October 8, 2003	Wednesday	Sha’aban 11, 1424

TRIPOLI: Libyan leader Moamar Qadhafi, once a devoted and energetic champion of Arab unity, announced this weekend his definitive separation from the Arabs, whom he heavily criticized.

Standing before a group of women, in a Mediterranean villa in Syrte about 500 kilometres east of Tripoli, Qadhafi declared himself more than ever African, claiming to be “forever beyond nationalism and Arab unity.”

Admittedly, Colonel Qadhafi is famous for his verbal excesses and spectacular rebuttals, but his declaration on Saturday sounded like an irreconcilable divorce from the Arabs, coming from the mouth of an aging Qadhafi who in recent years has never given up on the ideals from his youth.

When he took power September 1, 1969, the young leader, raised in the cult of the former president, the Egyptian unionist Jamal Abdel Nasser, threw himself body and soul into attempting unity.

“The era of nationalism and of Arab unity is forever gone. These ideas which once mobilized masses no longer have any value,” he said.

Qadhafi called on the Popular Congress, the basic structure of the Libyan political system, to “confirm Libya’s withdrawal from the Arab League,” envisioned by Tripoli for months but never realized.

“The Arab League is in the middle of giving up the ghost, and Arabs will never be strong even if they unite... They will remain content every night to watch bloody newsreels from Palestine and Iraq.”

Colonel Qadhafi had some strong words for the Arabs, denying them human qualities, and publicly challenging their former policy of helping movements and political groups from Arab countries.

“Libya has for too long endured the Arabs, for whom we have paid blood and money,” he said, adding that as a result, his country had been “boycotted by the US and demonized by the West.”

“In return, the Arabs joined forces with the US and Israel against Libya,” he continued, as he confirmed his African orientation, viewing the continent as “a source of great force” for his country.

And once more he put his faith in women, deeming them “better than men and more capable.”—AFP