"We would be willing, if civil war would last, to call for sending volunteers to Libya"
February 24th , 2011, (Paris) STREET PRESS interviewed Luc MICHEL, founder of the newly formed Euro-Libyan Action Committees or ELAC in all Europe. Five months later, there are ELAC Committees in 17 European countries (including Russia and Turkey), but also in Quebec and Brazil.
And in June, Luc MICHEL organized an African sister-association, the ALAC Committees/ AFRICAN-LIBYAN ACTION COMMITTEES, of which he is the political adviser. The coordination between the pro-Gaddafi networks in Europe and Africa is one of the tasks Luc MICHEL is in charge for as president of the “International Commission of the forum of Associations against the war in Libya”, on the occasion of the “International Conference STOP WAR ON LIBYA” co-organized by Libyan NGO’s, the Libyan National Youth Union and ELAC, April 18th and 19th , 2011 in Tripoli.
The interview, conducted by Maud de Bourqueney is very controversial and in the aggressive style that is the hallmark of Street Press.
Since the start of the events in Libya Luc MICHEL has provided accurate forecasts about the nature of the so called “rebels” in Libya and the motives behind the Western intervention that has transformed from a failed coup to a civil war. When most commentators in the mainstream media were predicting a quick end to the conflict, Luc MICHEL predicted that Gaddafi would put up a fight to the end. Six months later Gaddafi is still in power, and, his support among the Libyan people is stronger than ever.
STREET PRESS INTERVIEW:
In French / Translation to English
by PCN-NCP Press Office (Brussels-Kishinev)
LUC MICHEL: "Libya is not a repressive state"
Third type of encounter with the man who calls for "sending volunteers to Libya."
Third type of encounter with the man who calls for "sending volunteers to Libya."
Luc Michel sees Colonel Gaddafi as the victim of a conspiracy. To illustrate this he points to the multitude of brand new flags that the insurgents had from day one. These flags, he says are evidence that the resistance was organized The Belgian Bolshevik therefore organizes the resistance from Brussels.
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: “In the West we see that Gaddafi is eccentric, but, you say that this is the standard in Africa and defend the Libyan Jamahiriya?”
Luc MICHEL: Yes, because Gaddafi initiated a model of direct democracy that works (…) You know I know Libya, I am a friend of Libya. In Libya, there is no misery. To me, what the press calls "Arab Revolutions" is a process implemented from outside, whose real purpose is to carry out the project of George Bush’s Greater Middle East.
Here is a revealing fact: The insurgents have recovered the old flag of Libya – black, red, green. This flag has disappeared in Libya since 40 years and there are thousands of flags in the demonstrations from day one. So it was prepared! Flags had to be given, to be prepared. The flags are not patched, there are beautiful flags!
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: But the flags may have been stored in attics, simply?
Luc MICHEL: No, no, it’s totally impossible. Can you imagine over 40 years? If you believe that the Libyans in 1969 had flags at home! It was then a country that lived in the Middle Ages with 98% illiteracy. It’s Gaddafi who has changed all that! The system is aging, it’s true but you can not please everybody.
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: So you don’t believe that Gaddafi is a crazy megalomaniac?
Luc MICHEL: What is here, in the West, called the eccentricity of Gaddafi is in fact standard in African culture. His spectacular clothes in particular. He is someone who lives simply in a tent. In the video that went on TV, the old Fiat that we see is really his car. Gaddafi is not Berlusconi. If his personal guard consists mainly of women, that is he has more confidence in them. It is not his harem. Libya is a Puritan state. This is also one of the problems that Gaddafi has with youth. It has no outlet in Libya: there is no bar, no alcohol, no nightclubs. Nothing.
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: How do you plan to help Libya and Gaddafi?
Luc MICHEL: For now, our battle is in the media. We work a lot on social networks. On Facebook, we made 750 friends in 40 hours. And Facebook has censored us from day one, afraid that too many people are coming. The site prevents us from adding friends or responding to messages on our profile. A buzz has been created anyway. Now, if things go wrong in Libya, we will of course involve our network and organize resistance …
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: Militarily?
