Sub-Saharan migrant garbage collectors push their carts through the streets of Tripoli´s old town. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS

By Karlos Zurutuza
TRIPOLI, Libya, Dec 18 2014 (IPS)

It’s easy to spot Saani Bubakar in Tripoli´s old town: always dressed in the distinctive orange jumpsuit of the waste collectors, he pushes his cart through the narrow streets on a routine that has been his for the last three years of his life.

“I come from a very poor village in Niger where there is not even running water,” explains the 23-year-old during a break. “Our neighbours told us that one of their sons was working in Tripoli, so I decided to take the trip too.”

Of the 250 Libyan dinars [about 125 euro or 154 dollars] Bubakar is paid each month, he manages to send more than half to his family back home. Accommodation, he adds, is free.

“We are 50 in an apartment nearby,” says the migrant worker, who assures that he will be back in Niger “soon”. It is not the poor working conditions but the increasing instability in the country that makes him want to go back home.

Thousands of migrants remain detained in Libyan detention centres, where they face torture that includes “severe whippings, beatings, and electric shocks” – Human Rights Watch
Three years after Libya´s former ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed, Libya remains in a state of political turmoil that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war. There are two governments and two separate parliaments – one based in Tripoli and the other in Tobruk, 1,000 km east of the capital. The latter, set up after elections in June when only 10 percent of the census population took part, has international recognition.

Accordingly, several militias are grouped into two paramilitary alliances: Fajr (“Dawn” in Arabic), led by the Misrata brigades controlling Tripoli, and Karama (“Dignity”) commanded by Khalifa Haftar, a Tobruk-based former army general.

The population and, very especially, the foreign workers are seemingly caught in the crossfire. “I´m always afraid of working at night because the fighting in the city usually starts as soon as the sun hides,” explains Odar Yahub, one of Bubakar´s roommates.

At 22, Yahub says that will not go back to Niger until he has earned enough to get married – but that will probably take longer than expected:

“We haven´t been paid for the last four months, and no one has given us any explanation,” the young worker complains, as he empties his bucket in the garbage truck.

While most of the sweepers are of sub-Saharan origin, there are also many who arrived from Bangladesh. Aaqib, who prefers not to disclose his full name, has already spent four years cleaning the streets of Souk al Juma neighbourhood, east of the capital. He says he supports his family in Dhaka – the Bangladeshi capital – by sending home almost all the 450 Libyan dinars (225 euros) from his salary, which he has not received for the last four months either.

“Of course I’ve dreamed of going to Europe but I know many have died at sea,” explains Aaqib, 28. “I´d only travel by plane, and with a visa stamped on my passport,” he adds. For the time being, his passport is in the hands of his contractor. All the waste collectors interviewed by IPS said their documents had been confiscated.

Defenceless

From his office in east Tripoli, Mohamed Bilkhaire, who became Minister of Employment in the Tripoli Executive two months ago, claims that he is not surprised by the apparent contradiction between the country´s 35 percent unemployment rate – according to his sources – and the fact that all the garbage collectors are foreigners.

“Arabs do not sweep due to sociocultural factors, neither here nor in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq … We need foreigners to do the job,” says Bilkhaire, Asked about the garbage collectors´ salaries, he told IPS that they are paid Libya´s minimum income of 450 Libyan dinars, and that any smaller amount is due to “illegal subcontracting which should be prosecuted.”

Bilkhaire also admitted that passports were confiscated “temporarily” because most of the foreign workers “want to cross to Europe.”

According to data gathered and released by FRONTEX, the European Union´s border agency, among the more than 42,000 immigrants who arrived in Italy during the first four months of 2014, 27,000 came from Libya.

In a report released by Human Rights Watch in June, the NGO claimed that thousands of migrants remain detained in Libyan detention centres, where they face torture that includes “severe whippings, beatings, and electric shocks.”

“Detainees have described to us how male guards strip-searched women and girls and brutally attacked men and boys,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher in the same report.

