Yesterday the Libyan Air Force started to bomb unarmed civilians using Mirage jet-fighters. The entire Libyan delegation to the UN resigned in protest, diplomats in China and India soon followed. Two Air Force Colonels had the courage to defy their orders and fly their planes to Malta, where one has applied for asylum.
The troubling thing is that many of the pilots either did not have a problem with bombing their own defenseless people, or were too afraid of the consequences if they disobeyed. Whereas in Egypt we saw the armed forces actively protecting protesters in Tahrir Square, in Libya they are murdering them.
The White House has said it is "very concerned" about the situation in Libya. Ban Ki-Moon censured the "very disturbing and shocking scenes". Sarkozy has said that it is an "unacceptable use of force" and asks for a political solution. Similarly British Prime Minister David Cameron has voiced his disapproval. China and Russia seem principally concerned about their citizens in Libya - with Russia sending planes in to help evacuate it's people.
The UN Security Council is meeting this morning to decide what course of action to take. Ibrahim al-Dabashi, Libya's Deputy Ambassador to the UN has already asked for a No Fly Zone to be set up over Libya.
This needs to be done today. Assuming the Russians and the Chinese can be persuaded not to veto a resolution (the Russians have after all just agreed a $1.8 billion arms deal with Gadaffi's regime) then the US, France and Britain all have aircraft within an hour of Libya.
It is true that there are other genocides occurring right now, which perhaps deserve as much attention as what is happening in Libya, but the fact that these attacks by the Libyan Air Force are so flagrant, so incontrovertible and potentially so easily stopped means that we really do not have any cause for delay. The UN needs to stand up and perform the job for which it was created.
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