MILITARY INTERVENTION LIKELY IN LIBYA, SAYS POLITICAL ANALYST

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- There is a strong possibility of an outside military intervention in Libya unless Muammar Gaddafi steps down from power, scholar and political analyst Dr Chandra Muzaffar said Wednesday.

Chandra, who is president of the International Movement for a Just
World, said that certain countries and right wing leaders in the US were pushing for a military intervention to topple Gaddafi who has been in power for more than four decades.

"We know that such a thing (military intervention) is not to save the Libyan people but for strategic reasons...also because of Libyan oil (Libya has the largest proven reserve in Africa)," he told a forum here entitled "The Lotus Revolution: Dynamics of Political Change in Egypt and Beyond".

The forum, organised by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies of Malaysia, was attended by diplomats, academicians and political analysts.

Chandra said that Gaddafi's inner circle and family members must convince him to step down to avoid further bloodshed and avert foreign power intervention.

"Libya will be a goldmine for people (foreign countries) who want to control the country. He (Gaddafi) must be convinced to step down...for the sake of the country and the people and also his own legacy," he said, adding that be believed that Gaddafi, like Iraq's Saddam Hussein, will not leave his country.

Asked about the proposal by Venezuela President Hugo Chávez for an
International Peace Commission for Libya, Chandra said it was a
good idea, adding that a fact finding team should be sent to find the
truth of what was really happening in the vast northern African country.

Even in the worst case scenario where foreign troops were sent, Chandra said, they should be under the aegis of the United Nations and not NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. And the troops should be drawn from Asian and Latin American countries, and not from Europe.

On the popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world which toppled the Tunisian government and ousted Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, he noted that most of the affected leaders were strong allies of Washington.

Chandra said the greatest concern of the military in Egypt now was how the people would go along with them because "they know there is
such a thing as people power and that is real".

"They (Egypt) have to put their own house in order...many internal issues need to be resolved," he said when asked whether it was time for Egypt to once again lead the Arab world as was the case during the time of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

"People power is real..the Arab world will never be same again," Chandra said. "The scenario has changed...changed completely and certainly for the better."