Thirteen countries along with the United Nations and the European Union have called for an end to the “ongoing violence, terrorism, and extremism hijacking Libya’s development and democratic process”.
The call came in a joint communiqué published by the United States State Department on Monday evening. Thirteen countries adopted the communiqué, including Egypt, Algeria, the US, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as well as the European Union and the United Nations. The foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The communiqué stressed the “legitimacy of the House of Representatives as the sole legislative authority in Libya”, in an attempt to sideline the Islamist dominated General National Congress, based in Tripoli, that was scheduled to hand over power earlier this year, but instead appointed its own Prime Minister, Omar Al-Hassi.
The nations praised the work of Libya’s constitution drafting body, encouraging it “to advance its efforts to draft a document that enshrines and protects the rights of all Libyans”.
The coalition of countries threw their support behind UN Special Representative for Libya Bernardino Leon who has announced that the warring sides agreed to begin an “UN-facilitated political dialogue” on 29 September. The signatories of the communiqué also stressed that “there is no military solution to this conflict”.
The communiqué ended with a rejection of “outside interference” in the situation, adding: “The people of Libya fought to overthrow 42 years of dictatorship and we continue to support their effort to transform Libya into a secure, democratic, and prosperous state”. The ministers agreed to convene again in Madrid in 60 days.
A New York Times report last month, citing US officials, suggested Egypt and the UAE worked together to carry out airstrikes on Islamist targets in Tripoli. Egypt denied involvement in the operation while the UAE has not issued a comment on the allegations.
Libya’s stability and security has been fragile since the overthrow of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi and made worse by the struggle to contain various militia groups that emerged during the 2011 uprising.
This summer the violence escalated and caused thousands of people to flee the violence, including hundreds of Egyptian nationals who were evacuated with the help of the Egyptian foreign ministry.
An Egyptian national was killed near Tripoli last week and at the start of September another Egyptian national was shot dead in the coastal city of Sirte.
The Egyptian foreign ministry stressed the need for violence and armed clashes to end in neighbouring Libya in a Thursday statement.
The ministry’s political action group met to discuss the situation on Wednesday as the situation worsened in Libya with people attempting to flee the militia fighting in their hundreds.
The ministry statement reported that the meeting “emphasised the importance of the results of the meeting of the foreign ministers of Libya’s neighbouring countries Algeria and Tunisia”, pointing out the “need to respect the unity of Libya, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the full cessation of all forms of violence and armed clashes”.
Participants in the meeting praised the formation of a new parliament. The majority of the members of the new parliament met in Tobruk last week due to the violence in Libya’s two major cities Benghazi and the capital Tripoli.
Cairo is expected to host a meeting for representatives of Libya’s neighbouring countries to discuss the approval of “a number of ideas, reccomendations and a set of proposals in solidarity and support for the Libyan people”, according to the foreign ministry.
Last week Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited the Libya-Tunisia border to help facilitate the evacuation of Egyptians from Libya.
In July 23 Egyptian workers were killed in the shelling of a home in Tripoli as the violence intensified.
Militia have battled for control of the Tripoli airport resulting in the damage of many of the aircraft there.
Violence has ebbed and flowed in Libya since the overthrow of former president Muammar Gaddafi who was killed in October 2011 by militant fighters. Violence surged once more earlier this year when retired General Khalifa Haftar began a campaign to root out “terrorism” in Benghazi. Libya’s government denounced his actions and declared him an outlaw.
Fighting broke out near the Libyan capital’s airport on Sunday between rival militias, hours after the United States expressed deep concerns at the ongoing violence in the country.
A Libyan official told AFP that flights were interrupted after “rockets struck inside the perimeter” of the Tripoli International Airport. These reports came one day after the Brega oil port, located in Ajdabiya in northeast Libya, was shut down by protesters. If the protests continue, they threaten to halt state oil production of 43,000 barrels a day, the Libyan state agency LANA reported.
The US State Department said in a statement on Saturday that it is deeply concerned that ongoing violence and “dangerous posturing could lead to widespread conflict.”
“Libya’s future will not be secured through force of arms but only through a political accord and national dialogue that allow the state to ensure security and rule of law throughout the country,” the United States said. It urged all parties to engage in constructive dialogue.
Violence has repeatedly surged and died down in Libya after the overthrow of former president Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed by militants in October 2011. However, the violence drastically escalated in 2014 when General Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign in May to root out “terrorism” in the coastal city of Benghazi. Libyan authorities have denounced his actions, labelling him an outlaw.
The United States said it supports the country’s “democratic transition” and urged the seating of the House of Representatives as soon as possible. Last month, Libyans elected a House of Representatives and a constitution is currently being drafted by an elected constituent assembly. The US said that the work of the constituent assembly “must advance without interference or violence.”
The violence in Libya has been on the agenda of its neighbours. Tunisia is hosting a two day conference on Sunday and Monday for foreign ministers of countries that neighbour Libya. The Tunisian Foreign Ministry said the talks will address ways in which Libya’s neighbours can offer support to parties in Libya to help create national dialogue, achieve transitional justice and strengthen state institutions.
Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry has delegated Assistant Minister for Neighbouring Countries Mohamed Badr El-Din Zayed to represent Egypt in the Tunisia talks.
On 7 July, Libyan Chief of Staff Jadallah Al-Salihin held talks with his counterpart Mahmoud Hegazy in Cairo, discussing security at Egypt’s western border. The talks came one day after Shoukry received his Libyan counterpart Mohamed Abdulaziz in Cairo where the two discussed security challenges in Libya.
Egypt is currently preparing a conference on Libya’s border security, to be held in Cairo.
A Libyan woman casts her ballot at a polling station during legislative elections in the capital Tripoli on June 25, 2014. (AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD TURKIA)
AFP – Libyans were voting Wednesday in a legislative election the authorities hope will end political turmoil and deadly violence that has gripped the country since the ouster of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Voters in Tripoli and Benghazi took advantage of a public holiday called for the election, trickling in to cast their ballots.
Security was tight around some polling stations in the capital, while totally absent at others.
In the past few weeks, Libya has been rocked by a crisis that saw two rival cabinets jostling for power amid a crippling showdown between Islamists and liberals, as violence raged in the east, where a rogue general is battling jihadists.
A patchwork of militias, including Islamic extremists, who helped to overthrow Gaddafi in the NATO-backed uprising of 2011 have been blamed for violence that has continued unabated since the end of the revolt.
“These are the last chance elections. We are placing much hope in the future parliament to restore the security and stability of our country,” said Amr Baiou, 32, as he emerged from a voting centre in a residential Tripoli neighbourhood.
The heavily armed rebels who ousted and killed Gaddafi have carved out their own fiefdoms in the deeply tribal country, some even seizing oil terminals and crippling crude exports from a sector key to government revenues.
The General National Congress (GNC), or parliament, which has served as Libya’s highest political authority since the 2011 revolt, was elected in July 2012, in the country’s first ever free polls.
But it has been mired in controversy and accused of hogging power, with successive governments complaining its role as both executive and legislative authority has tied their hands in taming militias.
The crisis came to a head in February when the assembly, whose term had been due to expire, decided to prolong its mandate until December.
That sparked street protests and forced lawmakers to announce the election.
Almost 3.5 million Libyans are eligible to vote but only 1.5 million have registered, a far cry from the more than 2.7 million who registered two years ago.
Voters are choosing from among 1,628 candidates, with 32 seats in the 200-strong GNC reserved for women and would-be MPs banned from belonging to any political party.
Polling ends at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT), and final results are expected in “several days”, according to electoral officials.
The UN Security Council has expressed hopes that the vote can be a stepping stone out of the chaos.
“These elections are an important step in Libya’s transition towards stable democratic governance,” it said this week.
For analyst Salem Soltan, none of the candidates standing in the elections “carry the political or social weight” needed in the assembly.
The new parliament risks “being run by shadow MPs, who will act according to instructions from warlords and militias,” he said.
But some of those taking part in Wednesday’s poll disagreed.
“We are voting so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past,” said Salah Al-Thabet.
“We voted in the first elections just to vote. This time I have really researched the candidates, and I voted for the right people,” added the 62-year-old pensioner, after casting his ballot in central Tripoli.
There are concerns that violence will mar polling day, particularly in the unrest-hit east, scene of a deadly 2012 attack by jihadists on the US consulate in Benghazi.
“Generally, we are optimistic, but there is a risk that the vote will be disrupted in some polling stations, namely in Benghazi and Derna,” both Islamist strongholds, an electoral official told AFP.
Last week, the government instructed the interior ministry and the armed forces to come up with a security plan for the vote.
The task is not expected to be easy.
Authorities have been struggling to build a strong army and police force and now face defections from members of the security forces who have joined the ranks of rogue general Khalifa Haftar who is battling Islamists in Benghazi.
Haftar, accused by authorities of trying to mount a coup, said he would observe a truce during the vote, but the Islamists did not divulge their intentions.
President of Libya’s supreme court, Kamal Edhan (C) chairs a hearing to discuss the legitimacy of the prime minister on June 9, 2014 in the capital Tripoli. The court ruled that the election of prime minister Ahmed Miitig in a chaotic session in the interim parliament in early May was unconstitutional. (AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD TURKIA)
AFP – Libya’s supreme court on Monday ruled as unconstitutional the election of premier Ahmed Miitig in a chaotic parliamentary session, raising hopes for a possible solution to the country’s smouldering political crisis.
Outgoing prime minister Abdullah Al-Thani had refused to recognise Miitig’s government, saying he would await the judiciary’s decision before handing over power.
But Miitig convened his first cabinet meeting last week despite Thani’s objections, and the two rival premiers disputed power in Tripoli, laying claim to the North African nation’s huge reserves from oil and gas.
“The court has judged the election of Miitig at the General National Congress [the interim parliament] as unconstitutional,” a judge at the court said on Monday after a short hearing.
The ruling will be examined by the administrative court on Monday, lawyers said.
Thani announced his resignation earlier this year after an armed attack on his family, but he insisted that his successor should be chosen by a new parliament rather than its contested predecessor and refused to recognise Miitig’s cabinet.
