Rupert Wieloch

We are now seeing the tragic consequences of the 2013 “non-intervention” vote with tens of thousands of people killed and millions of people forced from their homes.  What is required now is a post-conflict reconstruction operation on a similar scale to the Balkans, but where is the UN Mandate and the trained civilians, police and military to deploy promptly?  We are not even asking the right questions in the debate in Parliament today.

Yesterday, Tobruk airport was picketed by protesters against the visit by UN chief Martin Kobler.  This is a far cry from the welcome I received on a visit organised by the Chief of the Libyan Air Staff on Valentine’s Day in 2012, described on page 268 of Belfast to Benghazi.

Elsewhere, the Libyan National Army has  launched a major tank assault on the Ganfouda enclave in Benghazi. The assault, which began in torrential rain, has seen an unknown number of casualties.

It is not surprising that Libya’s outgoing UN ambassador, Ibrahim Dabbash, launched a bitter attack on the international community’ s interference in Libyan affairs.

Tobruk town council at the Knightsbridge Commonwealth War Cemetery 2012

 

US Africa Command has now conducted more than 400 airstrikes as part of Operation Odyssey Lightning against Islamic State in Libya since 1 August.  In the south, an AT-802 aircraft, allegedly operated by the UAE,  has bombed a Tebu-held position near Kufra.  Proxy forces are needed because the Libyan Air Force are in such a rundown state – see pages 268-270 of Belfast to Benghazi

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667

At our local memorial, we read the 28 names of those who died from the 36 families in this parish during WWI.  In 1917, war poet, Cicely Fox Smith wrote a poem about our village on the Dever:

And while I lay and listened, oh the river’s sleepy tune              

Seemed to change its rippling music, like the cukoo’s stave in June       

And the cannon’s distant thunder, and the engine’s war-like drone

Seemed to mingle with its burthen in a solemn undertone.   

Three weeks after Iraqi Forces launched their attack on Mosul, the troops are bogged down in the predicted urban quagmire.  This is a far cry from 7th November 1918 when Ali Ihsan Pasha surrendered Mosul following a 2 week military operation and secret negotiations with Colonal Gerald Leachman, who subsequently became a most succesful governor of Mosul.

Anti-corruption activist Mohamed Bughaighis was killed today near to the Kish Café, Benghazi, where we made friends with many optimistic Libyans in 2011 and 2012.  In total, 4 people were killed and 21 injured in the vehicle attack, to add to the 10 men who were discovered on a rubbish tip this weekend, bound, tortured and killed.  Tomorrow in London, Fayez al-Sarraj, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord will meet  President Obama’s special envoy to Libya, Jonathan Winer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to discuss the collapsing economy in Libya.  Perhaps the security situation in Benghazi should be the first point on the agenda.

I was interviewed by Emma Barnett on BBC radio about the British troop deployments to the Baltic announced yesterday.  We are all worried about the deterioration in relations between Russia and the West.  The use of the military to deter aggression is an important tool of diplomacy, but should not be taken as an imminent sign of War.  See Chapter 2 of Belfast to Benghazi for a sense of what it was like to serve on the front line during the Second Cold War; the period of heightened tension from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 to the time of Glasnost and Perestroika.

The 17th/21st Lancers patrolling in the Arctic during the Cold War.

 

I was asked by Radio 5 Live to comment on the Battle to retake Mosul from Islamic State which started today.  Mosul is almost twice the size of Basra, so the operation will not be swift.  There may be rapid gains through the empty desert, but house to house fighting inside the city will be slow.  The key to success is to ensure the Sunni community are not disenfranchised.  The Iraqi Government would be well advised to follow up immediately with a reconstruction programme after an area is liberated, as we did in Sadr City in 2008.  It is vital to avoid Mosul stagnating and becoming another Aleppo.  See Belfast to Benghazi pages 218 to 226:                                   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belfast-Benghazi-Untold-Challenges-War/dp/1861515669

I joined Ayman Asfari and other distinguished guests at the Chatham house screening of the Netflix documentary, White Helmets.  It was a moving tribute to the humanitarian work of the Syrian Civil Defense, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize – 110 of the White Helmets have been killed whilst working as heroic first responders.  There is a strong case to provide the 250,000 people in Aleppo, who are being bombed daily by helicopters and aircraft, with the means to defend themselves from air attack – or history may well regard the victims of Aleppo as abandoned by the very people who encouraged them to rebel.

The planned EU training of the Libyan Coast Guard announced in May and due to start before October has been delayed. In January 2012, we realised the scale of the problem and offered a host of training courses to the Libyan Armed Forces.  I interviewed dozens of officers before selecting the students for the first UK course.  Jordan and Turkey also helped.  It is disappointing that this appears to be another sound initiative which has collapsed.  See page 279 of Belfast to Benghazi:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/belfast-to-benghazi/rupert-wieloch/9781861515667