Luc MICHEL: We would be willing, if civil war would last, to call for sending volunteers to Libya.
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: And you would go yourself?
Luc MICHEL: It’s possible … But we are not desperadoes. We are no longer in 1936, at the time of the international brigades, there is a very important media battle that did not exist before. And we do not know how the situation evolves. The possibility that Gaddafi is to maintain is 2 / 3. We are far from the disaster announced here.
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: There is no repression by the government?
Luc MICHEL: The civilian population is fighting against other civilians. This is not the army of Gaddafi against civilians. The Libyan Air Force did not bomb civilians, it makes no sense. They bombard weapons depots in areas which they no longer control. (…)
Libya is not a repressive state. We see much more police in Paris or Brussels than in Libya. It is a very friendly police in a state where there was virtually no crime. Offenders were sentenced by the courts to neighborhood community service. But this police, which was unarmed, was confronted by armed protesters.
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: I want to ask you about the African mercenaries that the media is reporting Gaddafi is employing
Luc MICHEL: Yes, this story has been reported and repeated in the Western media, the famous story of African mercenaries, which comes around … One third of the Libyan people’s skin is black. It is not at all African mercenaries, they are members of the Libyan security forces. There are currently in all Libya and in the suburbs of Tripoli, an African hunt, led by the Islamists. A wave of xenophobia which aims to diminish Gaddafi’s foreign supporters. It’s chaos: people loot, kill, rape. Gangs of thugs attacking shops, Islamists rape women. This minority seeks to control the streets by terrorizing the population.
Maud de Bourqueney – STREET PRESS: What do you fear if Gaddafi loses?
Luc MICHEL: First, the collapse of the country and an Islamic state at the gates of Europe. Second, the end of controlled African immigration, something that Gaddafi was doing very well. Third, an economic shock, given the huge European economic interests in Libya. The oil crisis, it is we who will pay for it. Finally, we are not indifferent, the most serious concern is a prolonged civil war. In Europe, protests of pro-and anti-Gaddafi Libyans took place in Hamburg, Berlin, London. If there was no police, people would fight. Knowing that they are warm-blooded! The Arabs are Latins!
STREET PRESS PUBLISHED THIS (VITRIOLIC) PORTRAIT OF LUC MICHEL:
Luc Michel, friend of Gaddafi, said "It is a very friendly police in a state where there was virtually no crime"
Who are you Luc MICHEL? Stalin, Tito, Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and now Gaddafi… Belgian, a little crazy, and 53 years old, he claims he is a follower of Jean Thiriart, father of Bolshevik nationalism, a sort of mix between European communitarianism, anti-American imperialism and anti-Zionism. "His dream," says Manuel Abramowicz, editor of Résistances.be, "is the creation of a European empire from Portugal to the depths of Russia." In 1984 he founded the National-European Communitarian Party/ PCN-NCP before acting as a consultant lobbyist for the anti-imperialist regimes from former USSR and Libya. Since 2004 he is the coordinator of the Revolutionary Committees Movement (RCM) for Europe. "Soon 40 years of committed revolutionary activism, always on the go!” he wrote on his Facebook profile.
COMMENT OF LUC MICHEL
ADDRESSED TO STREET PRESS AND PUBLISHED AFTER THE RELEASE:
Luc Michel wrote us to clarify:
"Luc MICHEL: we speak of sending volunteers as part of a European Brigade, on the model of the International Brigades in Spain against Franco in 1936. No mercenaries. The first European who died in combat, with weapons in hand, in the ranks of the Palestinian resistance in 1968 was called Roger COUDROY. He was a member of the transnational organization I lead after Jean Thiriart. His memory dictates our duty. We are fighting for our ideas. And the highest value that tends to disappear completely in the sad world made in Washington: Honor! For the rest, your writings are yours and you had the courage to talk about … LM "
The original interview on the website of STREET PRESS,
With an audio excerpt from the interview: