"Protesters shake transitional government in Libya; Deputy chief resigns, others are suspended" by Liam Stack | New York Times, January 23, 2012
NEW YORK - Libya’s postwar transitional government faced a political crisis yesterday after protesters ransacked its offices in Benghazi, highlighting growing nationwide unease with its leadership and triggering a shakeup in which the government’s deputy chief resigned and several members were suspended.
Ever notice this always happens when the EUSraeli empire imposes a government on a country?
For months, youth groups with a range of complaints have been protesting the National Transitional Council in Benghazi, the eastern city whose protests sparked the nine-month revolt and which once served as the rebel capital. Protests have cropped up elsewhere too, including Tripoli, the capital, where activists have erected a small tent city across from the prime minister’s office.
Occupy.... Libya?
Protesters complain that the transitional council’s operations are too opaque and that many of its members are tainted by past ties, real or suspected, with the regime of Moammar Khadafy.
Speaking to reporters in Benghazi yesterday, Abdul-Jalil warned that continued protests could lead the country down a perilous path and pleaded with protesters to give the government more time to govern.
Translation: Unapproved protests.
“We are going through a political movement that can take the country to a bottomless pit,’’ Reuters quoted him as saying. “There is something behind these protests that is not for the good of the country.’’
Gee, he sounds like a regular old conspiracy theorist, don't he?
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Both the incident itself and the leadership’s response were met with widespread anger in Benghazi, according to Salwa Bugaighis, a lawyer and political activist who was a leading figure in the Libyan uprising....
She said that protesters in Benghazi directed much of their rage at allegations that millions of dollars - and perhaps billions - in government money had gone unaccounted for....
Ever notice this always happens when the EUSraeli empire imposes a government on a country?
Protests have taken place in Misurata as well, run by a rival leadership faction and where officials said they were planning to hold elections for a new local council in February without the blessing of the National Transitional Council. Critics of the interim government also complain that its performance has faltered on a nuts-and-bolts level.
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"Khadafy loyalists attack town, killing 4" January 24, 2012
BENGHAZI, Libya - Forces loyal to Moammar Khadafy attacked the former regime stronghold of Bani Walid yesterday, killing at least four fighters from the new government, officials and residents said.
The fierce clashes in the town, about 90 miles southeast of Tripoli, come as the Libya’s new leaders struggle to stamp out lingering resistance from pro-Khadafy forces and unify a deeply fractured country after eight months of civil war and more than 40 years of Khadafy’s authoritarian rule.
Mahmoud al-Warfali, a spokesman for the revolutionary brigade of the new regime in Bani Walid, said up to 150 pro-Khadafy fighters raised his old green Libyan flag at the northern gate of the town and were battling revolutionary forces in the streets with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s....
The fighting originally was centered around the revolutionary brigade’s base, but has since spread to other parts of the town. The clashes are considered serious enough that dozens of revolutionary fighters from Tripoli have been dispatched to Bani Walid to help, said brigade commander Saddam Abdel-Zein.
Revolutionary commanders in Tripoli also said “sleeper cells’’ loyal to Khadafy opened fire in the capital yesterday evening in an attempt to take advantage of the fighting in Bani Walid.
Abdel-Rahman al-Soghayar, a commander from the new regime in the capital, said shooting took place in several Tripoli neighborhoods yesterday, forcing people to remain indoors and stores to close.
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"Libyan city’s fall shakes new rulers" by Maggie Michael and Rami Al-Shaheibi | The Boston Globe
"Libyan militia hands Tripoli airport to government" by Rami Al-Shaheibi Associated Press / March 8, 2012
BENGHAZI, Libya—A powerful Libyan militia that took over the country's busiest airport when Moammar Gadhafi was deposed said Thursday it will hand over responsibility for the airport to the government, which is struggling to assert its control over militias across Libya.
The decision by the Zintan forces to relinquish such a powerful symbol, the airport in the capital of Tripoli, represents a victory for Libya's central government, which has been heavily criticized for failing to rein in the various militia groups operating across the country.
I'm about to rebel against the damn propaganda because I can't stand it anymore. Five years of distortions, obfuscations, omissions, and lies is enough!
The test, however, will be whether government forces will be able to ensure the security and safety of airport operations....
The Zintan militia were part of the Libyan revolutionaries who swept through Tripoli in August, toppling Gadhafi after months of fighting by citizens-turned-fighters against the regime.
Since then, their well-trained and well-equipped fighters from the mountain city in western Libya have been running the airport in addition to various other institutions, chipping away at the government's power and control.
