TRIPOLI: The issue of disarming former rebels who fought Moamar Qaddafi forces is "more complex" than it appears, but these militias will be demilitarized soon, Prime Minister Abdel Rahim Al-Kib said on Thursday.
"This (disarming of militias) is a much more complex issue than it may sound," Kib told a select group of foreign reporters after talks with visiting Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
His statement comes two days after the capital’s city council requested militias from outside Tripoli to leave by Dec. 20.
Al-Kib said his two-week old interim government was holding talks with militias with a view to disarm them and has "solid and detailed programs" to rehabilitate these tens of thousands of former rebels.
"We are working on demilitarizing these groups. We are talking to them and I think we will achieve our goals and objectives any time soon," Kib said, adding a major militia had already agreed to leave the city out of its own accord.
"There is a group, a major player in this group of freedom fighters coming from another city" who will leave Tripoli, he said, without naming the militia.
They will do this "not because they heard somebody telling them it is two weeks or else… No. It is because we have been talking to them," he added.
"They understand the situation and they actually expressed themselves interest to leave the city," Kib continued.
Pressure to disarm the former rebels has mounted after local media reported several skirmishes between militia factions in Tripoli, with some resulting in casualties.
Residents of Tripoli are growing increasingly angry with fighters who hail from cities like Misrata and Zintan, and who helped liberate Tripoli in August but have yet to return home.
Kib, however, blamed the recent skirmishes on "criminals" released from prisons by the Qaddafi regime.