Miitig, 42, an independent backed by the Islamists, had been due to lead the country for a short interim period until 25 June, when the country is due to hold an election to replace the congress.
Miitig did not immediately comment. If he accepts the court’s decision, Thani is expected to remain in office until the 25 June vote is held.
Miitig’s election took place at a second session of the GNC in early May, days after gunmen stormed the building to interrupt an earlier ballot.
Several liberal lawmakers accused Islamist blocs within the interim parliament of allowing late arrivals at the session to cast their votes after the initial result was announced to make up the 121 votes needed, after Miitig had garnered only 113 votes.
The GNC’s vice-president, liberal MP Ezzedine Al-Awami, called Miitig’s installation as prime minister a “coup d’etat”.
The GNC was elected in July 2012, in Libya’s first ever free polls, almost one year after the revolution which ousted the regime of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Its legitimacy was challenged after the GNC prolonged its mandate, due to expire last February, until December 2014.
AFP – Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb urged Libyans to fight a rogue general who is pressing an offensive against Islamist militias in the country’s east, labelling him an “enemy of Islam”.
Last month, ex-general Khalifa Haftar unleashed forces from his so-called National Army on Islamist militias in Benghazi in a campaign dubbed “Operation Dignity”.
“We call on you to unite to remove the symbol of treachery and apostasy, Khalifa Haftar, and the supporters of [late dictator Muammar] Gaddafi who are under his command,” AQIM said in a statement posted on jihadist Internet forums.
“Thanks to the support of the bloodthirsty [Egyptian president elect Abdel Fattah Al-] Sisi, American complicity and funding from Gulf countries, the traitor Haftar has launched a war against Islam on the pretext of fighting terrorism,” it said.
“We warn our Libyan brothers that the criminal Haftar is carrying out a crusader plan against Sharia [Islamic law], and we especially urge the Libyan heroes of the revolution to strongly resist it”.
Authorities denounced Haftar as an outlaw, but he has won over units from the regular army and air force and says he aims to crush “terrorism” in the eastern city.
Since the 2011 uprising that ousted Gaddafi, near-daily attacks blamed on radical Islamists have targeted security forces in Benghazi.
Militias of ex-rebels who fought in the 2011 uprising have refused to hand over their weapons and have carved out fiefdoms for themselves across the mostly desert nation.
On Tuesday, jihadist militia Ansar Al-Sharia slammed Haftar and threatened that he could end up like Gaddafi, killed by rebels eight months after the 2011 uprising erupted.
Ansar Al-Sharia, classified as a terrorist group by Washington, also called on Libyans to disassociate themselves from the “dignity” campaign.
But Haftar says the people have given him a “mandate” to press ahead with his offensive after thousands demonstrated in Tripoli and Benghazi to support him.
Late Friday, he “thanked” Libyans who took part in the rallies in the two cities on Friday for the second week running.
“No steps backwards until the country is liberated, security and stability restored and freedom and democracy established,” he said in a statement read on private television.
Former rebel fighters who are now intergrated into the Libyan army guard the western entrance of the capital Tripoli on May 19, 2014 (AFP / Mahmud Turkia)
AFP – An elite Libyan unit joined a renegade general Monday to battle Islamists in the east as rising lawlessness in the nation’s two largest cities edges it closer to civil war.
The government posted an open letter on its website suggesting that the General National Congress or parliament “take a recess” as a way out of the crisis.
Gunmen stormed the GNC in southern Tripoli on Sunday, two days after an anti-Islamist offensive launched by a rogue general in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Colonel Wanis Abu Khamada, respected commander of an elite army unit, announced on Monday that his troops would join retired general Khalifa Haftar’s operation targeting Islamist militias in the North African nation’s second city.
Abu Khamada said his unit would join the operation “launched by the Libyan National Army with all our men and weapons”.
His forces have come under regular attack in Benghazi by presumed Islamist militias, and dozens of his men have been killed.
With the interim authorities failing to build a regular army and police, militias have ruled the roost since ousting long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. It was in Benghazi that the uprising erupted in 2011.
After Sunday’s attack on parliament, a colonel claiming to speak on behalf of the army declared that the GNC had been suspended.
The government had no immediate comment but on Monday suggested the GNC “take a recess after the vote on the 2014 budget and until new parliamentary elections” within three months to avoid civil war.
Justice Minister Salah Al-Marghani said two people were killed and 55 wounded in Sunday’s clashes between rival militias in southern Tripoli but that the violence had “no real link” to events in Benghazi.
Witnesses said the Tripoli assailants belonged to the powerful Zintan brigades that have attacked the GNC in the past.
The Zintan brigades control areas in southern Tripoli around the airport.
MPs were evacuated as heavy gunfire erupted after a convoy of armoured vehicles headed for the GNC.
Gunmen set fire to an annex of the parliament building before withdrawing towards the airport.
Militias have launched several attacks on the GNC, including on 2 March when two lawmakers were shot and wounded.
The Tripoli violence came two days after fierce fighting killed 79 people in Benghazi, where Haftar unleashed his so-called National Army on Islamist militias, backed by air power.
