The Movement of Direct Democracy (MDD) which is close to the revolutionary committees in Libya criticised the revolution the overthrew late leader Muammar Gaddafi. The MDD stated that what happened on February 17 was \"a conspiracy aimed at destroying and occupying the Republic in order to demolish and undermine the revolutionary tide in the world, as well as to change Libya into small states to be easily controlled and plundered\". \"Arabstoday\" received a statement from the Mauritanian party known to be pro-Gaddafi stating \"such a celebration requires from us to consider the situation in this country in particular, and the Arab World and Africa in general.\" The statement said: \"From a year, strife prevailed in Eastern Libya, paving the way for Crusader occupation, which would not have been present, but for Arab political cover, the Qatari financial support and logistics provided by Egypt, Sudan and Tunisia.\" The statement noted that the Crusader occupation deliberately destroyed whole Libyan countries, one after the other and changed the life of Libyans into a hell through destruction and murder by NATO aircraft. The statement said: \"Through the MDD in Mauritania, and due to our religious and national responsibility, we have to draw the attention of national and international public opinion to certain important issues like the fact that what happened in Libya was neither a popular revolution nor changing a governor with another one, which has been called for, by the Arab League, financed by Qatar and UAE and supported by a group of mobs in certain cities in Libya in a conspiracy aimed at suppressing the Republic. \"The so called \'Arab Spring\' is nothing but a lie and a trick practiced by the West with the cooperation of the Arab world to pave the way for occupying the Arab region,\" the statement added.