In the case of foreign workers under contract, Hanan Salah, HRW researcher for Libya, told IPS that “with the breakdown of the judicial system in many regions, abusive employers and those who do not comply with whatever contract was agreed upon, can hardly be held accountable in front of the law.”

Shokri Agmar, a lawyer from Tripoli, talks about “complete and utter helplessness”:

“The main problem for foreign workers in Libya is not merely the judicial neglect but rather that they lack a militia of their own to protect themselves,” Agmar told IPS from his office in Gargaresh, west of Tripoli.

That is precisely one of the districts where large numbers of migrants gather until somebody picks them up for a day of work, generally as construction workers.

Aghedo arrived from Nigeria three weeks ago. For this 25-year-old holding a shovel with his right hand, Tripoli is just a stopover between an endless odyssey across the Sahara Desert and a dangerous sea journey to Italy.

“There are days when they do not even pay us, but also others when we can make up to 100 dinars,” Aghedo tells IPS.

The young migrant hardly lowers his guard as he is forced to distinguish between two types of pick-up trucks: the ones which offer a job that is not always paid and those driven by the local militia – a false step and he will end up in one of the most feared detention centres.

“I know I could find a job as a sweeper but I cannot wait that long to raise the money for a passage in one of the boats bound for Europe,” explains the young migrant, without taking his eyes off the road.

(Edited by Phil Harris)

Militia commander Ziad Zabala (with a beard) poses next to three policemen at the entrance to the Jadu Police station. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS

By Karlos Zurutuza
JADU, Libya , Jan 2 2014 (IPS)

Everybody in this mountain village is seemingly familiar with the new regulations. “People other than militiamen or policemen will be fined 500 dinars [around 300 euros] for carrying guns,” local resident Younis Walid tells IPS.

”If the offence is repeated a second time, the fine will be double; you do it a third time and you are taken to prison,” adds the 21-year-old student, paraphrasing article 5 of the so-called Jadu Draft for a National Agreement.

Residents from all walks of life of Jadu, a Berber or Amazigh location 150 kilometres southwest of Tripoli, in the Nafusa mountain range, agreed on the ground-breaking document on Oct. 25.

“It´s a compilation of six elementary yet very necessary articles to handle security in our area. The power vacuum after the war is dragging the country towards chaos,” Shokri Agmar, a local lawyer, explains to IPS.

Almost three years after Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011) was ousted, no date has yet been set for the election of a 60-member constituent assembly to draft a new constitution.

The process, expected to take place sometime in the first quarter of 2014, has failed to awaken enthusiasm among the population, especially the country´s minorities. The Amazighs, Tuaregs and Tubus altogether have only been granted six seats.

Meanwhile, the new government can hardly cope with the myriad armed groups who only pay allegiance to local, or even individual, interests. Last November, Tripoli witnessed the biggest spike in violence since the end of the war in 2011, when a peaceful demonstration against the impunity with which militias operate in the country’s capital ended with dozens killed and almost 500 injured.

“If our neighbours in Zintan [an Arab enclave in this predominantly Berber area] have not attacked us so far it´s only because they know that ours is also a very powerful militia. And this pattern applies to the whole country,” states Agmar. “All Libyan militias are preparing for war.”

It may well be a de facto rule for the rest of the country, but article 1 of the Jadu draft agreement grants official recognition to the local militia as the “main security force in the area alongside the local police.”

“There are 15 of us policemen in Jadu,” a local police officer told IPS. “We work in shifts of five men but we only deal with small issues as we do not have the training or equipment to tackle bigger threats. For the latter, the agreement states that we should get support from the local militia.”

The official didn´t want to disclose his name but had no problem getting his picture taken.

Whereas the higher ranks among the regime forces were removed after the revolution, regular policemen still receive a government salary. And communication with the local militia appears to be fluent. Commander Ziad Zabala shows up for a mid-morning coffee break.

“Luckily enough, Jadu is among the quietest places in Libya,” Zabala tells IPS before pointing on a map to the bypass roads locals take on their way down to Tripoli. “People here are peaceful but we have to watch to prevent aggressions from our neighbours in Zintan or those down the valley.

