Hague: We are determined to stop violence, bloodshed and suffering
Foreign secretary William Hague spoke during the Commons debate on the Libyan intervention:
“In the case of Libya, the desire to be rid of a decaying dictatorship has run up against a regime that has shown itself to be one of the most ruthless, unprincipled and savage. The Arab world and the western world care about the civilians of Libya, but their government does not. We are determined to stop violence, bloodshed and suffering – the very things that the Gaddafi regime is happy to unleash. When the prime minister said in the House three weeks ago that we should not just stand by if Colonel Gaddafi used military force against his own people, he was seen by many as being too bold. But he meant what he said, and we mean to stand by his words just as we are standing by the people of Libya.
“This is not the west imposing its views on Libya; it is the world saying that the people of Libya should be allowed to express their views without their government setting out to slaughter them. We are not trying to choose the future government of Libya. That is a matter for Libyans, who must find their own solution to the misgovernment that they have been subjected to, but this resolution, and our enforcement of it, gives them their only chance of being allowed to do so. This is not a legal fudge or a questionable interpretation of international law; it is the rigorous application of international law. Our actions are all the stronger for the breadth and determination of the international coalition, but they are also stronger for the breadth and determination of this House, which we have seen today.
“The brave members of our armed forces who have patrolled the skies above Benghazi today or flown through the night to destroy the air defences of a regime that used air power against its own citizens can know that they do so armed not only with the weaponry that they are so well trained to deploy but with every advantage of knowing that what they do is legally warranted, morally necessary, internationally supported and, I hope, democratically agreed through a vote of this House of Commons.
“They can have the satisfaction of knowing that, in precipitating the retreat of Gaddafi’s forces from Benghazi, they have already averted a catastrophe and a new outpouring of human misery. In pressing our case at the United Nations, in insisting that what we do must be legal, in taking extreme care to protect civilians and in acting with a speed and precision that few armed forces on earth can rival, this country is doing what it said it would do, doing what it absolutely right and joining in giving a lead to the world, and it should enjoy the united support of the House tonight.”
