October 20, 2011 -- New York -- Longtime Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi is dead, according to breaking news reports. 

“While longtime friends like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez will doubtless miss their comrade-in-arms,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris, “the civilized world can breathe an audible sigh of relief.”

In 1969, Gaddafi seized power in Libya in a coup d’état against King Idris. He suspended the 1951 constitution and ruled with an iron fist until earlier this year, when protests in his country, which turned to military opposition supported by the vital actions of many NATO countries, swept him from power.

“It is no exaggeration to say that the world has lost one of its most erratic, dangerous, and repressive leaders,” Harris added. “In the course of his long rule, Gaddafi had many targets, which he pursued with a bloodlust. He was responsible for human rights violations galore at home and abroad.”

“From the streets of London to Lockerbie, from a Berlin discotheque to a French airliner,” Harris continued, “Gaddafi’s forces were involved in murder and mayhem. Moreover, Libya was for many years the home of training camps for deadly terrorist factions from other countries, including European groups such as the IRA and Red Brigades. He sought to destabilize any attempt by nations such as Egypt to forge peace ties with Israel, even expelling tens of thousands of Palestinians from Libya in 1995 after  Israeli-Palestinian talks. And with the same vengeance, he went after Libyan dissidents wherever they lived, indigenous Berber culture, and other minority groups, often disparaging Christians and welcoming a Libya whose Jews were all expelled.”

“But there’s another side to the Gaddafi story that also can’t be overlooked, even in the euphoria surrounding today’s news,” Harris said. “That’s the story of how, for many years, and despite his despotic rule and violent nature, his regime was coddled by many in the West and elsewhere. The power of oil talks and Gaddafi had oil. He was received, even feted, in many capitals, while his vile record was conveniently overlooked. Libyan officials sat on various UN bodies, including, of all places, the UN Human Rights Council, and Libya even held the presidency of the UN General Assembly from 2009 to 2010. And some political leaders traveled to Tripoli to receive, if one can believe it, the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights. The list includes Venezuela’s Chavez, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, Bolivian President Evo Morales, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.”

“With today’s news, a new era in Libya has definitively begun,” Harris concluded. “Let us hope that the country’s future direction will indeed offer promise and potential, leaving far behind the despicable legacy of the Gaddafi era. Only time will tell.”