“None of us takes the direct route up here. You are likely to lose your car if you dare to cross that territory,” warns the former fighter who is now a paramilitary officer.

Sitting next to him, militia chief commander Yousif Said confirms that his force is “independent from the Libyan Ministry of the Interior.” Apparently, many other bodies and institutions also remain in some kind of legal limbo.

“We have no prison as such in Jadu so we have reached an agreement with the one in Gheryan [60 kilometres southeast of Tripoli] so they can host our prisoners until they go on trial,” Said tells IPS.

According to a United Nations report released in October 2013, around 8,000 detainees remain in custody without charges, under suspicion of fighting alongside Gaddafi’s troops. The report also highlighted that countless other individuals are held by local militias under conditions worse than the ones in the official prisons.

Article 4 in Jadu´s agreement exhorts the families of former prisoners who escaped after the war to hand them over to the local council authorities. And Article 3 gives the local elders full competence to settle disputes within the community.

“It´s a group of eight elected people who have historically enjoyed the support and respect of the community,” explains Shokri Agmar. “Whatever legal issue you have, you would ask for their help, but you would never turn to the official authorities,” adds this young lawyer from a lawless country.

According to Agmar, it was actually Jadu that mediated between Tripoli and Misrata after the clashes in November, a move which led to a progressive withdrawal of Misrata militias from the country´s capital.

Ruling the old way

Civil servants languish behind their desks at Jadu´s District Court, a three-storey building at the entrance to the village. All of them refuse to speak with IPS on the agreement in question.

From the empty corridors papered with portraits of those killed during the revolution, Agmar points out that the draft doesn´t explicitly take the District Court into account, but doesn’t reject it either.

“You never know, if this country ever starts to function normally we may need to include them at some point.”

For the time being, it´s difficult to know which is number one among Libya´s most pressing problems. Faizal Egira, a local teacher, shares his own view:

“A teacher in Libya only gets 600 dinars whereas a militiaman is earning 1000,” complains this teacher on strike from the town´s best-known pizza restaurant.

Egira, 50, admits that the agreement is a “starting-point rather than a definitive solution.”

Asma Bin, an NGO worker and also a native Berber, agrees. But she says she feels “rather sceptical” about the likelihood of any significant improvement in the short term.

“This is nothing new as every single town or village in Libya has its own rule,” explains the 30-year-old woman. “The only difference in Jadu is that they wrote it on a sheet of paper.”

Protesters at Tripoli’s Algeria square. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS.

By Karlos Zurutuza
TRIPOLI, Nov 18 2013 (IPS)

Car accident in Omar Mokhtar Avenue in downtown Tripoli. Nobody was injured but there’s a bumper hanging off the back of a car. In just a few seconds, a group gathers around.

“Forget about insurance companies in Libya,” says Mansur, a 30-year-old satellite dish installer. “The main problem is that you can easily run into somebody who produces a gun; everyone carries one in their glove box. In such a case there are two options:

“You can get back to your car smoothly and leave, but you could also call a brother or a cousin of yours in one of those militias so he backs you up with heavy artillery.”

In Libya, the police and the army are names on paper to entities that do not exist on the ground. Security, or the lack of it, comes from the myriad insurgent groups who rose up against former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, but who only pay allegiance to local, or even individual, interests.“So far we have avoided a new war thanks to a fragile balance of forces, but we are all aware that this cannot last much longer."

Government officials put their number at around 250,000. Nobody knows the exact figure.

But Libyans are increasingly angry since last Friday, when Tripoli witnessed the biggest spike in violence since the end of the war in 2011. A peaceful march meant to protest the impunity with which militias operate in the country’s capital ended up with 48 killed and almost 500 injured.

Local residents have been gathering in renewed protests such as the one in Algiers Square in central Tripoli last Sunday. Abdul Hamid Najah, a local lawyer, was there.

