Libya's Revolution: A dream of freedom

The Compass

• Episode: Libya's Revolution: A dream of freedom
• Website: The Compass
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p035w97h/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:27:22
• Published: 2021-09-01 04:00

In February 2011, the arrest of a human rights lawyer in Libya sparked an uprising against the 42-year dictatorship of Col Muammar Gaddafi. The Revolution spread - supported by foreign airstrikes - and within eight months Gaddafi was killed, his regime overthrown. It was one of the climactic moments of the 'Arab Uprisings’. But what happened afterwards to Libya's Revolution? Ten years on, it is still unfinished. It has brought thousands of deaths, civil war, a strategically vital and oil-rich country still effectively divided in two. BBC reporter Tim Whewell, who covered the 2011 uprising, returns to Libya to find out what went wrong. Tim meets the lawyer Fathi Terbil - the "spark of the revolution", and Iman Bugaighis, spokesperson of the rebel government. Former British foreign secretary William Hague discusses the calculations that led to foreign intervention. Does he still believe the West was right to get involved? (Photo: Libyan rebels and Benghazi residents celebrate the passing of a UN resolution on 18 March, 2011 in Bengazi, Libya.Credit: Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images)