Also on Sunday, armed Islamists attacked Benghazi’s Benina air base but no one was hurt, its commander said.
Haftar, accused by Tripoli of staging a coup, has said he is preparing a new assault, vowing to eradicate “terrorism”.
“Each battle is followed by a regrouping of units. And we will return in force,” he said.
Haftar, who led ground forces in the 2011 revolution, said: “Our operation is not a coup and we do not plan to seize power.”
Haftar shares the Zintan militias’ hostility towards the interim parliament, saying he does not recognise the GNC whose “mandate has already expired and who are rejected by the people”.
The interim parliament – in which Islamists are strongly represented – sparked outrage earlier this year when it extended its own mandate until December.
The regular army says Haftar is backed by tribes, army defectors and former rebels who oppose the interim authorities.
His forces in Benghazi on Friday mainly targeted Ansar Al-Sharia, designated by the United States as a terrorist group.
In the face of the growing anarchy, Saudi Arabia on Monday closed its embassy and evacuated diplomatic staff.
US ambassador Deborah Jones who arrived in Libya in mid-2013 left the country on Sunday, an airport source said, but she said she was “on family travel” on her Twitter account.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington was closely monitoring the upsurge of violence, but had not decided yet whether to order the closure of its embassy.
The European Union has said it was “deeply concerned” by the violence.
It urged “all parties to build consensus so as to ensure a transition to a stable democracy”, said foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton’s spokesman.
Oil prices were mixed Monday amid the escalating violence in crude producer Libya, analysts said.
The US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in June, rose 59 cents to $102.61 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in July dipped 38 cents to stand at $109.37 a barrel in late London deals and compared with Friday’s close.
AFP – Armed groups attacked Libya’s interim parliament and an air base in the east Sunday, adding to turmoil in the troubled country where a rogue general has launched an offensive against Islamists in the city of Benghazi.
A colonel claiming to speak on behalf of the army declared that parliament had been suspended.
“We, members of the army and revolutionaries [former rebels], announce the suspension of the General National Congress,” said Mokhtar Fernana, reading out a statement broadcast on two private television channels.
Private television channel Libya International was hit by rockets, shortly after broadcasting the statement.
“At least four rockets struck the channel’s offices. There was material damage but no victims,” said a journalist speaking on condition of anonymity.
Since the toppling of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, successive Libyan governments have struggled to impose order as heavily armed former rebel brigades have carved out their own fiefdoms.
Justice Minister Salah Al-Marghani said two people had been killed and 55 wounded in clashes between rival militia groups in southern Tripoli, but he added that the violence had “no real link” to an offensive launched Friday by ex-general Khalifa Haftar against Islamists in Benghazi, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) to the east.
Witnesses identified the assailants as members of the influential Zintan brigades who are known for their opposition to the Islamists and have attacked parliament, known as the General National Congress, before.
MPs were evacuated from the building in southern Tripoli as heavy gunfire erupted after a convoy of armoured vehicles entered the city from the airport road and headed for the GNC.
Residents said gunmen in civilian clothes attacked the building but no casualties were reported.
The Zintan brigades are made up of former rebels who fought Gaddafi.
The groups from Zintan now control areas in southern Tripoli around the airport.
An AFP photographer said a column of smoke billowed over the GNC building after gunmen set fire to an annex, and that several cars parked nearby had been damaged.
Later, the gunmen were seen withdrawing to their bases and gunfire was heard along the airport road, residents said.
Militias have launched several attacks on the GNC, including on 2 March when two lawmakers were shot and wounded.
The latest violence in Tripoli came after deadly fighting in Benghazi, where Haftar unleashed his so-called National Army on Islamist militiamen on Friday, backed by warplanes.
At least 79 people were reported killed in the Benghazi unrest.
On Sunday armed Islamists attacked the Benina air base in Benghazi but no one was hurt, base commander Colonel Saad Al-Werfalli told AFP.
“Rockets are being fired at the base, but so far it’s not serious,” Werfalli said, adding that the rockets hit waste land.
In Benghazi, the retired general accused by Tripoli of staging a coup has said he is readying a new assault on Islamist groups, vowing to eradicate “terrorism”.
“Each battle is followed by a regrouping of units. And we will return in force,” Haftar said after his men withdrew late Friday.
The government accused the “outlaw” Haftar of trying to mount a coup and declared a Benghazi no-fly zone.
Haftar, who led ground forces in the 2011 revolution, said: “Our operation is not a coup and we do not plan to seize power.”
The general defected from Gaddafi’s forces in the late 1980s and spent nearly 20 years in the United States before joining the uprising.
Detractors accuse him of being in the pay of the Americans.
Nuri Abu Sahmein, speaker of the GNC, Libya’s highest political body, has denounced the Benghazi operation and speculated that Haftar was behind Sunday’s attack on parliament.
It is “an action outside state legitimacy and a coup d’etat”, said a joint statement read on state television by the GNC chief, flanked by newly-appointed Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani and armed forces chief of staff Abdessalam Jadallah Al-Salihin.
“All those who took part in this coup bid will be prosecuted.”
Haftar responded by saying he does not recognise the GNC whose “mandate has already expired and who are rejected by the people”.
