Colonel Barca, commander of Mourzouk, is in contact with the federalists from Eastern Libya. Credit: Maryline Dumas/IPS

By Maryline Dumas
SEBHA, Libya , Sep 25 2013 (IPS)

“The government doesn’t care about us because we are from the south,” Mohamed Salah Lichekh, head of the Oubari local council in southern Libya, told IPS, expressing the majority sentiment in this part of the country.

The feeling of being forgotten by Tripoli, which is very strong in southern Libya, is bringing the three ethnic groups – the Arabs, Toubous and Tuaregs – from the Fezzan region in the south together against the Libyan state.

Despite clashing after the revolution which brought an end to Muammar Gaddafi’s rule in 2011, these three ethnic groups today live in relative calm. They are united against a government they accuse of wrongs, the first being its absence in the region.

Oubari is a predominantly Tuareg town, situated 200 kilometres west of Sebha, the capital of Fezzan. In this town of 40,000 people, there are problems with the telephone network. And the police presence on the damaged roads is rare.

“My cousin is a policeman but he only goes to the police station to collect his pay,” one local resident who requested anonymity told IPS.

This situation is not uncommon in this highly fragmented region. The head of the local council in Sebha, Ayoub Zaroug, said “The Chief of Police explained to me that his men don’t want to work because they are afraid.”

Things are similar in Mourzouk, Fezzan’s southernmost district. In this predominantly Toubou area, public services are glaringly lacking.

Ibrahim Ahmed, the chief of Agar, a small Arab village in Mourzouk, told IPS: “Yesterday [Sept. 3], there was a fire. We do not have a fire brigade, so we called Mourzouk town. But they didn’t have one either.

“We don’t have anything: no army, and no functional police force. Our police station doesn’t have cars, or radio communication – there is no support from Tripoli. In fact, all public services are suffering.”

Faced with these shortages, Libyans in the south have learned to manage by developing parallel systems based on tribal ways of life, Agila Majou, a representative of the Arab tribe Ouled Slimane, told IPS. “Today, since the government is incapable, we resolve problems between the tribes.”

For example in Qahira, a poor neighbourhood in Sebha, “a group of 60 people made up of revolutionaries and resident volunteers” provides security, according to the Toubou head of this slum, Adam Ahmed. “They patrol the area and use their own arms. When there is a problem, the tribal leaders come together,” he told IPS.

Ahmed added that most criminals flee and hide in partially constructed buildings that were abandoned by an Indian company during the revolution. “We know where they are, but no one is arresting them.”

An annoyed Youssef Souri from the Mourzouk local council added: “And even if they are arrested…We have asked the government three times to reopen the court. But we have not received a response.

“When a robbery is committed, if the person is arrested, he spends a few days in prison. His family then acts as a guarantor and pays a security deposit, which is repaid after the trial.”

In criminal cases, the procedures differ: “Murderers are sent to Sebha, where judges continuously postpone judgements for fear of reprisals,” Souri told IPS.

This de facto autonomy has given certain sections of the population ideas: why not vote for a Libyan federation? This idea, which is taking centre-stage in Cyrenaica in east Libya, has begun to germinate in the hearts of people in the south.

Take for example Ibrahim Youssef, director of an organisation in Mourzouk, who said “I am a federalist because I want Fezzan to benefit from its wealth which currently goes entirely to Tripoli. But I want a real federation, not three countries like people in the east [are calling for].”

Colonel Wardacoo Barca, who is in charge of security in Mourzouk, admitted to having “met with federalists from the east.” He told IPS, however, that “We are going to meet with the Tuaregs to draft a proposal for government.

“We want the money earned from Fezzan petroleum to come back to us and also, better representation in government and in the diplomatic corps. If Tripoli doesn’t respond, we will support the formation of a federation,” he said.

“If we demand a federal state, we are convinced that all our African neighbours will support us.”

From under his yellow cheich or scarf, Barca added: “What we really want is a government that is present everywhere…and some form of recognition.”

For the Tuaregs, recognition would also include nationality. A member of the Oubari Reconciliation Commission, Jeli Ali, stressed that 14,000 Tuareg families, who have not been able to provide proof of their ancestors’ birthplace have not received their Libyan national identity number – which is essential for university enrolment and employment as a civil servant.

“We are victims of racism,” Ali, a Tuareg, complained. “Who are the original inhabitants of Libya? Not the Arabs, but the Tuaregs, the Toubous and the Berbers. We have land as proof of our nationality, they have paper,” he told IPS.

