REBELS DEMAND ALGERIA RETURN QADDAFI FAMILY

LIBYAN REBELS DEMAND RETURN  
OF GADHAFI FAMILY FROM ALGERIA

(CNN) - The wife of fugitive Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, three of his children and some of his grandchildren arrived in Algeria on Monday morning, Algerian diplomats said.  Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian ambassador to the United Nations, said he relayed the news to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier Monday.  Benmehidi said his country granted entrance to Gadhafi’s wife, Safia, his daughter, Aisha, sons Hannibal and Mohamed and their children on “humanitarian grounds.”  The ambassador said he did not know whether Moammar Gadhafi was expected to seek entry into Algeria and claimed none of the Gadhafis were subject to U.N. Security Council sanctions.  News on Monday of the Gadhafi relatives’ departure from Libya came the same day that a senior rebel commander reported that Khamis Gadhafi, a son of the Libyan leader and military commander in his regime, had been killed Sunday night in a battle with rebel forces between the villages of Tarunah and Bani Walid in northwest Libya.

The information minister in the rebels’ interim government says, “We are determined to arrest and try the whole Gadhafi family, including Gadhafi himself.”  The departure of some of his family members is one of the strongest signs yet that the longtime leader has lost his grip on the country.  Gadhafi’s children have played important roles in Libya.  Hannibal headed the maritime transport company, Mohammed headed the national Olympic committee and Aisha, a lawyer, helped defend Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in the trial that led to his hanging.  The rebels had previously speculated that Gadhafi could be trying to reach Algeria or Libya’s southern neighbor Chad, both countries with which his government had close ties.

Libyan rebels are demanding that Algeria return Moammar Gadhafi’s wife and three of his children for trial.  Gadhafi’s wife, daughter Aisha and sons Hannibal and Mohammed fled Libya and entered Algeria yesterday. Gadhafi and several of his other sons remain at large.  Gadhafi appears to be on his way to defeat but he is not there yet.  When Saddam Hussein was captured, he was hiding in a hole in the ground, alone and without an army. Gadhafi is still fighting and posing challenges. The war is not over.  The desire to keep fighting of these leaders makes them to forget the number of innocents - women and children - who suffer in these conflicts.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

There are so many problems of war in this world. As Prabhupada said, they made a League of Nations after World War One, and they made a United Nations after World War Two. But has there ever been a time without wars? Prabhupada said that the pinprick in the whole system is so simple: We are forgetting that Krishna is in the center.  And even among devotees, due to material nature, because we are living in material existence, there is the propensity to argue, to disagree, to fight, to form positions and defend our positions, to criticize, to find fault, to undermine people. This has been going on in every religion, including our own, throughout history as well as today. These problems arise and are perpetuated when there is selfishness.  But if we can just maintain our focus on keeping Krishna at the center, this propensity will naturally diminish.

Śrīla Radhanath Swami Mahārāja :
“Thoughts For The New Year”
January 2010, Bhaktivedanta Manor England
http://jivacow.blogspot.com/2010/01/thoughts-for-new-year-by-radhanath.html
http://www.radhanath-swami.net/  -  http://radhanathswami.info/