The interim parliament sparked outrage earlier this year when it extended its own mandate from February until December.
Subsequent protests compelled it to promise early elections and a new electoral law.
Ex-rebels, particularly Islamists, have been blamed for attacks that have killed dozens of members of the security forces, judges and foreigners in Benghazi, cradle of the revolution.
The army says Haftar is backed by tribes, army defectors and former rebels who oppose the central government.
Haftar’s forces on Friday mainly targeted Ansar Al-Sharia, an organisation designated by the United States as a terrorist group.
His offensive comes at a time of high political tension, particularly after this month’s disputed election of the Islamist-backed Thani.
When the Gaddafi regime was toppled in 2011, it left behind a security vacuum. Rather than a national police force, army or security service, powerful regional militias have taken over management of their own territories and the security of the people residing there. The visceral refusal by the regions to obey any government in Tripoli flows from the weak political and institutional tradition inherited from the Gaddafi era. Muammar Gaddafi, following the example of the previous Libyan government, shaped Libya’s power structures according to a tribal configuration. Rather than having a strong central army, as seen in many other Arab states, Gaddafi relied on paramilitary forces and managed a delicate configuration of regional and tribal power centres.
Today, more than 200,000 men serve in regional militias. Only a small fraction of that number supports the central government in Tripoli. The central government believes that too much responsibility for order and security has been left to the militias, but these regional militias are convinced that the central state can never be an autonomous agent protecting its territory and inhabitants. A resolution to this impasse may come through the institutionalisation of the regional militias, rather than their elimination, setting the stage for cooperative dialogue between the regions and Tripoli. Patient management of such a process can help Libya avoid major armed violence and potentially develop a cooperative system of decentralised federalism.
Libyans wave the country’s new national flag as they celebrate in Benghazi. (AFP Photo)
Distrust in the state, and the security vacuum
Several factors have contributed to destabilising Libya: a very weak political and institutional tradition inherited from the authoritarian ideology of Gaddafi’s regime; a popular defiance towards the state as a result of the monopolisation of public resources by the clans of the former regime; and the visceral refusal by the peripheral regions to obey Tripoli. The Gaddafi regime was a dramatic experience for Libya in that it not only deprived its people of political freedoms but also worked towards systematically destroying all sense of belonging to a state. The tribalisation of power has generated a rejection of the symbols of power – the state and its security apparatus. The Libyan militias are convinced that the state can never be an autonomous agent taking care to protect its territory and inhabitants, and have therefore taken over management of their own territories and the security of the people residing there.
When the Gaddafi regime was toppled, it left an anxiety-inducing security vacuum: no more police force, army or security services. And without security, the political transition is doomed to fail. Building a new security apparatus will require a minimum of trust between the victors of the revolution, and a maximum of constraints so as to enforce any agreements. However, the government has neither trust nor the power to enforce. It has neither army, nor police nor security services. Unlike Iraq’s post-Saddam government, the Libyan government cannot even rely on the support of a foreign army while constructing its own security apparatus. It is subservient to militias that act as security forces and block, through their political partners, any government initiative that might lead to the creation of a national guard. To understand just how completely the post-Gaddafi Libyan state lacks a security apparatus, and to be able to remedy the situation, one must understand the historical mechanisms that led to Libya becoming a state without army or national police force.
Revolutionary regime and paramilitary forces: a poisoned inheritance
In contrast to states such as Algeria or Egypt, Libya has never relied on its army but rather on its paramilitary forces. Those forces ensured that Gaddafi’s ‘Jamahiriya’ survived until 2011. From 1987 onwards, the people’s militias became more important than the army, which fell into disgrace after failing in its interventions in Chad and in its efforts to prevent US bombardments in 1986. International sanctions (1991-2003) deprived the Libyan army of the means of maintaining its military equipment and its 45,000 men lost what little importance they still retained. In 1991, the Ministry of Defence was abolished. The army was not mobilised to suppress armed Islamist dissidents (1993-1998). Its attempted coups d’état between 1993 and 1995 definitively disgraced it; the Revolutionary Guard and the regime’s paramilitary defence structures benefited from the army’s weakness.
Between Gaddafi’s death in late 2011 and the elections in mid-2012, militias replaced the former security apparatuses, thus reproducing the militia-based character of the Libyan state inherited from the Gaddafi regime. This had been founded on a balance between paramilitary forces, composed of a skilful mixture of the “tribes” that had sworn allegiance to the regime, enabling them to be represented and participate in governing. The army was perceived as a threat to be neutralised, even if it meant weakening it and making it militarily incapable. The army was thus unable to promote its own values and interests as a body or institution – unlike other military institutions in the region. Nor could it develop its own economy within Libyan society that might have allowed it to recycle its staff or form a network of influence.
The political determination to sabotage the development of the Libyan army can be explained by the complex, subtle and contradictory relationship between the Libyan Jamahiriya and the state. In the philosophy of the Jamahiriya, the state was destined to disappear to make room for local political structures in which tribes played a fundamental role. Gaddafi’s revolutionary Libya was based on the model of a “just society” inspired by a “tribal” political model. In his Green Book, Gaddafi revealed that the tribe was “a natural social umbrella” and that “through its traditions, it guarantees its members social protection”. By contrast, “the state is an artificial political, economic and at times military system that has nothing to do with humanity”. Society must therefore not be based on the state, but on the tribe.
