Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi ; born 7 June 1942), commonly referred to as Colonel Gaddafi, is a Libyan politician and revolutionary, who has been the ruler of Libya since a military coup on 1 September 1969, when he overthrew King Idris and established the Libyan Arab Republic. His 42 years in power make him one of the longest-serving rulers in history. Gaddafi renamed the Libyan Arab Republic to Jamahiriya in 1977, based on his socialist and nationalist political philosophy published in The Green Book. In 1979, he relinquished the title of prime minister, and was thereafter called "The Brother Leader" or "The Guide" in Libya's Socialist Revolution.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Libya under Gaddafi was considered a pariah state by the West, which alleged oppression of internal dissidence, acts of state-sponsored terrorism, assassinations of expatriate opposition leaders, and crass nepotism exhibited in amassing a multi-billion dollar fortune for himself and his family. Gaddafi was a firm supporter of OAPEC and led a Pan-African campaign for a United States of Africa. After the 1986 Bombing of Libya and the 1993 imposition of UN sanctions, Gaddafi established closer economic and security relations with the west, cooperated with investigations into previous Libyan acts of state-sponsored terrorism and paid compensation, and ended his nuclear weapons program, resulting in the lifting of UN sanctions in 2003.
In early February 2011, major political protests, inspired by recent protests in Tunisia, Egypt and other parts of the Arab world, broke out in Libya against Gaddafi's government and turned into a civil war. Gaddafi vowed to "die a martyr" if necessary in his fight against the rebels and external forces.
On 17 May 2011 the International Criminal Court issued a request for an arrest warrant against Gaddafi for crimes against humanity.
Muammar al-Gaddafi was born in a bedouin tent in the desert near Sirt in 1942. His family belongs to a small tribe of arabized Berbers, the Qadhadhfa, who are stockherders with holdings in the Hun Oasis. As a boy, Gaddafi attended a Muslim elementary school, during which time the major events occurring in the Arab world—the Arab defeat in Palestine in 1948 to Israeli forces and Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power in Egypt in 1952—profoundly influenced him. He finished his secondary school studies under a private tutor in Misrata, emphasizing the study of history.
In Libya, as in a number of other Arab countries, admission to the military academy and a career as an army officer became available to members of the lower economic strata only after independence. A military career offered an opportunity for higher education, for upward economic and social mobility, and was for many the only available means of political action. For Gaddafi and many of his fellow officers, who were animated by Nasser's brand of Arab nationalism as well as by an intense hatred of Israel, a military career was a revolutionary vocation.
Gaddafi entered the Libyan military academy at Benghazi in 1961 and, along with most of his colleagues from the Revolutionary Command Council, graduated in the 1965–66 period. Gaddafi's association with the Free Officers Movement began as a cadet. The frustration and shame felt by Libyan officers who stood by helplessly at the time of Israel's swift and humiliating defeat of Arab armies on three fronts in 1967 fueled their determination to contribute to Arab unity by overthrowing the monarchy. An early conspirator, Gaddafi began his first plan to overthrow the monarchy while in military college.
Gaddafi pursued further studies in Europe. Many false rumors circulated with regards to this part of his life. Gaddafi did not attend the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He did receive further military training somewhere in the United Kingdom.
The Economy of Libya is centrally planned and follows Gadaffi's Socialist ideals. It depends primarily upon revenues from the petroleum sector, which contributes practically all export earnings and over half of GDP. These oil revenues and a small population have given Libya the highest nominal per capita GDP in Africa. Since 2000, Libya has recorded favourable growth rates with an estimated 10.6% growth of GDP in 2010.
On 29 August 2008, Gaddafi held a public ceremony in Benghazi in the presence of over 200 African traditional rulers and kings, in which he was bestowed the title of King of Kings of Africa as part of a grassroots effort to encourage African heads of state and government to follow Gaddafi towards greater political integration. Gaddafi's views on African political and military unification received a lukewarm response from the other African governments.
On 1 February 2009, a coronation ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was held to coincide with the 53rd African Union Summit, at which he was elected head of the African Union for the year. Gaddafi told the assembled African leaders: "I shall continue to insist that our sovereign countries work to achieve the United States of Africa." His January 2009 forum for African kings, however, was cancelled by the Ugandan hosts, since the invitation of traditional rulers to a discussion of political affairs contravened Uganda's current constitution, and according to Ugandan foreign ministry spokesperson James Mugume, could have led to instability.
On Prophet Muhammad's birthday in 1973, Gaddafi delivered his famous "Five-Point Address" which: suspended existing laws and implemented Sharia; announced the purging of the country's "politically sick"; created a "people's militia" to "protect the revolution"; announced an administrative and cultural revolution. School vacations were canceled to allow the teaching of Gaddafi's ideology in the summer of 1973.
