By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 23 October 2103:
The USA will continue “to stand with the people of Libya and their government as . . .[restrict]they work to build a free, democratic, prosperous and secure nation”, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said in a statement congratulating Libya marking today’s second anniversary of Liberation Day.
The US, he said, joined in honouring Libyans who had “made great sacrifices – losing lives and loved ones – in hopes of creating a better life for their children and building a country where a free people are empowered to choose their own futures without fear”.
Describing the transition from dictatorship to democracy as “challenging”, he said Americans applauded Libyans’ commitment to it. Referring to present political uncertainties, he said that too much blood had “been spilled and too many lives sacrificed to go backwards”.
Building a democratic Libya was going to be a “long-term endeavour”, he stated, but he was confident the Libyan people would achieve their aspirations for a democratic country “based on the rule of law and respect for human rights”.
In a video statement marking the day, US Ambassador Deborah Jones similarly said that there would certainly “be struggles and obstacles along the way” as Libya moved towards realising “the dream for which its people fought and paid so dearly” but that “this difficult path is one worth taking”.
Speaking in Arabic, she said that building democracy was always an on-going process.
“Democracy is not a resting place; it is an upward path, a continual struggle.”
She pointed out that in the US, her fellow Americans “continue to debate the powers of the federal government versus states’ rights; the role the government should play in people’s lives, and citizens’ obligations to the state versus their personal ‘freedoms’”.