For Gaddafi, “the tribe is a family that has become extended through births. The tribe is a large family. The nation is an extended tribe.” In fact, this tribal imagery was the product of contemporary political transformations: Gaddafi’s Libya was part of a longer continuity for the Libyan state, shaped by its tribal configuration ever since acquiring independence in 1951.
Indeed, as historian Ali Abdullatif Ahmida shows, the kingdom of King Idris, ruler of Libya from 1951 to 1969, was founded on a religious order, but was also profoundly influenced by the tribal configuration in Cyrenaica in the east of Libya.
From this point of view, the army and state looked like the two obstacles to the success of the revolution. These perceptions of the state and army remain unchanged among today’s militias.
Gaddafi shaped Libya’s power structures according to a tribal configuration (AFP File Photo)
Are today’s militias the products of Gaddafi’s revolutionary philosophy, according to which Libya was duty-bound to remain in a “state of permanent tension”? The Jamahiriya supported the theory of “people in arms” so that “each town might be transformed into a barracks where the inhabitants would train each day”, and was duty-bound to maintain this “tension” through revolutionary committees.
In 1995, so as to conform to this principle, Gaddafi announced that the army had been dissolved for the benefit of the people’s brigades, which were now supposed to ensure the protection of the nation against all forms of aggression. After Gaddafi’s fall, tens of thousands of combatants gathered into brigades linked to towns or neighbourhoods and occupied the public spaces that had been deserted by the former regime’s security forces to protect the revolution.
The militias had derived revolutionary legitimacy from their struggle with the Gaddafi regime, but they were increasingly challenged by the holders of political legitimacy obtained in the elections of 7 July 2012. For the political representatives of transitional Libya, disarming the militias and integrating them into the security forces is a major challenge.
In the immediate aftermath of the elections, the Libyan authorities gave the militias an ultimatum: “The mobile national force under the command of the chief of staff asks all armed individuals, groups and formations occupying army barracks, public buildings or the properties of members of the former regime or of Muammar Gaddafi’s children in Tripoli or surrounding towns, to evacuate these sites within 48 hours.”
Clearly it will take much longer than two days for the government to be obeyed, probably several years, until a security apparatus emerges that is independent from the militias.
The new Libyan Army uparmored NIMR II during its presentation parade in Tripoli, Libya on February 9, 2013.
Multiple and entangled security apparatuses
In post-Gaddafi Libya, reconstructing the security apparatus is a priority for Ali Zeidan’s government. It has not wavered from its belief that too much responsibility for order and security has been left to the militias. In March 2013, the interior minister repeated that the militias and armed groups must leave “villas, houses and buildings in the next few days, or we will take action. We will not allow our towns to be taken hostage. The state must impose its will, and I ask public opinion to support us on this.”
For many Libyans, the excesses of certain militias have become unbearable; they are at times seen as hubs of debauchery, insecurity and terror, encouraging aggression, theft and kidnapping. While the National Transitional Council initially put up with the militias, or even encouraged them to keep their arms, fearing the return of the Gaddafists, the government elected on 7 July 2012 now intends to reinforce the programme of militia disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.
Estimates vary, but more than 1,700 groups gathered into 300 militias are believed to have participated in the insurrection. More than 150,000 Libyans were considered armed in 2012; in 2013 there were between 200,000 and 250,000. For the authorities, the militias – who had made it possible to maintain a certain level of order in the immediate aftermath of the fall of regime – must eventually be disarmed and join either the new Libyan army or the security forces of the Ministry of the Interior. However, military chiefs insist that 70% of the new Libyan army – which paraded in Tripoli on 9 February 2013 in its new NIMR II and Mitsubishi L200 vehicles – must be made up of recruits from outside the militias, so as to guarantee the army’s independence. In theory, its new format is estimated at 100,000 men, and its philosophy is to be “an intelligent army”, according to Adel Othman, the Ministry of Defence spokesperson. Meanwhile, the army uses auxiliary forces (the Libyan Shield Forces), made up of militias that act – at least in principle – under the command of the Supreme Security Council (SSC) and the revolutionary coalitions. The instructors and trainers of the new army are made up of some of the officers who served the former regime but resigned before its fall or refused to fight the insurgents.
In contrast with Iraq, the Libyan authorities have not struck off and excluded all staff linked to the former regime, despite the temptation to do so – far from it! Minister of Interior Ashur Shuwail has revealed that there are more than 120,000 police and 40,000 administrative staff in his ministry, but that many of them have not worked for four or five years, despite continuing to receive their salaries.
Libyan soldiers deploy on Tripoli’s corniche after militias were ordered to leave the capital following weekend clashes on November 18, 2013. (AFP Photo)
In fact, two years after the regime was toppled, the numbers of army soldiers and policemen are derisory compared to those of the battalions and brigades which make up the SSC and the Libyan Shield Forces: about 200,000 men with fluctuating loyalties. The army is believed to be 6,000 men strong, divided into four brigades (one of commandos and three of infantry), and only 1,000 men are supposedly ready for operations! Rather than join the army or police force, more than 76,000 militiamen have preferred to start a company or business while keeping their arms.