Ali warned: “We are not going to let it be. History shows that rights are eventually obtained, by force if necessary!”

All eyes have turned to Libya since Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou’s statement claiming that recent attacks in north Niger were perpetrated by Malian terrorists based in south Libya.

While some security analysts have claimed that Islamist groups from Mali have set up camp in southern Libya, other experts told IPS that this was impossible.

The director of the Centre for African Studies in Tripoli, Faraj Najem, refuted the presence of Malian terrorists in Libya. He said that Mali did not share a border with Libya, which prevented the movement of fighters into south Libya.

“Tripoli could throw the accusation back on its Algerian and Nigerien neighbours’ doorsteps: if Malian terrorists are in Libya, they would have had to pass through neighbouring countries before arriving here,” Najem told IPS.

The Jihadist group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks carried out on May 23 at the Agadez military base and the Arlit uranium mine in Niger. They said that the attacks were a punishment for Niger’s support of France’s intervention in Mali.

A coalition of armed Islamist groups allied with Al-Qaeda – composed of AQIM, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, and Ansar Dine – held northern Mali from early 2012 until a French intervention in January allowed the Malian army to reclaim the north.

And according to the Niger government, the attacks on the country were planned in Libya. Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, however, refuted these allegations as “baseless”.

Najem supported Zeidan’s view.

“South-eastern Libya is controlled by the Toubous who do not have any links with Islamist movements. The Tuaregs from Azawad and from Ansar Dine in Mali are wanted in Libya because they fought with pro-Gaddafi troops, and so they can’t return,” Najem said.

Former President Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed in October 2011 after 42 years in power, and a newly elected government was sworn in in November 2012.

“I have no information about a terrorist presence in south Libya,” Hussein Hamed Al-Adsari, a Tuareg member of parliament in Oubari, south-east Libya, told IPS in Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

Abu Azoum, a councillor in Fezzan in south Libya, said the case was not clear cut. “I do not believe that the terrorists come from here. At the same time, it is entirely possible that they are getting arms supplies in the south. They are prepared to pay high prices for arms, and there are many weapons in circulation in Libya,” he told IPS.

Agila Majou Ouled, a representative of the Slimane community in Sebha, south Libya, observed that although “the southern borders with Chad, Niger and Sudan have been officially closed” since December 2012, “everybody crosses over as if it’s business as usual.”

He, however, did not believe that there were fighter camps in the south.

“It is possible that terrorists have passed through Libya on their way to Niger from Mali to cover their tracks. But it is not possible that they are still here. Everybody knows everybody in the desert. Any new arrivals are immediately known about,” Majou Ouled told IPS.

A Tripoli-based security analyst believes otherwise. “It is true that the tribes in the south are in full control of their territory. And therefore they know perfectly well that AQIM is on the ground,” he said, speaking anonymously.

His opinion is shared by Samuel Laurent, author of the book “Sahelistan” on the Jihadist movements in the region. “The Tuaregs (who control south-east Libya) harbour Islamic militants. As a general rule the reasons are purely financial rather than ideological,” he wrote, pointing out that “Belmokhtar is a millionaire.”

According to Laurent, who is a security consultant, Malian Islamists set up base in Libya in November 2012, well before the French intervention. “The real core of AQIM have been regrouping in south-east Libya for months,” he told IPS.

In Laurent’s view, unlike the Malian government, Tripoli will never agree to western intervention. “What’s more, thanks to the Gaddafi regime’s former arms caches, weapons are in full circulation. Libya is therefore by far a more profitable haven for terrorists than Mali,” he concluded.

In early June, the government of France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) offered support to the Libyan government against Al-Qaeda-linked fighters who had been pushed out of northern Mali. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had said that France was “ready” to help Libya “secure its borders” in the south.

On Jun. 4, NATO announced that it would send a team of experts to Libya, but the head of the organisation, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was categorical in stating that the mission was in no way a deployment of ground troops.

Although the Libyan government has requested assistance from NATO and western countries to secure its borders, some members of the government remain wary.

“Intervention by the Libyan army and police in the south is the preferred option,” Al-Adsari said. “Even if these institutions haven’t been fully formed, it is for Libyans to take charge of the situation.”

Majou Ouled added: “I am not comfortable with the idea of external intervention. If the West wants to help us, they should train our army, not come and enforce the law in our territory.”

Speaking at the press conference on Jun. 3, Zeidan announced measures to bolster the Libyan army’s presence. This included raising salaries and benefits to up to 1,200 dollars as an incentive to soldiers and former rebels to agree to work in the difficult southern region of the country.

