EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

The threat of attack

Civilian casualties mounted in NATO (US) led air war in Libya, as the war over resources progressed in its second week.

The US, British and French bombs and missiles left hundreds of Libyans dead and injured. The number of civilians killed in the air war touched 100 early this week.

It looks like after its failed attempts to encroach into South Asian oil deposits, the fossil fuel hungry West had decided to take the Chinese juggernaut head on.

It’s surprising that since ancient times the wars fought over resources had not changed much.

According to a report on the web British Petroleum Survey, Africa had proven oil reserves of 117,481 billion barrels at the end of 2007, or 9.49 percent of the world’s reserves. Five countries dominate Africas oil production, accounting for 85 percent of the total—Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Angola. But Gabon, Congo, Cameroon, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ivory Coast also produce oil, and exploration is ongoing in Chad, Sudan, Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar.

Africas oil is of a high quality and easy to mine, often from offshore rigs, and is distributed through existing sea lanes. The continent is the location of more than a third of the world’s new discoveries since 2000 and could be the site of far greater reserves than now thought. It is also the site of 8.22 percent of global natural gas reserves, ranks first or second in quantity of world reserves of bauxite, cobalt, industrial diamond, phosphate and what not and holds substantial gold deposits.

One observer pointed out that Washington was particularly anxious to “offset the challenge to its influence in Africa coming from China.”

Trade between Africa and China was estimated at $115 billion a year ago with a 43.5 percent increase.

For the European powers, particularly France and the UK, the shaking of the political kaleidoscope in North Africa and the Middle East is viewed as a golden opportunity to at least partially overcome the subordinate position into which they have been long cast in their former colonial preserves by Washington and, latterly, Beijing.

The British Foreign Secretary William Hague last week said “these momentous events do not necessarily stop at the borders of the Arab world,” he identified the Ivory Coast as well as Sudan and Zimbabwe as countries where others like Gaddafi stand in the way of a brighter future for their countries.

Most alarming is that he has said that Britain had an ambitious foreign policy which seeks to build up our standing and influence in the world, and to support our economy,” he said “the nations of Africa” as a strategic area of UK interest.

This looks more like the beginning of the World War 1. Berlin now fears losing out to Paris and London in a post-Gaddafi Libya. Another country that is wary of the implications of the war is Italy-the colonial ruler of Libya and has the biggest investment in the country’s oil. Turkey, which initially opposed the war but has since shelved its opposition, is also maneuvering to benefit from the carnage, one commentator said.

Meanwhile Turkey has recognized the Interim Transitional National Council (TNC) (Ring any bells?) and guess who is the Prime Minister is? It’s Mahmoud Jibril, who taught for many years in the US after receiving a PhD at the University of Pittsburgh-it would be too naïve to remind Dr. Rudrakumaran here.