The leader of Libya's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, admitted Wednesday that his government doesn't have enough power to deal with militias refusing to allow the army and police to take over vital border crossings and airports.
"If we did (have enough power), we would have put our hands on border crossings and passages controlled by the revolutionaries," he told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network....
The Zintan militia also protects other vital institutions in Tripoli, such as oil fields and refineries. They have also teamed up with other revolutionaries in the south, to protect Libya's border with Algeria and Niger.
The militia has said that they do not want to integrate with the government because they say the ministries and forces are infiltrated by remnants of the old regime.
The militias have played an important role in the aftermath of Gadhafi's ouster, such as protecting government institutions and infrastructure. But they have also been severely criticized for refusing to give up weapons and because they are not accountable to anyone.
Their management of the ports of entry have also come under question after corruption allegations have arisen.
Libyan Finance Minister Hassan Zaklam said last month that millions of dollars of Gadhafi family assets returned to Libya by European countries -- a potentially key source of revenue -- have flowed right back out of Libya, stolen by corrupt officials and smuggled out in suitcases through the country's various ports of entry.
That's the kind of government we have, and that's the kind we bring ya'!
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Related: Militia, tribal leaders demand autonomy for eastern Libya
"147 killed in clashes in desert town
TRIPOLI - Six days of tribal clashes in a desert town have killed 147 people, the country’s health minister said Saturday. Fatma al-Hamroush said the fighting in Sabha has also left 395 wounded. About 180 people have been transported to Tripoli for treatment, she said. The clashes show the fragile authority of the Libyan government (AP)."
"22 dead as town militias battle in Libya" April 04, 2012
TRIPOLI, Libya - Militias from rival towns in western Libya battled each other with tanks and artillery on Tuesday in fierce fighting that killed at least 22 people, local officials said.
The clashes erupted over the weekend between the Arab-majority town of Ragdalein and the Berber-dominated town of Zwara, some 70 miles west of the capital, Tripoli. The violence is fueled by deep-rooted animosity between the neighbors, who took different sides in Libya’s civil war that toppled Moammar Khadafy last year.
The fighting is the latest in a series of local rivalries that threaten to divide Libya along tribal and regional lines. Libya’s new leaders, who took power after Khadafy’s capture and killing in October, have struggled to stamp their authority on the country and rein in the myriad armed groups that helped defeat the dictator’s forces but have refused to disarm.
In Tuesday’s clashes, Rami Kaanan, a local Ragdalein official, said 17 fighters and town residents were killed, including two women and one infant. The infant was killed when a rocket fell on his home, collapsing the ceiling, Kaanan said.
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"Khadafy’s spy chief held in Mauritania
TRIPOLI - Mauritania on Saturday arrested Moammar Khadafy’s former spy chief, accused of attacking civilians in the uprising in Libya last year and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner. The International Criminal Court, France, and Libya all said they want to prosecute Abdullah al-Senoussi. A spokesman for Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council, Mohammed al-Hareiz, confirmed that the ex-spy chief had been captured by Mauritian officials (AP)."
"Libyan mass grave holds 157 bodies" March 05, 2012|By Associated Press
BIN JAWWAD, Libya - Libyan government officials said Sunday they have uncovered a mass grave with 157 bodies of rebel fighters and civilians in an eastern town that was a major battleground during the country’s 2011 civil war.
It is the largest grave yet to be discovered from the conflict that began as a popular uprising and ended with the capture and killing of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy last October.
Nearly five months after the civil war ended, the country’s new government is struggling to rebuild a national security force, unify the country’s militias and tribes under its authority, and ready the country’s justice system to handle cases of those accused of war crimes, including Khadafy’s son and onetime heir apparent, Seif al-Islam.
The effects of the war itself are still apparent.
The leader of the new government-run missing persons office, Omar al-Obeidi, said that 80 of the bodies discovered in Bin Jawwad have been identified. He said they are all from eastern Libya. The youngest was a 17-year-old male.
“These are civilians who were protesting in their cities and killed by Khadafy’s men,’’ he said referring to armed fighters and residents of eastern cities.
Obeidi said most appear to have died from gunshot wounds and rocket strikes starting in March. Some were executed, while others were severely disfigured from rocket attacks, he said.
The excavation of the bodies began Friday and finished Sunday.
He said a “Martyrs’ Parade’’ has been planned for those found in the mass grave. The procession, scheduled for Monday, will start in Bin Jawwad and conclude in the former rebel capital of Benghazi.
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Related: UN panel accuses both sides of war crimes in Libya
NATO, navies faulted in refugee deaths