Abdulhakim Belhasi (r), the spokesperson for the Libyan special police unit set up in 2012 under the crime squad to fight drug and alcohol trafficking, with two men from the sqaud. Credit: Maryline Dumas/IPS

By Maryline Dumas
TRIPOLI, Apr 4 2013 (IPS)

In Libya, a dose of LSD or the painkiller tramadol costs 78 cents, and a joint of cannabis is 7.80 dollars. Here, drugs are affordable to the poor for a simple reason. “Slashing prices is a way to create demand and open up a market,” a Western diplomat tells IPS in Tripoli, the capital.

“Prices will go up when enough people are hooked,” the diplomat, who works on defence and security, adds.

There is currently no data on the number of addicts in Libya, but the drug trade is thriving. Dr. Abdullah Fannar, the deputy director at a psychiatric hospital in Gargaresh, a wealthy suburb in east Tripoli, has noticed a change in the number of drug addicts they see there.

“The number of people suffering from addiction to illegal substances has increased. We used to have a special department for drug addiction 10 years ago, and are thinking of reopening it.”

Fannar says he receives patients from prison referred by the police, or people referred by their families, when they are suffering from withdrawal.

According to Fannar, the drug epidemic has hit “the youth and rebel soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder from the war.” Other vulnerable groups — those with little education and military veterans — are easily drawn to drugs and alcohol, both of which are illegal in Libya. In early March, several dozen people died as a result of poisoning from methanol contained in locally adulterated alcohol.

Drug and alcohol trafficking are not new to Libya. Under former President Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011), a number of United Nations reports made reference to the illegal trade between Africa and Europe via Libya. But with limited border controls under the new Libyan government, the drug trade has grown.

“We know we have a problem of alcohol and drug smuggling, especially on our southern borders,” Colonel Adel Barasi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, admits to IPS. “We are working on a surveillance strategy, training and equipping the army. God willing, the Libyan army will be able to protect our borders.”

Céline Bardet, an expert on war crimes and transnational crime, tells IPS that drug routes are drawn up at a global level, targeting unstable countries where security is weak.

“This is how things stand in Libya. There is a great deal of trafficking, and it’s likely to get worse,” she says.

Bardet, a consultant with the European Commission, believes that drug processing laboratories may exist in Libya, even if none have been found yet. Still, she points out: “The police are starting to tackle the problem with the support of international aid.”

In an eastern district of Tripoli, a special police unit set up in 2012 under the crime squad is proud to demonstrate the results of its fight against drug and alcohol trafficking.

Abdulhakim Belhasi, the spokesperson for the unit, showed IPS the seizures – seven kilogrammes of heroin and cocaine, unknown amounts of cannabis, 1,400 tablets of tramadol, unknown quantities of whiskey and vodka, and 1,400 litres of adulterated alcohol. The seizures are stored in a hangar, to be destroyed.

In the last drug seizure, which was announced on Feb. 23 by the spokesperson of the Libyan Navy, Colonel Ayoub Gacem, 30 tonnes of drugs were seized and three people were detained on a boat intercepted by Libyan coast guards the day before. The type of drugs found was not specified.

“A war is being waged through the drug trade. They want to destroy the moral fabric of our youth. It can only be Gaddafists in neighbouring countries driving this trade. They are the only ones with this kind of money,” Belhasi tells IPS, appealing for international assistance.

A young drug user who wishes to remain anonymous laughs off this statement. “Having a drink and smoking a joint has never hurt anyone! The ‘beards’ (Islamists) are hounding us so that they can impose Sharia law.”

Khaled Kara, a member of an anti-drug organisation, and former mayor of Souq-al-Juma, a district in Tripoli, denies this. “I wear a beard, I look like an Islamist but I am a moderate,” he tells IPS.

Kara is worried. “The drug traffickers are very violent. They will do anything to protect their business. They are better armed than the special unit. They have rocket launchers, while the police only have handguns.”

The men of the special unit say they would like to be better armed, and add that they also face other kinds of pressures. “My 18-month-old son was kidnapped,” says an officer who goes by the single name of Kamal for security reasons. “He was only taken for a few hours, but when I found him, there was a message for me. ‘If you don’t resign, next time it will be your wife.’”

Asked by IPS if he is afraid, Kamal, who is admired by his comrades for his acts of bravery during the revolution, simply replies: “I am here, I am working.”

One of his colleagues adds: “We fought the revolution for our country, we are fighting the drug dealers for our country.”

But most members of the special unit go out in the field wearing balaclavas.