Mohammed al-Senousi calls himself a prince, although he has had no throne since his grandfather was ousted in a 1969 coup by Moammar Gadhafi. Al-Senousi, 42, joined hundreds of Libyan opposition members in London on Saturday to push for Gadhafi's ouster — their first conference in exile to tell the world, they said, there is an alternative to Gadhafi that is not Islamic extremism.The organizers condemned the West, particularly the United States, for normalizing ties with Libya, charging Washington was practicing double standards when it came to human rights violations in the North African nation. "It forgot Libya and its bloody dictator regime" while urging reform in other Arab countries, a statement said. The United States last year decided to resume diplomatic relations with Libya after Gadhafi agreed to abandon his programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and promised to pay compensation to relatives of the 270 people killed in the attack over Lockerbie, Scotland. Washington previously had viewed Libya as a terrorist-sponsoring adversary.
To the strains of the national anthem that Gadhafi changed and flags that predate his taking power, some 300 Libyan opposition members opened their two-day conference outlining their ideas for a constitutional state. "The regime suggests that the only alternative to Gadhafi would be the Islamic extremists," Abdel Hafez Bin Herati of the Libyan National Movement told The Associated Press. "We are here to tell the world that there are many alternatives to Gadhafi, and none of them are extremists because we believe in democracy and we reject fanaticism."
Al-Senousi, the self-described exiled prince, recalled the day — Sept. 1, 1969 — when Gadhafi and young officers launched the military rebellion, storming the royal ranch on the outskirts of Tripoli. They smashed the doors and climbed the stairs to the second floor looking for his father, Crown Prince al-Hassan al-Reda, who was acting ruler while King al-Senousi — al-Senousi's grandfather — was undergoing medical treatment in Turkey. "Ahmed al-Hariri, a young officer, told my father: 'The monarchy is over and you are wanted for justice,'" al-Senousi said. "My father said nothing and left everything in God's hands."
King al-Senousi later sought more medical treatment in Greece. After the coup, he traveled to Egypt where he was given asylum and later died. Crown Prince al-Reda and his family remained under house arrest for seven years after the coup. He then spent two years in detention without trial where he was said to have been tortured. He suffered a brain tumor that paralyzed his body and traveled to Britain for treatment. He died six years later when the Libyan office in London suspended payment for the treatment.
While al-Senousi, 49, said he hoped to return to power one day, he would not force a monarchy on the Libyans. "I will call for elections. If people want me to be their prince again, I will be willing to," he said. Some of the opposition leaders at this gathering, including Islamists and liberals, also want Libya to return to a monarchy. "I myself want to see a return of monarchy, and we have the heir of throne already here, but that doesn't necessarily mean everybody wants it," Nouri el-Kakhya, an opposition member, said.
Al-Senousi believes restoring the constitution that was drafted under the mandate of Britain and France is the only way to improve Libya's situation. According to a U.N. resolution, drafting the constitution was a prerequisite to Libya's 1952 independence. "The United Nations must move by all its weight to push for regime change, to save the constitution it supervised before independence," al-Senousi said.