COMMENT: The Death of Gaddafi

The rolling news channels have all forgotten about the clearing of the illegal travellers' site at Dale Farm as reports are claiming that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed, or captured, or... Well, nobody's actually too sure.

Despite tha, the streets of Sirte, Gaddafi's home town, is full of moronic celebratory gunfire.

Yes, Sirte has fallen to the NTC forces aft a two month siege, and, possibly, Gaddafi has been captured or killed but why fire bullets into the air? The bullets don't disappear into thin air, they don't leave the atmosphere and travel onwards to other planets... they fall back to earth and, fairly often, they hit humans. In Puerto Rico alone, two people die and twenty-five are injured annually! In the past few days there was a religious edict in Libya calling for an end to celebratory gunfire because of the deaths and injuries it caused.

So, ignoring the idiotic behaviour of the men with weapons, should they be celebrating?

If it is confirmed that Gaddafi is dead there can be no real justice. It will be the same as when Osama Bin Laden was killed (and his body rapidly, and rather stupidly, disposed of people celebrated.

It will also mean a lot of information is lost - including the truth about the Lockerbie bombing'

If he had been captured I think there is something to celebrate. A trial, however lengthy, could take place and some extent of justice could be seen to be done. Simply killing him, as seems increasingly likely, prevents this.

It seems, whether he is alive or dead, that Gaddafi has fallen and the NTC (heavily assisted by NATO) have won the war. That is something for Libyans to celebrate - some element of normality mig be able to return in a country that has been torn apart by civil war over the past few months.

But is it something for the world to celebrate?

I don't think so.

The NTC is a very strange coming together of opposing factions. The plan is for democratic elections in two years. I won't hold my breath.

And then there's Al-Qaida....

Let's hope my pessimism is ill-founded. Let's hope for a peaceful future for the people of Libya - and for the other nations that had an Arab Spring uprising.

For me, I hope Gaddafi has been captured. His death, particularly if NATO were responsible, which seems likely, would make things more problematic. I fear how the NTC will rule the country and I do not see this finishing Libya's troubles.

As Anne Frank wrote in her famous diary:

This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.