“Gaddafi would have reacted in the very same way, but we all knew he was ready to kill in cold blood. How could we possibly receive the same treatment from the very same people who helped us oust him? One of my neighbours was killed and another had to be taken urgently to Italy after he was badly injured.”

He says the “passivity” of the government is the main source of instability in post-war Libya.

“As long as militias remain in Tripoli, violence can only increase,” Mosarek Hobrara, another among the protesters and a human rights activist working for mediation from the Switzerland-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, told IPS. The sooner they leave, the better for us Libyans.”

Just behind him stood high school student Maha Hamid carrying a hand-made banner: ‘Tripoli is calling for help’.

The 48-hour emergency declared by the Libyan government after Friday’s killings shut most of the otherwise busy centre of the Libyan capital. Local schools and the university also closed.

“In Tripoli I only feel completely safe in Gorji  (southwest of the capital) because the local militia is Amazigh,” Shokri, a member of Libya’s biggest minority group, told IPS.

“I usually go home on the weekends but always use bypass roads to avoid the main route across Aziziyah (south of the capital). That’s the territory controlled by the Warshafana tribe, who were loyal to Gaddafi.”

Text messages are a popular warning device: ‘Militias are clashing in eastern Tripoli, better take the ring road’, says one typical message.

Some like Kemal Hassan make things simpler. He is one of the thousands of Tunisians currently working in Tripoli due to a dent in tourism back home. He says he never goes out after six. He hasn’t left the hotel at all since last Friday.

“There’s random shooting in the streets every now and then. Most here got used to it but I’m afraid I can’t.”

In fact, “random” describes much of Tripoli’s daily life. A group of four can suddenly pop out of a rickety car and start asking for “papers” to all those stuck in a rush-hour traffic jam. This IPS reporter was requested to hand his passport to a group of teenagers dressed in plain clothes but armed with assault rifles. But such harassment is a relatively minor problem.

Abu Muntalib was killed last Saturday by militiamen who broke into the Fallah refugee camp south of Tripoli. Muftar, who was displaced from what is now the ghost town Tawargha, shared the details with IPS:

“A group of men came on Friday night in a car with a Misrata sticker on the windshield and asked us whether we were from Tawargha. Four other men came back the following day; they aimed their rifles at our people, killing one and wounding two.”

Once a vibrant city of 30,000, Tawargha was turned in Gaddafi’s last days into his headquarters during a two-month siege of the rebel enclave of nearby Misrata, 187 km southeast of capital Tripoli. Displaced families handed IPS a list of relatives who had been allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint by Misrata militias over the last few weeks, the majority of them at the very entrance of the camp.

“We don’t dare to go outside but, as you see, even inside we can be assaulted,” Yousef Mohamed, a 20-year-old displaced person told IPS from inside the barracks where he was recovering from a gunshot in his left leg.

People from all walks of life complain about the dire security situation in their country. Wail Brahimi is one of those Libyans who returned from exile in the heat of the revolution “to help rebuild the country.” Two years after Gaddafi was brutally killed by rebels, this lawyer from the University of London is considering going back to the UK.

“So far we have avoided a new war thanks to a fragile balance of forces, but we are all aware that this cannot last much longer. Actually, we might well be on the brink of civil war after last Friday incidents.”

Farrah Hamary looks the picture of despair as sweat trickles down his face in Tripoli’s heat and humidity. Hamary is too afraid to give his full name or to allow his picture to be taken.

He shows IPS the scars criss-crossing his back, the cigarette burns on his arms, and the bones in his left hand which failed to heal properly when it was broken by Libyan militiamen.

Hamary, 39, is from Sudan’s war-torn and economically deprived region Kordofan. He came to Libya several years ago to eke out a living selling vegetables and fruit from his street stall in the Suq Al Ahad market in Tripoli’s Kasr Ben Gashir neighbourhood. His meagre earnings were sent back to his wife and child in Sudan.

Hamary now lives in fear. He has become victim of a militia brigade, (Katiba in Arabic), who control his local neighbourhood through fear, intimidation and extortion.

By day the Fatih Katiba, whose chief calls himself Izzedine, wear Libyan army fatigues. By night he and his group exchange military uniforms for civilian clothing, steal and demand protection money, predominantly from sub-Saharan Africans in the area.

Hamary came to the attention of the Fatih militia when a friend was involved in a car accident in July near Kasr Ben Gashir, and he went to help. Shortly afterwards Izzedine’s men arrived on the scene. They took Hamary back to their headquarters where he was beaten and tortured over two days though he had committed no crime.

“I was hung upside down and beaten on the soles of my feet. They beat me repeatedly with an iron bar on my back and arms until I was bleeding. I was also beaten with a chair and cigarette butts were extinguished on my arms. My hand was broken during the beating and it still hasn’t healed properly,” Hamary told IPS.

The Katiba confiscated Hamary’s passport, took his car and demanded he pay them 5,000 Libyan Dinars before they would return his passport. On his release Hamary reported the incident to the Sudanese embassy in Tripoli, which gave him a letter to take to the police. Sudanese embassy staff have themselves lost several cars to armed hijackings.

“The police were not interested and told me to leave. They are afraid of the militia who have

previously attacked the police station and stolen guns. There is no law and order in this country,” said Hamary.

The Sudanese migrant’s next step was to hire a lawyer, who went with him to see Izzedine and tell him what his men had done. “He just laughed and said ‘God be with you. You can leave now.’”

Issa Ibrahim from Darfur is among the lucky few to have got away. He escaped to Libya fleeing Khartoum’s Janjaweed militia, who have carried out a scorched earth policy at the behest of the Sudanese government. In Tripoli he opened a small clothing shop in the Al Rasheed neighbourhood to help support his wife and children back in Darfur.

“I’ve made friends with my Libyan neighbours and they look out for me if anybody starts to make trouble with me,” Ibrahim told IPS. “So far nobody has hurt me physically. They have only called me insulting names because I’m black. There are a lot of Libyans who look down on black Africans.

“But I have to take a lot of precautions. I don’t go out after 7pm because the streets are dangerous, especially if you are black and foreign. I also avoid certain neighbourhoods and some cities such as Misrata I would never go anywhere near.”

During the revolution former dictator Muammar Gaddafi hired African mercenaries to fight the rebels. A significant number of black Libyans, particularly those from the town of Tawergha near Misrata, sided with Gaddafi and are alleged to have committed atrocities against the civilian population of Misrata.

Libya has long attracted migrants from neighbouring countries and other parts of the world seeking economic opportunities unavailable to them in their home countries, or using it as a transit point to Europe.

Under Gaddafi, Libya, with a small population and rich oil reserves, relied heavily on hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers to prop up the economy. Many of the migrants managed to escape during the civil war, but others chose to take their chance in Libya because conditions in some of their homelands were even more dire.

“The situation in the country has not yet stabilised and there is no central power capable of governing of the whole territory,” the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in conjunction with the NGO Migreurop reported in June after visiting a number of migrant camps in Libya.

“So armed militia groups and individuals have taken it upon themselves to decide on the treatment of migrants, outside of any legal framework. The militias control, arrest and detain migrants in improvised retention/detention camps. Invoking security concerns to justify the ‘clean-up of illegals’, they hunt migrants down, with sub-Saharan Africans as their prime targets.”

It could be premature to believe that the storming of Islamist militia bases by Benghazi citizens on Friday could spell the end for Libya’s Islamist militants. Just as it was premature to claim when moderate Libyan political parties took the majority of votes during the July elections that Libya had bucked the Islamist trend sweeping the region.

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi from the Middle East Forum says the election results should not lead to complacency. Attacks by Islamist fanatics have rocked Libya in the last few months, and show no signs of abating. Libya has also become a major exporter of both weapons and Salafist fighters to regional conflicts.

Fourteen people were left dead and more than 70 injured following the storming of militia bases Friday  by Libyans angered by government inaction over continuing security chaos and over the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Many Libyans are fed up with Islamic fundamentalists threatening their hard-won revolution.

The Ansar Al Sharia militia base, which was set ablaze, was one of the main targets of Benghazi’s collective anger. Ansar Al Sharia members were allegedly behind the murder of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Three other consular staff were also killed, during what is now believed to have been a pre-planned attack around the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Benghazi’s denizens have endured months of assassinations, kidnappings and bombings. Security in the city has continued to deteriorate since the revolution. The killing of the popular and charismatic Stevens was the final straw.

While secular Libyans rejoiced over the attacks on the militia, and international media coverage waxed lyrical about moderates having gained the upper hand, there are already disturbing signs following Friday night’s violent protests.

Several milita bases not associated with the extremists supposedly behind the storming of the consulate were also attacked, in another example of just how quickly indiscriminate violence can erupt in Libya.

Furthermore, on Saturday morning five soldiers with no ties to the extremist groups were found dead on the outskirts of Benghazi. They had bullet holes in their heads, and their hands were tied behind their backs. They appear to have been executed.

It is believed that members of militias targeted by the angry crowds carried out the killings of the soldiers, in one of the first acts of revenge. They accused members of the security forces of helping orchestrate the violent protests. There were also unconfirmed reports of several officers and non-commissioned officers being arrested by militia men. The Libyan government is now concerned about further reprisals.

An urgent cabinet meeting which started late Friday night and went on into the early hours of Saturday morning decided that all militias not sanctioned by the state would have two days to disband.

“The objective is to bring the militias under full control of the government,” said Ahmed Shalabi, official spokesman for Prime Minister-elect Mustafa Abushagur. “We want to see them inside the law, not outside of the law.”

But this may be easier to do on paper. Many milita members are said to be angry at their rejection after fighting for liberation of their country. This anger among thousands of unemployed, bitter and heavily armed militia, with an uncompromising ideology at odds with that of many other Libyans, is a recipe for unrest.

The inability of the government to unite the powerful militias has further destabilised the country. Some parliamentarians are afraid of a military confrontation with the powerful militias who are better equipped and often able to mobilise more rapidly than the weak and nascent police and army forces.

The Supreme Security Committee (SSC), an amalgamation of some militias and other security forces, has been heavily infiltrated by Salafist members. IPS witnessed members of the SSC blocking journalists from reporting on a group of Salafi gunmen destroying a Sufi mosque in Tripoli last month.

This was one of a number of attacks on Sufi mosques, graves and shrines in Libya. Some of the attackers are said to be serving members of the SSC.

The interior ministry has also come under scrutiny for its failure to provide better security for the U.S. consulate and the slow reaction of its members following the attack. Many believe that what the Islamists failed to achieve in the elections they are now trying to achieve on the ground.

A militia group in Tripoli. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS.

By Walter García and Rebecca Murray
TRIPOLI, Sep 21 2012 (IPS)

The dark rain clouds and circling military helicopter accentuated the mood of the small, sombre crowd gathered in Tripoli’s Martyr’s Square to commemorate Libya’s dead heroes.

The quiet assembly was in stark contrast to the euphoric Feb. 17 rally on the same spot marking the one-year anniversary of the uprising against the Gaddafi regime. Then thousands of Libyans – some holding framed pictures of ‘martyred’ loved ones – thronged the downtown sidewalks and expressed optimism for a future of democracy, prosperity and peace.

That optimism has been replaced by anxiety. The killing of U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi has highlighted the dangers posed by a proliferation of armed groups since the revolution. Many are part of the loose-knit, undertrained government auxiliary forces that seem to act with impunity throughout Libya, and fuel the anxious public perception that the government is too weak to rein them in.

The government’s call for citizens to voluntarily hand in their weapons is now pushed back to the end of September because of security concerns. Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shugar has proposed giving cash for weapons.

After fighting in the revolution and receiving three weeks formal training, Rami Ezzadine Tajari, 22, and Mohammed Nagy, 19, wearing mismatched military uniforms and carrying battered AK47s, are part of the Ministry of Interior’s sprawling auxiliary force, the Supreme Security Council (SSC).

The SSC, like the Ministry of Defence’s affiliated Shield of Libya brigades, is a collection of armed groups operating across Libya under the interior ministry’s loose control.

“A lot of people came to hand in their weapons,” says Tajari. “We told them to bring them back on the 29th. After that, citizens will be forbidden to carry them.”

Human rights lawyer Salah Marghani, commended by Human Rights Watch for his advocacy work with detainees under the Gaddafi regime, is outraged by the buy-back weapons scheme. “It will create a lucrative trade of arms for profit and won’t take many arms off the street,” he says. “What we need to get rid of is the heavy weapons.”

Marghani divides Libya’s armed groups operating in the government security vacuum into five categories. He explains that three are “easy to deal with”: former revolutionary fighters who believe their sole duty is to protect citizens and will voluntarily disarm; those who guard national interests motivated by a mix of doing public good and making profit; and those who benefit exclusively from small economic kickbacks.

“The remaining two categories are the dangerous ones,” says Marghani. These are ex-convicts who commit violent crimes, including armed robbery and drug dealing, or groups of “phantom-like” fighters that operate under a banner of Gaddafi loyalists or Islamist extremism.

In light of the Benghazi attack, he describes Libyans as feeling a collective ‘shame’. “They are scared right now,” he adds. “They don’t want their country to be another Somalia with warlords.”

An International Crisis Group (ICG) analysis of Libya’s armed groups sheds light on the new government’s complex challenge.

ICG states that the Gaddafi regime’s ‘divide-and-rule’ policy manipulated communities with a draconian security apparatus and selective disbursal of Libya’s rich resources.

“Once the lid was removed, there was every reason to fear a free-for-all, as the myriad of armed groups that proliferated during the rebellion sought material advantage, political influence or, more simply, revenge,” says the report. “This was all the more so given the security vacuum produced by the regime’s precipitous fall.”

Bill Lawrence, ICG’s North Africa analyst, in an interview with IPS says that Salafist leaders he has met blame rogue elements for the Benghazi attack. “Salafists who are in general skeptical of the political transition in Libya in some cases – not in every case – are definitely disassociating themselves from this act of violence, and condemning both the assassination and the film (on Islam that is leading to worldwide protests in Muslim countries).”

Some Libyans voice concerns that the U.S. drones, intelligence and military personnel in Libyan territory since the ambassador’s death might be here to stay.

Sami Khaskusha, professor of international relations, is a driving force on Tripoli University campus. An active member of the civil resistance against Gaddafi, he energetically organised a wide range of civil society discussions after the capital’s liberation under an ambitious banner: ‘Tripoli University’s programme for rebuilding Libya’.

“Suddenly we turned the university into a huge workshop,” Khaskusha remembers. “There was a lot of euphoria and enthusiasm then.”

But he says the mood changed and activities were curtailed when the transitional government’s more traditional, conservative mindset inherited power at the ministries.

“At that same time every thug took over offices and declared himself to be a military brigade. They submitted lists to the defence and interior ministries and demanded money and cars, and extorted businesses,” Khaskusha says.

“The Ministry of Interior is now run by the militia rather than the opposite. The ministry gave armed groups the legitimacy to arrest, interrogate, and secure banks, government offices and embassies in the absence of state power.”

An escalation of crime with impunity, tribal clashes and intolerant attacks against religious sites and non-governmental organisations are contributing to an atmosphere of instability and fear.

Salah Marghani is working against this. In light of torture in detention centres documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, he educates armed groups – including former prisoners now supervising jails – to adhere to human rights protocols.

“In one incident, I asked a military brigade if they torture inmates. One man said: ‘No we don’t, we only do ‘falaqa’ (beating prisoners’ feet). What struck me was he didn’t comprehend this is wrong,” sighs Marghani.

“I think it will take ten to 15 years for people to understand the role of democracy and civil society,” Khaskusha says. “We need to practise a peaceful struggle of ideas, culture of tolerance and acceptance of ‘the other’. Now when we disagree, we run to our weapons.”

