Rupert Wieloch

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

 

I was delighted to be asked to speak at the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall about conflict resolution lessons drawn from my book, Belfast to Benghazi. The eclectic audience included MoD, Home Office and officials from European and Arab nations – questions lasted 45 minutes.  The event was partially filmed by Al Jazeera.

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

I was asked by Sky News to balance the inconsistent criticisms in the Foreign Affairs Committee report on Libya.  Reading the evidence submitted by highly regarded experts, I would not have drawn the same revisionist conclusions about the time before the democratic elections in July 2012.  From my privileged perspective, the inside account is told in Belfast to Benghazi.

 

On the 15th anniversary of the largest loss of British lives to an act of terrorism, we remember those who died, lost friends and relatives, or were affected by the attack.  Chapter 4 of Belfast to Benghazi describes for the first time the inside story of the UK military response, Operation Veritas, including the successful British deployments to Afghanistan in 2002.  I am grateful to Hatchards in Piccadilly, London for displaying my book in their Post WWII bookshelf.

 

The US Institute of Peace has published a report examining the prison system, with permission of the Libyan Ministry of Justice.  The report confirms what I found in 2012, that prison directors are trying to improve the well-being of staff and inmates, but they struggle with scant resources, dilapidated facilities and multiple security threats.  For discussion of detention centres in Belfast to Benghazi, see pages 258 (Zintan), 262 (Bel Haj in Abu Salim), 272 (Kufra), 277 (MSF in Misrata) and 281 (British journalists in Tripoli).