July 2001 - Gadaffi bids to be leader of Africa*** THE new African Union (AU), launched at a summit of the Organisation of African Unity in Lusaka last week, is to have its own parliament. Indeed, the parliament building has already been built - in Tripoli. For the idea of the AU is being driven by Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, the Libyan president. Now that his long-standing ambitions for an Arab Union have come to nothing, he is hoping to play a central role in a union of African states instead. The organisation promises to respect democracy and good governance more than the OAU ever did. The snag is that its new parliament will sit in a country that allows no opposition, no free elections, free speech or free press.
In March, Gadaffi announced plans for single a African identity and a union under which the boundaries between states would be scrapped, national armies merged and a single passport introduced. Amazingly, this vision seems to have been largely accepted by African leaders. It has also been decided that, besides the parliament, there will be a pan-African court of justice, a central bank and a common currency. Clearly with the aim of flattering Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, Gadaffi has proposed that the first AU summit should be held in Pretoria next year and should elect a president - presumably Mbeki. ***
November 2001 - Gadaafi to supply Mugabe with death squads***Harare: Zimbabwe- Libya's President Muammar Gadaafi has bought up 20 houses in Zimbabwe which seem likely to be used as safe-houses for death squads supplied by the Libyan dictator as part of his plan to assist the man he sees as his embattled comrade in arms, President Robert Mugabe. In addition Gadaafi has bought Gracelands, the gigantic Harare mansion belonging to Grace Mugabe, the President's young wife. The house is now to become the Libyan Embassy, making it by far the biggest embassy building in Zimbabwe, dwarfing the British and American missions.
In effect Gadaafi seems to be making a bid to save Mugabe which, if successful, would create a virtual Libyan client state at the far end of Africa. Already there is evidence of direct Libyan involvement in the violence which racked Zimbabwean farms in the last ten days.
……….More sinister is the fact that Gadaafi insisted on calling into conclave Harare's small community of Indian Muslims, telling them that they must assist Mugabe's plans by declaring a jihad (holy war) to throw the whites out. If they did not do this, he told the Muslim elders, he would bring in strong arm men from the Pagad movement in Cape Town with which he had close links. There has long been speculation that Gadaafi might have links to Pagad, an extremist Muslim vigilante movement often linked to bombings and murders in the Cape, including bomb attacks on US-linked enterprises such as the Planet Hollywood restaurant on the Cape waterfront, but this is the first open confirmation of the fact.
The bulk of Harare's Muslim community, consisting largely of merchants and professionals, was aghast at this demand and has failed to declare a jihad ,a failure which they believe lies behind the sudden spate of attacks on Muslim shops by Zanu-PF youths in the last ten days. For heaven's sake, said one Muslim merchant, we all do business with whites all the time. We rely on them and most of us are appalled by what Mugabe's doing. It's obvious that those youths who were sent to attack white and Muslim shops were meant to be punishing us for not complying. ***