| Oxford Stop the War Coalition Hands off Libya The political campaign to launch a military intervention in Libya – ostensibly on humanitarian grounds but with patently political ends – has now culminated in a UN agreement to impose a "no-fly zone". This policy, strongly pushed by the UK government, and backed by the BBC and other media, is the beginning of a deep military involvement in the region. It is the start of a journey down a slippery slope which began with British Special Forces interfering and supporting opposition forces. No-fly zones and other forms of aggression based on imperialist doctrine have no basis in international law. They are acts of aggression, part of the preparations for war. In Iraq, the imposition by the west of a no-fly zone in the 1990s, instead of leading to peace, prepared the way for the 2003 invasion. There must be an end to US or British intervention in Libya or anywhere else in the Middle Ease under any pretext. Such interference over the last century is the root of the region's troubles, and its continuation will solve none of its difficulties. Military interference now is as bad as the arms sales the UK has previously urged in the region. Both are about repression and control – not liberation. The future of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen and all other states facing popular uprisings must be determined by the peoples of those countries alone. |