Libyans living in Ireland talk to MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
THE JAUNTY opening bars of Libya’s former national anthem drifted from the loudspeakers, prompting everyone to rise to their feet. Men, women and children, many of them waving the red, black and green striped flag of pre-Gadafy Libya, stood proudly as they sang words that have, for them, taken on a special resonance since the uprising began more than two months ago.
Loosely translated, the lyrics go as follows: “To you we give solemn pledges/ That we, Oh Libya, will never fail you/ We will never go back to chains,/ We have been liberated, and we have freed our home country Libya, Libya, Libya.”
The joyful rendition of what served as Libya’s national anthem from independence until the 1969 military coup that brought Gadafy to power acted as the finale to a Dublin fundraising event on Saturday, which was organised by the Libyan Women’s Association of Ireland. Among the more than 250 attendees were Libyans living in Ireland – the community constitutes one of the biggest Arab populations here – and Irish people who have family and professional connections to the country. The talk over dinner was of the latest updates on Al Jazeera and snatches of news from disjointed phone conversations with family members in Libya.
One woman from Tripoli said she could detect the fear in her relatives’ voices when they reassured her. “They are scared to tell the truth over the phone in case Gadafy’s people are listening in.”
Libyans living in Ireland have lost relatives and friends to the violence that has convulsed the country since Gadafy’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrations led to a full-blown revolt. Last week, Abdul Hameed Traina, an architect who moved to Ireland in 2002, learned that his nephew, one of the rebel fighters struggling to hold the besieged western city of Misurata, had been killed by a missile fired by Gadafy forces. “We are very sad but very proud at the same time because he died fighting for our freedom,” he says.
Traina travelled to Misurata earlier this month to see his family. “My three brothers are doctors and they are really under pressure at the hospital there because there are so few supplies,” he says. “I’m most worried about my father, who is 80 years old and has a heart condition. He needs medicine.”
A stepbrother of Hussein Hamed, who ran as an Independent candidate in Dublin in the general election, died after he was shot during protests in his hometown of Benghazi. Hamed, who has lived in Ireland since claiming political asylum in 1998, had an emotional reunion with his father when he returned to Benghazi for the first time last week.
Many Libyans living in Ireland, including a number of doctors, have travelled back to volunteer in relief efforts.
Hamed is one of several Libyans here who have been lobbying the Government to act.
While they appreciate the Government’s pledges of humanitarian assistance – including the chartering of a ship to evacuate 1,000 civilians from Misurata – and its carefully measured words of support, many would like Ireland to follow France, Italy and Qatar in recognising the opposition’s transitional national council as the only representative of the Libyan people.
Hamed also believes Ireland is uniquely placed to play a mediatory role in resolving the crisis. “There is so much that the Irish Government can do,” he says.
This message was repeated by Guma el-Gamaty, the council’s representative in the UK, who spoke of the deep ties that bind the two countries when he addressed Saturday’s fundraising dinner.
During a meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore last week, el-Gamaty urged Ireland to recognise the council, but he accepted that Government policy is to recognise states and not political bodies.
In the meantime, Libyans living in Ireland have been actively fundraising for relief efforts as the conflict in their home country grinds on for a third month with no end in sight. Yesterday, a convoy of at least five vehicles laden with medical supplies and foodstuffs left Dublin for the Tunisian border with Libya. The aid will be distributed to towns and cities in Libya’s western flank, some of which have been under siege by regime forces for more than a month.