Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal assault on his people has once again exposed the hypocrisy of the international community in dealing with human rights issues.

It took US President Barack Obama nine days to condemn the massacres in Libya as “unacceptable” and outrageous.”

The UN Security Council met more than a week after the first images of Gaddafi’s war crimes stated appearing in the media. And what did the Council do? It held a closed-door meeting after which it issued a presidential statement [not a resolution] condemning the carnage.

The tempered statement did not call for an investigation into the killing of thousands of innocent civilians in Libya. Nor did it call on Gaddafi to step down from the top post.

The Council’s 15 members said that the Libyan authorities should hold accountable those people responsible for attacking civilians, and respect the rights of its citizens to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and press freedom.

The European reaction to the latest developments in Libya also smacks of hypocrisy. Most European governments have thus far refrained from calling on Gaddafi to step down and only a few seem to be worried about the high death toll.

Gaddafi, who once stood along the Pakistan-India border near Lahore, shouting “kaffir, kaffir” in the direction of Indian border forces, is guilty of far more serious and negative behaviour than either Hosni Mubarak or Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. The Libyan tyrant has, in fact, declared war on his people, dubbing his opponents “drugged rats and cockroaches.”

Many Arabs believe that the silence of the international community toward Gaddafi’s war crimes is related to fears that the unrest could lead to a surge in oil prices.

In addition, many American and British oil companies working in Libya are afraid of losing their exclusive rights in the country if the Gaddafi regime collapses.

Ever since he was welcomed back into the international community in 2003, Gaddafi has promised to behave like a good boy. He has since opened up his country to scores of Western companies that have been providing him with weapons and other modern technology.

“Gaddafi has bribed Europeans and Americans with millions of dollars in compensation and commercial transactions to buy silence for his crimes and to keep his regime in power,” said Jordanian political analyst Rakan Majali.

“This explains why the West has been so restricted in its response to what is going on in Libya. The Americans and Europeans have condemned Gaddafi’s crimes as unacceptable, but they have also stopped short of calling for his ouster from power.”

Majali, like many other Arab analysts, believes that the main concern in the West these days is that Gaddafi’s downfall would expose financial scandals involving some European governments and companies.

Palestinian commentator Adli Sadek lashed out at the US and EU for failing to take a quick and firm stance toward the Libya crisis. He said it would have been “honourable” for the West had it moved quickly to minimise civilian casualties and stop the genocide.

Egyptian newspaper columnist Ali Hisham said that the response of the international community to the “massacres” in Libya has once again exposed its hypocrisy and double standards in dealing with democracy and human rights in the Arab world.

Hisham also dismissed as “nonsense” claims that the West was afraid that Libya would be transformed into Islamic “emirates” if Gaddafi’s regime were brought down. “In Libya there is no radical Islam,” he continued. “Arab dictators use radical Islam and Al-Qaeda as an excuse to scare the West. What is happening in Libya is a popular revolution, where the people are saying that they have had enough of dictatorship.”