified perception on the Arab street that the rebels are over-reliant on Western support and that the overriding Western motive is access to Libya's oil... ."

Mbeki encouraged students to read about and understand what had happened in Libya, as well in Egypt and Tunisia.

Through this, they would be "inspired by what your peers have done in Tunisia and Egypt, who took the lead in the popular uprisings in their countries, which have served to advance the African democratic revolution", he said.

A copy of Mbeki's speech was sent to Sapa.