AS the bombs hit Libya, the issues have moved from the world’s position on rights of Libyans that Moammar El-Gadhafi abused over his 42-year-old reign, to the implications of the United Nations authorising the invasion of another country, 21 years after the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein.

Would El-Gadhafi have survived all those years without protecting the interests of the West? When they disagreed with him, he ran to the Russian and Chinese to perpetuate his rule.

If he had stopped with oppressing his people, the British, Americans, French and Italian authorities, his friends, at different times, would not have interfered. El-Gadhafi was a bad friend who they wanted to punish.

He is unlike the rulers of Egypt, the other Arab nations who oppress their people, listen to the West, and the West supports them.

Human rights violation, according to United Nations rulings, on which these attacks are based, has assumed a dangerous meaning under which powerful nations can attack others.

For most of the 1990s, Libya was under sanctions because of El-Gadhafi’s refusal to extradite to the United States or Britain two Libyans accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland.

Two years after Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, one of Libya’s top security chiefs was convicted of the bombing, Libya wrote to the United Nations formally accepting ‘responsibility for the actions of its officials’ and agreed to pay compensation of up to US$2.7 billion – or up to US$10 million each – to the families of the 270 victims.

Forty per cent of the compensation was paid to each family, and another 40 per cent was paid when US sanctions were removed. In October 2008 Libya paid $1.5 billion into a fund which to compensate relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims with the remaining 20 per cent; American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing; American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing; and, Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.

President George Bush signed Executive Order 13477 restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing all of the pending compensation cases in the US.

Gaddafi’s 2009 welcome to Megrahi, on his release from prison on compassionate grounds, attracted criticism from Western leaders who found out that Britain had bargained for business interests in Libya in exchange for the pardon which Britain said was a decision of the Scottish authorities.

Italian companies are also strong in Libya. A quarter of Libya’s oil and 15 per cent of its natural gas go to Italy. The Libyan Investment Authority owns significant shares in Italy’s Eni Oil, Fiat, Unicredit bank, and Finmeccanica.  In January 2002, El-Gahdafi purchased 7.5 per cent of Italian football club Juventus for US$21 million.

The August 2008 agreement under which Italy paid $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation, opened more doors to Italian companies.

If the West’s interest is about human rights, its long silence – just as it has done in the other Arab countries – is largely responsible for the tragedies of Libyans. The bombs falling over Libya open new debates in sovereignty.