With upheaval in neighbouring Egypt producing ripples in Libya, Tripoli
faces fresh political divisions while Cyrenaica moves further towards formal
autonomy, writes Kamel Abdallah
23-08-2013 02:05PM ET
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan announced this week that he had reached
understandings with the General National Council (GNC), the highest
constitutional authority in the country, over the formation of a miniature
crisis cabinet to contend with the deteriorating security situation in the
country. Its members will consist of the ministers of interior, defence,
foreign affairs, finance and the military chiefs-of-staff.
Yet, in another possible blow to the coalition government headed by Zeidan,
which has been plagued by mounting fissures since a number of political
forces moved to freeze their membership in the GNC and to instruct their
members in government to function in a merely technocratic capacity,
Minister of Interior Mohamed Al-Sheikh was rumoured to have submitted his
resignation to the GNC on Sunday, 18 August. According to sources from the
GNC with whom Al-Ahram Weekly spoke by phone, the minister's decision was
motivated by differences between him and Zeidan and some members of the GNC
over measures taken to boost security agencies and recent appointments in
these agencies. Until the moment of writing, neither the GNC nor Al-Sheikh
had issued an official statement to confirm or deny the resignation. The
Weekly attempted to contact Al-Sheikh by phone, but his mobile was switched
off.
Some time before this, the liberal National Forces Alliance had announced
that it had frozen its political activities and that all its offices and
branches had suspended work. The leader of this parliamentary bloc, Tawfik
Al-Shoheibi, wrote on his Facebook page: "The decision [to do this] was
taken by the steering committee following consultations with the bloc's
members in parliament and the government. The chief reason for this step was
to respond to the demands of the Libyan street that political parties freeze
their activities until after the constitution is promulgated...
[Accordingly], every member in the GNC or the government may take his own
decision to continue or to resign... As of this moment they are independent
and unaffiliated with any political entity."
The same step was announced by the Justice and Construction Party, the
political wing of the Libyan chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, again in
response to mounting public anger against the political parties, which are
widely perceived as the chief cause of the country's current political
crisis.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian consulate in Benghazi was rocked Saturday by the
detonation of a packet of explosives that had been placed in front of the
consulate. The explosion caused only minor damage, primarily the destruction
of the main door of the building. It was the third attack against the
consulate since the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime.
Libyan security sources speaking to the Weekly from Benghazi said that they
were able to learn some information about the perpetrators of the attack
from the surveillance cameras around the consulate, which is located in the
West Foweihat district of Libya's second largest city. A black jeep carrying
two people drove up in front of the consulate. One of them got out of the
vehicle and placed the package, which weighed 2-2.5 kilogrammes, in front of
the building. The package detonated within seconds after the vehicle drove
off. According to the sources, cameras did not capture images of the men's
faces as they had kept their heads down throughout, indicating that they
were aware of the placement of surveillance cameras.
An Egyptian consular official in Benghazi told the Weekly that the consulate
had resumed work as normal the following day (Sunday). He stressed that the
attack against the consulate would not affect relations that bind the Libyan
and Egyptian people, describing the attack as a cowardly act that sought to
undermine deep and solid ties between Libya and Egypt.
Since the events of 30 June 2013 in Egypt, with respect to which official
Libyan opinion has voiced conflicting views, tensions and violence in Libya
have soared, especially in Benghazi, which is located in the region of
Cyrenaica, adjacent to the Libyan border with Egypt. Major incidents include
the attack on Al-Koeifiya prison, the largest prison in the east, leading to
the escape of all its inmates, and the attack on the psychiatric hospital in
Benghazi's Al-Hawari district, leading to the release of all its patients.
So far, according to Libyan security authorities, the Libyan police have
only been able to apprehend 120 of the 1,200 escaped prison inmates. The 120
inmates had been serving light sentences, or their prison terms were nearing
an end and they turned themselves in voluntarily.
In addition, many assassinations have been carried out against security
officers and some political activists. Libyans were particularly shocked by
the assassination of the prominent lawyer and political activist Idriss
Al-Mesmari, who was gunned down when he emerged from a mosque after
performing Friday prayers on 26 July. There have also been a number of
attempted assassinations.
Other parts of eastern Libya are gripped by instability and security
breakdown, especially the city of Derna. Located in the Jebel Al-Akhdar
region, 350 kilometres east of Benghazi, this city has become notorious as a
jihadist stronghold and has been the site of more than 65 political
assassinations. The official security presence is sparse in this city in
which is located Libya's largest camps of jihadist militants. The most
frequent victims of assassinations and assassination attempts at the hands
of these extremists are the security officials appointed by Derna's interim
municipal government.
As part of the government's efforts to stem the deteriorating state of
security in Libya, the GNC this week discussed a memorandum from the GNC's
committee on oversight agencies regarding appointments to the position of
director and deputy director of the Administrative Oversight Agency as well
as the transitional justice bill that a large segment of Libyan opinion
believes is long overdue. GNC sources interviewed by the Weekly had
mentioned on numerous occasions that parliamentary discussion of the
transitional justice bill had been put on a back burner in order to give
priority to the political isolation law at a time of widespread
demonstrations calling for the speedy implementation of this law.
Back in trouble-ridden Cyrenaica, the call for a federal system received
renewed impetus last week. On Saturday, proponents of this system issued a
third declaration proclaiming Cyrenaica a fully autonomous federal region,
defined by its historic borders, within the framework of the Libyan state
while fully respecting the established international boundaries of this
state. The integral unity of this state would be preserved within the
framework of a federation based on a federal system the foundations, form
and principles of which would be established through dialogue among its
participants. The declaration further stated that Islamic Sharia would be
the source of legislation and all legislation that violates the principles
of Islamic Sharia would be regarded as null and void. In addition, this
declaration included, for the first time, a call for the creation of a
Cyrenaica Defence Force tasked with protecting and safeguarding the security
of the region and for the creation of a political bureau that would
administer the region and oversee its governing institutions.
According to the declaration, Ibrahim Jadran is to be delegated the powers
of president of the political bureau while the bureau itself will nominate
the members of the executive council, following consultations with local
notables. The executive council will be responsible for administering
regional government institutions and agencies. In like manner, the political
bureau will nominate a Shura Council for the region and empower the
judiciary to perform its independent role. The foregoing measures would
constitute an interim phase, stated the declaration which concluded with a
reaffirmation of Cyrenaica's commitment to all international charters and to
the right of the other regions to a share in its sources of wealth.
Officials in the interim government in Tripoli and the GNC have yet to issue
formal reactions to this latest declaration of Cyrenaica's regional
autonomy. Nevertheless, the second such declaration, in June, was greeted by
numerous official statements calling on Cyrenaica's federalists to retract
this step. The first such declaration was issued in March 2012.
The third declaration is clearly a form of escalation, especially given the
precedent of the provisions calling for the creation of a regional political
bureau, Shura Council and military force. It is not difficult to predict
heightened tensions over this issue with central authorities in Tripoli in
the forthcoming days.
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Received on Fri Aug 23 2013 - 18:00:30 EDT