The government is too weak to enforce obedience: the authorities permanently have to negotiate their own survival, being under threat by those who were not elected by voters but whose commitment to the revolution recommends them – the militias. The state is a virtual one, without authority; it is the militias who control Libya and not the government, as recognised by many experts and Libyan academics. Parliament has become the seat of militia representatives, not of voters’ representatives. In fact, the problem is not so much that the militias “control Libya” – many Libyans acknowledge that, without the militias, Libya would have slipped into general chaos – but rather that the majority of militias do not trust the government, in particular, and political institutions in general, and that some militias are drifting into becoming mafia-style organisations. The militias project onto the state the same reticence as Gaddafi. Previously, Gaddafi’s tribe had exclusive control over Libya’s oil resources; now, it has been replaced by dozens of militias, sometimes backed by “tribes”.
The militias have blocked the export of hydrocarbons and cut the government’s resources so as to impose their own political agenda – as have the militias in Cyrenaica, who aspire to separate from the Libyan state and create an autonomous region.
The impossibility of creating a security apparatus capable of making Libya safe – and thus the impossibility of creating new political institutions – underlines the determination of those who participated in the revolution (militias and political parties) to work towards the construction of a decentralised federal state. The regions (Cyrenaica, the South, the Berber region of Djebel Nefoussa, etc.) aspire to autonomy both in terms of finances (control over oil ports and borders) and security. They have literally strangled Tripoli, causing the collapse of hydrocarbon exports and forcing the government to acknowledge its own weakness. For the international community, Tripoli’s directives are so insubstantial as to make the revolt of the regions look like chaos. In fact, this chaos has produced a new federal and decentralised state – the state for which Libyans carried out the revolution. Libya is no exception in the region, where local populations from northern Mali to southern Algeria to the southern provinces of Morocco aspire to autonomous and decentralised forms of managing their own territories. The era of “national armies” controlling territories is being challenged. Yesterday’s Libya has ceased to exist and today’s Libyans will use all means – including civil war – to prevent the return of a central authority to their territory. Some Libyan regions believe themselves capable of coping – like Kurdistan in Iraq – within a federal framework. The apparent disorder in Libya is in fact a historical moment of reconfiguring affiliations: the militias will join security apparatuses only if the latter have a perimeter that is restricted to regions or even towns. The Libyan government and its international partners need to understand that the Libyan revolution is a revolution of the regions and rural areas against a central authority, an authority which has been perceived for the last half-century as being abusive and arbitrary.
Libya militia (AFP Photo)
Reconstructing the bonds that unite Libyans will take time. A dynamic must be found that will make it possible to reverse Libyans’ historic defiance against state security apparatuses and allow them to flourish.
For Libya, gaining control over its borders symbolises the hope of a return of the state, but the situation is different for each country in North Africa. In Algeria, the discourse on border insecurity after the Arab Spring highlights public fears about the implosion of Algeria and strengthens the state agencies responsible for security. In Morocco, border insecurity is reflected in the development of a project to build a wall of barbed wire at the border with Algeria, highlighting the exceptionality of Morocco in this region.
As for Tunisia, facing terrorist violence, the government emphasises that “the Algerian experience of the (anti -terrorist) fight is interesting.” Tunisians discovered with horror, after the battle in Jebel Chaambi near the Algerian border in 2013, that Tunisia has become a sanctuary for jihadist organisations. In May 2013, the Tunisian National Guard and the Algerian Gendarmerie Nationale established an “experience exchange” program. While it is easy to observe convergences in the security field between Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, it is more difficult to analyse the impact of the Tunisian democratic experience on the region, as each country has its own characteristics and history. The Tunisian experience seems more like a lesson to learn from than a model to follow, though the compromise reached by Tunisians regarding the new constitution offers hope of seeing consolidation of the first democracy in North Africa.
The conditions that have allowed Tunisia to succeed while Libya has struggled are not so much related to differences in economic levels as to a prerequisite that had been stressed by Dankwart Rustow: national unity.
Libya soldiers (AFP Photo)
The confrontation among Libyan elites (whether in militias, tribes or government) does not lead toward a democracy like Tunisia because the stakes of the conflict relate to the reconfiguration of state sovereignty over the territory, rather than simply to new rules for establishing a representative government. In Algeria, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal stressed that Algeria had managed to close the windows to the intrusion of the Arab revolutions, referring to them as mosquitos, for which insecticides were readily available. The official discourse in Algeria is based on stability and security and corresponds to that of Ben Ali in Tunisia. Regional instability is a reality and Algeria has the military means to secure its territory. However, using the regional threat as an excuse to prevent citizen involvement in the management of state affairs is a poor argument. The authorities fabricate the story of Algeria as a victim of potential plots and call for the people to join with the regime. It seems that the authorities fear that the change in Algeria cannot be done except with violence. Democratic forces must display education and maturity in reassuring national leaders that the worst is still ahead if they don’t recognise that through their own actions they are creating conditions for the chaos that they fear.
