Le Parisien: Gaddafi: The last stand of a tyrant

Very rough translation:

While the West had hoped to cause a rapid collapse of the Libyan regime in launching air raids in March, Muammar Gaddafi fought to the very end, throwing his last forces into the battle.

For 42 years, this son of a shepherd, who liked to recount how he was born in a Bedouin tent in the middle of the desert, ruled Libya with an iron fist. On arriving in power after deposing King Idriss, the young colonel dreamed of becoming leader of the Arab world. A megalomaniac and a narcissist, Gaddafi loved to be seen in uniform: he alternated between military dress, brightly colored traditional outfits, or even a Russian-style chapka hat, which he notably wore in the corridors of Versailles in 2007. Gaddafi thought himself a seducer and surrounded himself with female soldiers, the Amazons.

All of these odd traits could bring a smile to the visitors who he received for tea, if they forgot they were dealing with an unpredictable and bloodthirsty tyrant. Colonel Gaddafi suppressed all opposition with violence. The manner in which he responded to the first demonstrations in February by firing on the protestors and shelling his own people showed that he was ready to do anything to remain in power.

The Libyan leader had been ostracized by the international community in 1988 following the Lockerbie bombing and then the downing of UTA Flight 772 (1989), which together killed 400 people. But Gaddafi savored a return to grace in 2003 after paying compensation for these crimes. In 2007, he was even able to have himself boldly installed in a Bedouin tent on the grounds of the Hotel Marigny in Paris. Last night, the 69-year-old Libyan leader aimed to show defiance towards both the rebels and NATO. "We will never give up," he said in a message played on television. But this time it will be difficult to defy the international community for long.

Read the article in the original French here

Photo: By James (Jim) Gordon from Manhattan, New York City, USA [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons