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| Africa North | |
| Former Qaddafi stronghold revolts against revolution | |
| 2012-01-25 | |
| BANI WALID, Libya: LibyaÂ’s ramshackle government lost control of a former stronghold of Muammar Qaddafi on Tuesday after local people staged an armed uprising, posing the gravest challenge yet to the countryÂ’s new rulers. Elders in Bani Walid, where militias loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) were driven out in a gun battle a day earlier, said they were appointing their own local government and rejected any interference from the authorities in the capital Tripoli. The townÂ’s revolt will heighten doubts in the West about the NTC governmentÂ’s ability to instil law and order crucial to rebuilding oil exports, to disarm tribal militias and guard Libyan borders in a region where Al-Qaeda is active. Local elders denied reports that they were loyal to Qaddafi, who was captured and killed in October after weeks on the run, and Reuters reporters in Bani Walid saw no signs of the Qaddafi-era green flags which witnesses earlier said had been hoisted over the town.
Reuters reporters who entered Bani Walid on Tuesday morning saw a few of the black, green and red flags of last year’s anti-Qaddafi rebellion but there was no sign of any central government presence. About 200 elders who gathered in a mosque decided to abolish an NTC-appointed military council for the town and appoint their own local council, in direct defiance of the authority of the government in Tripoli. “If (NTC chief Mustafa) Abdel Jalil is going to force anyone on us, we won’t accept that by any means,” one of the elders, Ali Zargoun, told Reuters at the mosque. Accounts from Bani Walid, a town about 200 km (120 miles) from Tripoli, late on Monday described armed Qaddafi supporters attacking the barracks of the pro-government militia in the town and then forcing them to retreat. A fighter with the routed pro-government militia told Reuters the loyalists were flying “brand new green flags” from the center of town. The flags were symbols of Qaddafi’s maverick, 42-year dictatorship. But elders on Tuesday disputed that account. “In the Libyan revolution, we have all become brothers. We will not be an obstacle to progress,” said another elder, Miftah Jubarra. “Regarding allegations of pro-Qaddafi elements in Bani Walid, this is not true. This is the media. You will go around the city and find no green flags or pictures of Qaddafi.” Bani Walid, base of the powerful Warfallah tribe, was one of the last towns to surrender to the anti-Qaddafi rebellion last year. A Libyan air official said war planes were being mobilized to fly to Bani Walid. But it was not immediately clear what the government in Tripoli could do. It has yet to demonstrate that it has an effective fighting force under its command and Bani Walid, protected behind a deep valley, is difficult to attack. During Libya’s nine-month war, anti-Qaddafi NTC rebels tried to take Bani Walid but did not progress much beyond the outskirts of the town. It later emerged that Seif Al-Islam, one of Muammar Qaddafi’s Soon before the end of the conflict, with Qaddafi’s defeat unavoidable, local tribal elders negotiated an agreement under which forces loyal to the NTC were able to enter the town without a fight. Relations have been uneasy since then and there have been occasional flare-ups of violence. A local resident, who did not want to be identified, said Monday’s violence began when members of the May 28 militia, affiliated to the NTC, arrested some former Qaddafi loyalists. That prompted other supporters of the former leader to attack the militia’s garrison. “They massacred men at the doors of the militia headquarters,” said the resident. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
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| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-01-25 16:47 |
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| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-01-25 16:35 |
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| Posted by: Water Modem 2012-01-25 10:39 |
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| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-01-25 05:35 |