Gaddafi blended Arab nationalism, aspects of the welfare state, and what Gaddafi termed "popular democracy", or more commonly "direct, popular democracy". He called this system "Islamic socialism", and, while he permitted private control over small companies, the government controlled the larger ones. Welfare, "liberation" (or "emancipation" depending on the translation), and education was emphasized. He also imposed a system of Islamic morals, outlawing alcohol and gambling.
In 1977, Gaddafi proclaimed that Libya was changing its form of government from a republic to a "jamahiriya"—a neologism that means "mass-state" or "government by the masses". In theory, Libya became a direct democracy governed by the people through local popular councils and communes. At the top of this structure was the General People's Congress, with Gaddafi as secretary-general.
From time to time, Gaddafi responded to domestic and external opposition with violence. His revolutionary committees called for the assassination of Libyan dissidents living abroad in April 1980, sending Libyan hit squads abroad to murder them. On 26 April 1980, Gaddafi set a deadline of 11 June 1980 for dissidents to return home or be "in the hands of the revolutionary committees".
Notwithstanding his claims of concern for his African roots, Gaddafi has often expressed an overt contempt for the Berbers, a non-Arab people of North Africa, and for their language, maintaining that the very existence of Berbers in North Africa is a myth created by colonialists. He adopted several measures forbidding the use of Berber, and often attacks this language in official speeches, with statements like: "If your mother transmits you this language, she nourishes you with the milk of the colonialist, she feeds you their poison" (1985).
Gaddafi defended the actions of Somalian pirates, "It is a response to greedy Western nations, who invade and exploit Somalia’s water resources illegally. It is not a piracy, it is self defence... If they (Western nations) do not want to live with us fairly, it is our planet and they can go to other planet."
On 17 February 2011, major political protests began in Libya against Gaddafi's government. During the following week, these protests gained significantly in momentum and size despite stiff resistance from the Gaddafi regime. By late February, the country appeared to be rapidly descending into chaos as a 'credible' death toll is reported to now be approaching 1,000. On 27 February the International Federation for Human Rights concluded: "Gaddafi is implementing a strategy of scorched earth. It is reasonable to fear that he has, in fact, decided to largely eliminate, wherever he still can, Libyan citizens who stood up against his regime and furthermore, to systematically and indiscriminately repress civilians. These acts can be characterized as crimes against humanity, as defined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court."
On Monday, 21 February 2011, Shaykh Yûsuf al-Qaradâwî talked about the 2011 Libyan civil war and issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Muammar Gaddafi: Gaddafi was reported to have imported foreign mercenaries to defend his regime, and large swaths of the country, particularly in Eastern Libya, were reported to have fallen into the hands of anti-Gaddafi elements. According to other sources "It is a myth that the Africans fighting to defend the Jamahiriya and Muammar Qaddafi are mercenaries being paid a few dollars."
Former top officials, including Gaddafi's former "number two" man, Interior Minister General Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, the former justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil (who became the head of the provisional government in Benghazi), and several key ambassadors and diplomats resigned their posts in protest over Gaddafi's heavy handed response to the demonstrators. General Al-Abidi issued a plea to whatever military personnel may have felt some loyalty towards Gaddafi to "join the people in the intifada." Already, he said, "many members" of the security forces had defected, including those in the capital, Tripoli.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she considered Gaddafi's Tuesday, 22 February 2011 speech as the equivalent of "him declaring war on his own people".
People protesting against Gaddafi.
At the beginning of March 2011, Gaddafi returned from a hideout, relying on considerable amounts of Libyan and U.S. cash apparently stored in the capital.
In connection with the Libyan uprising, Gadaffi's attempts to favorably influence public opinion in Europe and the United States came under increased scrutiny.
As of March 2011, as part of the 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests, the 2011 Libyan civil war had become a mass uprising against Gaddafi, costing him control of some parts of the country. Gaddafi's former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, has told the Swedish newspaper Expressen that he has evidence that Gaddafi had personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing of 1988.
On 17 March 2011 the UN declared a no fly zone in Libya, one of a series of measures intended to protect the civilian population of Libya. A NATO airstrike on 30 April killed the youngest son of Gaddafi and three of his grandsons at his son's home in Tripoli, the Libyan government said. Regime officials said that Muammar Gaddafi and his wife were visiting the home when it was struck, but both were unharmed. Gaddafi son’s death comes one day after the Libyan leader appeared on state television calling for talks with NATO to end the airstrikes, which have been hitting Tripoli and other Gaddafi strongholds since last month. Gaddafi suggested there was room for negotiation, but he vowed to stay in Libya. Western officials have been divided in recent weeks over whether Gaddafi is a legitimate military target under the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized the air campaign. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that NATO was "not targeting Gaddafi specifically" but that his command-and-control facilities – including a facility inside his sprawling Tripoli compound that was hit with airstrikes 25 April – were legitimate targets.
