Kadhafi's speech at FESMAN leads Libyan newspapers

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The speech of Libyan leader Mouammar Kadhafi at the third Black World Festival (FESMAN) on Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal and the political crisis in Cote d’Ivoire led the headlines here this week.

The Libyan press also devoted space to the Afro-European relations, calling on the West to apologise to the African continent for the colonial period, as it also echoed the report of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) published in New York.

Al-Jamahiriya reported the call of Kadhafi at FESMAN, in which he called Africans to look forward, to think of the future, which will only be sure through the realisation of African unity and the formation of the federal government of a unique African army, one African identity and a unique African currency.

The paper relayed Kadhafi's call to the youth and women of Africa to remain attached to the unification project and to throw down those who delay the project as the only way to guarantee security and stability in the continent and to oppose attempts by other countries to oppress this rich continent.

Al-Chams newspaper underscored the argument of the Libyan leader, affirming that regional groupings constitute an attempt to make the unification project fail and that they had been promoted by colonisation.

These groupings, the paper reported, are, in reality, a neo-colonialist project that divides the continent into five regions without any efficiency and destined to prevent the unity of the continent.

Al-Chams reported Kadhafi's reasoning that the great sacrifices made by African martyrs in the name of independence and freedom will have no significance as long as the continent will not be unified to ensure the future of the next generations and to face all development challenges inside and the external dangers of a world that is forming around the continent in gigantic spaces.

Oyia newspaper warned against possible armed clashes between the two protagonists of the political crisis in Cote d'Ivoire due to the refusal of the outgoing President, Laurent Gbagbo to leave the presidential seat despite a vast opposition of the international community that asked him to hand power to the former Prime Minister Alassane Dramane Outtara.

Oyia underscored under the headline "Cote d’Ivoire: Beginnings of a new round of the conflict", that it is clear that so long as a solution acceptable to the two sides is not found, Cote d'Ivoire is threatened by a new phase of bloody conflict that will claim lives of innocent people, who believed in the principle of alternation in office through democratic elections at a time when experience has shown that elections do not mean democracy in the absence of democrats.

Al-Fajr Al-Jedid newspaper cast some light on a report of CPJ published in New York that underscored the suffering of journalists throughout the world in the discharge of their duties.

Quoting the report, the paper reported that 42 journalists were killed in 2010 in the world and that Pakistan recorded the highest number of killings even though the number in 2010 declined, compared with 2009 when 72 "men of the fourth power" were killed.

Al-Fajr Al-Jedid stated that 40 per cent of the 42 journalists killed in 2010 died in war areas, adding that CPJ signalled that about 90 per cent of the perpetrators of the killings escaped sanctions, while 60 per cent of the victims received threats some weeks before their death.

In an article headlined "A timely opportunity for Europe to repent for its past", the Al-Zahf Al-Akhdhar newspaper affirmed that Europe and the West in general needed the natural potentials of Africa now as they did in the past when they built their contemporary civilisation and created factories and companies based on expertise from the African continent during the odious colonial period.

"Europe must be ashamed and dress the wounds caused to the African continent that is still suffering from the bleeding and pains of these wounds," the paper reported, saying that it is up to the European governments to offer excuses for the crimes committed by their fore-runners, who caused the state of backwardness whose impacts still affect the African populations.
-0- PANA BY/FA/AAS/MTD/BOS 18Dec2010