Libya: tensions between government and militias come to a head

Militias urged to disband after “Libya Shield”killed protesters in Benghazi last week, but government lacks means to enforce this.

The “Libya Shield militia” who occupied the base, now pockmarked with bullet and shell holes, had converted toilet cubicles into prison cells, with metal grilles and doors welded on.

Scratched on to the wall of one cubicle are a line of numbers, ending in 147, but police now occupying the base say they don’t know what became of the inmates. Until security forces stormed the base, the authorities had no idea the prison existed.

“I don’t know what happened [to the detainees],” said First Officer Basim Omran, commander of riot police now guarding the base. “We didn’t know this [jail] was here.”

The weekend violence, which broke out when the militiamen opened fire on protesters, has acted as a catalyst for Libya’s government.

Weary of two years of militia violence which has kept the country in chaos and stalled reform, the government ordered security forces to seize four militia bases in the city. But few here believe the militias will disband, according to the Guardian.

The army’s chief of staff, Yousef al-Mangoush, resigned on Sunday, and his replacement, Salem al-Gnaidy, arrived in this eastern Libyan city to appeal for calm. At a dramatic press conference he displayed to the cameras another of the base’s secrets – a homemade bomb consisting of an anti-tank mine with nails, bolts and a mobile phone taped to it. The implication was clear – such bombs have wreaked havoc across Benghazi for many months.

Gnaidy repeated calls for the militias to disarm, but with congress divided and its own regular forces weak, he lacks the means to enforce this.

Saturday’s violence began when firing erupted as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the sprawling militia base demanding they disarm. The army’s Thunderbolt special forces brigade arrived to restore order and itself came under fire, losing four men.

At the funeral of one of the dead at the bleak El Harawi cemetery, feelings were running high among soldiers who fired a salute with machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.

“The “Libya Shield” don’t follow orders, we don’t even know whose orders they follow,” said “Thunderbolt brigade” lieutenant Said Alari.

His soldiers shouted that Qatar was responsible for backing the terrorists, a common complaint in a city that last month saw protesters burning a Qatari flag and an effigy of the emir. Qatar itself has put out a statement insisting it is not involved in Libyan politics.

M.D