Former Libyan rebel fighters (AFP Photo)
While the stability of Algeria is in question, in Libya it is the very existence of the state that is at stake. The dynamics of territorial logic favour the emergence of a political entity that not only avoids the authorities in Tripoli, but develops empowerment strategies enabling them to survive and grow beyond the national framework. Maintaining the Libyan state thus requires a federal construction, the only form of organisation that can banish the spectre, not of civil war, but of a war of secession between regions that feel they no longer have any interest in accepting central authority. The offer of a constitution establishing a decentralised federal state is the only alternative to war that is looming in Libya.
Luis Martinez is head of research at CERI-Sciences Po, Paris, France.
The Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) was founded in 2005 by sixteen think tanks and research institutes from the Arab world, Europe and the United States. ARI is an independent research network with no ties to any specific country or any political agenda.
This paper was originally published by Arab Reform Initiative
Retired Libyan Army general Khalifa Haftar speaks during a press conference in the town of Abyar, 70 km southwest of Bengahzi, on May 17, 2014. . (AFP PHOTO/STR)
AFP – At least 79 people have been killed and 141 others wounded in fierce clashes in eastern Libya between armed groups loyal to a rogue ex-general and Islamist militias, a health ministry official said Saturday.
Libya’s government accused the “outlaw” retired general, Khalifa Haftar, and his irregular forces of trying to carry out a coup as they fight to crush militants in the restive eastern city of Benghazi.
Haftar, who led ground forces in the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, used warplanes and helicopters Friday to support an offensive in pitched battles.
Giving the latest toll of Friday’s unrest in Benghazi, health ministry official Abdallah Al-Fitouri said those wounded had been taken to five hospitals in the area.
An earlier toll had 37 dead and 139 wounded.
Reacting to his vow to continue fighting until Benghazi is “purged of terrorists,” the army announced a no-fly zone over the port city and suburbs, vowing to shoot down any aircraft that defies the ban.
The government, parliament and army charged that Haftar’s operation was tantamount to a coup against the central authorities.
It is “an action outside state legitimacy and a coup d’etat”, said a joint statement read on state television by Nuri Abu Sahmein, the head of the General National Congress.
“All those who took part in this coup bid will be prosecuted,” said Abu Sahmein, flanked by recently appointed Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thani and armed forces chief of staff Abdessalam Jadallah Al-Salihin.
Haftar denied the accusations.
“Our operation is not a coup and we do not plan to seize power,” he told reporters. “This operation has a precise goal which is the eradication of terrorism” in Libya.
Haftar, who sees himself as the chief of the “national armed forces” and has the support of rogue officers and army units as well as warplanes and helicopter gunships, seemed to act on his own accord.
Haftar’s threat to purge Benghazi of the “terrorists” is an affront to the authorities, who have struggled to stomp out lawlessness in the North African nation, which is awash with weapons and effectively ruled by a patchwork of former rebels.
Once seen as heroes, ex-rebels, particularly Islamists, have been blamed for attacks that have killed dozens of members of security forces, judges and foreigners in Benghazi, the cradle of the 2011 revolt.
Meanwhile, a tentative calm was shattered when a war plane bombed an Islamist position in the northwest of the city, an ex-rebel said.
“We fired at the plane which missed its target,” said the source, adding that there were no casualties.
It was not immediately clear who carried out the raid, which came after Haftar spokesman Colonel Mohammad Hijazi advised residents in western and southern districts of Benghazi to evacuate their homes.
Earlier this year, Haftar caused a stir when he announced an “initiative” aimed at suspending the interim government and parliament.
That sparked concern on social media that a coup might be in the offing, but the government was quick to quash them and insist it was in control.
The army says Haftar is backed by tribes, army defectors and ex-rebels who are opposed to the central government.
The army’s high command declared all of Benghazi and its suburbs a “no-fly zone until further notice,” state-run LANA news agency said.
“All military planes flying over the city will be shot down by army units… and units of the revolutionaries [ex-rebels],” LANA added.
It is not clear if the fledgling army, which is still trying to bolster its capacity, has the means to carry out that threat.
Friday’s clashes wound down after Haftar’s forces pulled out of Benghazi.
The violence came weeks after the government acknowledged for the first time the existence of “terrorist groups” in Libya and said it was mobilising against them.
And it comes two weeks after extremist gunmen, including from Ansar Sharia, stormed police headquarters in Benghazi, triggering fighting that killed nine soldiers.
Haftar’s forces pounded former rebel groups on Friday, focusing in particular on Ansar Sharia, an organisation designated by the United States as a terrorist group.
The offensive also comes at a time of high political tensions in Libya where Islamists and liberals are in a tug-of-war, particularly after the disputed election this month of Islamist-backed Thani.
Haftar defected from Gaddafi’s forces in the late 1980s and spent nearly 20 years in the United States before returning home to join the uprising. He has been accused of being in the pay of the Americans.
In other developments, voting was underway in Tripoli for local councils to replace those formed after the uprising, with an average turnout at polling stations after a lacklustre campaign.
