The unrest culminated with the ouster of the President and strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announced on state television that he had taken control of the country.

On February 11, 2011 in Egypt the military commander for the Cairo area, General Hassan al-Roueini appeared in the Tahrir Square and told the protestors: “All your demands will be met today.” Ahead of the military’s formal announcement, the military’s chief of staff, Sami Anan also made an appearance in the Tahrir Square where he pledged to safeguard the people’s demands and their security. Thousands of protestors roared in approval. It was after night fall, the “Pharaoh’s” 29-year rule ended.

The pro-democracy protestors of Libya has been particularly unfortunate as Muammar Gaddafi refused to step down and started oppressing the peaceful protestors. This invited the NATO powers to attack Libya by grafting a United Nations Security Council Resolution on March 17 aiming at set up of a no-fly zone in the country’s airspace.

India was five of the fifteen Security Council members that abstained from voting. The other four abstainers were Russia, China, Germany and Brazil.

India’s contention was that the ground report of the situation was yet to be received from the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy who has just visited Libya. The African Union was sending a high level panel to Libya to resolve the crisis.

Also the financial measures that were proposed in the resolution could impact, directly or through indirect routes, ongoing trade and investment activities of a number of member-states thereby adversely affecting the economic interests of the Libyan people and others dependent on these trade and economic ties. There was a need to ensure that the measures will mitigate and not exacerbate an already difficult situation for the people of Libya and any spill-over affects of these measures that would be undertaken.

As NATO powers began air strikes India called for cessation of the conflict. The tragedy is that the Libyan people are the worst suffers. They suffering from Gaddafi’s men as well as NATO forces.

It seems that the NATO forces have come with a different intention. They have come not as saviours. Their intention is to make the oil-rich Libya another Iraq. They are greedy to plunder the oil wealth. The poor pro-democracy protestors are bearing the burnt of the situation.

Similar is the situation in Bahrain where the US ally Saudi Arabia invaded that country and has cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protestors. The US Administration made a lip service in condemning Bahrain monarchy’s use of force but is hesitant to restrain Saudi Arabia from invading Bahrain and suppressing its people. Bahrain too is an oil-rich country and the US and its allies are greedy to plunder its wealth.

However, there is some welcome development for pro-democracy forces in Yemen where there is a division in the Armed Forces. Tanks were deployed in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on March 21 as Brig. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the first armored division surrounding Sanaa and of the northwestern military zone, announced that he was joining the revolution and called on the army to protect the protesters.

The change of regime has taken place through peaceful means in Tunisia and Egypt. The pro-democracy forces here are happy, but they are eagerly waiting for the ushering in of a multi-party democracy. A multi-party secular democracy is the need of the hour in today’s world. NATO powers should better realize this genuine aspiration of the people instead of intending to plunder the oil wealth by suppressing popular pro-democracy movements.