Personal life and family
His second wife is Safia Farkash, née el-Brasai, former nurse from Al Bayda. Gaddafi had eight biological children, seven of them sons.
His eldest son, Muhammad al-Gaddafi, born to Gaddafi's first wife, runs the Libyan Olympic Committee.
The next eldest son, by his second wife Safia, is Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, who was born in 1972. Saif serves as a politician in his father's government, including as a spokesperson during the 2011 uprising, and works as an architect. He runs a charity (GIFCA) which was involved in negotiating freedom for hostages taken by Islamic militants, especially in the Philippines. In 2006, after sharply criticizing his father's regime, Saif Al-Islam briefly left Libya, reportedly to take on a position in banking outside of the country. He returned soon after, and launched an environment-friendly initiative to teach children how to help clean up parts of Libya. He was involved in compensation negotiations with Italy and the United States.
The third eldest, Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi, married the daughter of a military commander. Saadi runs the Libyan Football Federation and signed to play for various professional teams including Italian Serie A team Perugia Calcio, although appearing only once in first team games.
The fourth, Hannibal Muammar al-Gaddafi, is a former employee of General National Maritime Transport Company, a company that specialized in oil exports. He is most notable for involvement in a series of violent incidents throughout Europe. In 2001, Hannibal attacked three Italian policemen with a fire extinguisher; in September 2004, he was briefly detained in Paris after driving a Porsche at 140 kilometres per hour (90 mph) in the wrong direction and through red lights down the Champs-Élysées while intoxicated; and in 2005, Hannibal in Paris allegedly beat model and then-girlfriend Aline Skaf, who later filed an assault suit against him. He was fined and given a four month suspended prison sentence after this incident. In December 2009 police were called to Claridge's hotel in London after staff heard a scream from Hannibal's room. Skaf, later his wife, suffered facial injuries including a broken nose, but charges were not pressed after she maintained she had sustained the injuries in a fall. On 15 July 2008, Hannibal and his wife were held for two days and charged with assaulting two of their staff in Geneva, Switzerland and then released on bail on 17 July. The government of Libya subsequently boycotted Swiss products, reduced flights between Libya and Switzerland, stopped issuing visas to Swiss citizens, recalled diplomats from Bern, and forced all Swiss companies such as ABB and Nestlé to close offices. General National Maritime Transport Company, which owned a large refinery in Switzerland, halted oil shipments to Switzerland. Two Swiss businessmen who were in Libya at the time were denied permission to leave the country and held hostage for some time. (see Switzerland-Libya conflict). At the 35th G8 summit in July 2009, Gaddafi labeled Switzerland a "world mafia" and called for the country to be split between France, Germany and Italy.
Gaddafi's fifth son, Al-Mu'tasim-Billah al-Gaddafi, is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Libyan Army. He later serves as Libya's National Security Advisor, in which capacity he oversaw the nation's National Security Council. His name مُعْتَصِمٌ (بِٱللّٰهِ) /muʿtaṣimu-n (bi l–lāhi)/ could be Latinized as Mutassim, Moatessem or Moatessem-Billah. Saif Al-Islam and Moatessem-Billah were both seen as possible successors to their father.
Gaddafi's sixth son was Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi ("the sword of the Arabs"). Saif was appointed a military commander in the Libyan Army during the 2011 Libyan uprising. Saif al-Arab and three of Gaddafi's grandchildren were reported killed by a NATO bombing in April 2011. Like the death of Hanna, this is disputed by the organizations alleged to be responsible.
Gaddafi's seventh son is Khamis al-Gaddafi, who serves as the commander of the Libyan Army's elite Khamis Brigade.
Gaddafi's only natural daughter is Ayesha al-Gaddafi, a lawyer who joined the defense teams of executed former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi. She is married to a cousin of her father's.
He is also said to have adopted two children, Hanna and Milad. Hanna was apparently killed in 1986 at the age of four, during retaliatory US bombing raids; the facts are disputed however, and this adoption may have been posthumous.
Gaddafi's brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi, who married to Gaddafi's wife's sister, is believed to head military intelligence.
The family's main residence is on the Bab al-Azizia military barracks, located in the southern suburbs of Tripoli.
Gaddafi holds an honorary degree from Megatrend University in Belgrade conferred on him by former Yugoslav President Zoran Lilić.
Gaddafi fears flying over water, prefers to stay on buildings' ground floors and almost never travels without his trusted Ukrainian nurse Halyna Kolotnytska, a "voluptuous blonde," according to a U.S. document released by WikiLeaks late 2010. Halyna's daughter denied the suggestion that the relationship is anything but professional.