Militia on the streets of Misrata. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS.

By Mel Frykberg
TRIPOLI, Sep 14 2012 (IPS)

The revolution might officially be over in Libya but the ground war continues. But one enemy is motionless and often hidden, and Libyans are continuing to pay the price with hundreds maimed and killed.

“While the guns may have stopped, landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and discarded or poorly-stored ammunition continue to pose a serious risk to life and limb of the civilian population and to hold potentially serious implications for international security,” according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).

“Two hundred and ten Libyans have been killed or wounded since the end of the war,” Elena Rice from UNMAS told IPS. At least a quarter of that number died, and UNMAS programme manager Max Dyck believes these figures to be conservative.

The country is also awash with small arms. “An estimated 20 million weapons are still freely circulating in Libya today,” Emilie Rolin from Handicap International told IPS. “Three to five victims still arrive in hospital in Tripoli every day.” Handicap International is an independent international aid organisation working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. The organisation is currently involved in demining projects in Libya.

“The proliferation of all sorts of small arms among the civilian population, who have not been trained to use them, has given rise to accidents which could easily be prevented by specific measures,” Rolin said.

Following the war hundreds of thousands of displaced people have returned to their homes in areas that have been bombed and mined. Families have found explosive remnants of war in their homes, gardens, living rooms, children’s bedrooms, or in their places of work.

Children are often the unwitting targets. “In Misrata (140km east of Tripoli) for example, a third of accidents involve children aged under 14 and nearly 80 percent of recorded victims are civilians under the age of 23. Young people therefore bear the brunt of these accidents,” says Handicap International.

To date the 24 mine clearance and 29 risk education teams comprising 300 personnel currently operating in Libya have destroyed 191,000 landmines and ordnance and cleared  2,650 homes and 75 schools of UXOS. They have also provided 153,000 Libyans with UXO risk education.

But determining the extent of the remaining UXOs is not possible. “There is no way of quantifying this information as accurate records were not kept. Prior to the conflict Libya was contaminated with ‘legacy’ minefields, dating back to World War II. Landmines have been used during various regional conflicts since to protect the border as well as to protect strategic and military assets,” Rice told IPS.

Libya was already littered with UXO before the revolution and from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) bombing campaign last year, but the situation has been significantly aggravated by the war.

The first reports of pro-Gaddafi forces placing new mines began to emerge in late March 2011 when the former government employed anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines in at least six separate locations including Misrata and Ajdabiya in the east.

The rebellion against the Gaddafi regime also led to an influx of small arms that now threaten to dramatically increase the number of dead and wounded, with rival militias regularly sorting out their differences with weapons.

“Civilians are not used to handling these weapons and know little or nothing about basic safety precautions. These weapons are regularly used during celebrations, even marriages, when guests fire into the air to express their joy,” says Handicap International.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that Nato hasn’t disclosed full details of the UXO it used in Libya. The organisation says that during its air campaign it released 7,700 missiles and bombs. Approximately 303 of these were duds. Most of them were released from warplanes, six from helicopters and four from ships.

Nato recently released a list of its unexploded munitions in Libya, providing the latitude and longitude for each site, the weight of the ordnance and a description of the means of delivery (fixed-wing aircraft, helicopter gunship or naval vessel).

While this has provided demining organisations with vital information necessary to carry out their demining activities, specialists say this falls short of further information required to protect civilians and rid the country of hazards.

Despite Nato’s sophisticated targeting sensors used by aircrews to record infrared video of the impact of a missile or bomb,  it has so far refused to provide exactly where weapons struck and when they failed to function properly.

This information would enable governments and mine-clearing organisations to alert the public to places of risk and to focus efforts on removing high-explosive remnants of war. Without this information UXOs, some of them containing  toxic propellants, pose a threat to accidental discovery by civilians.

Spent ordnance at the Misrata war memorial. Credit:Rebecca Murray/IPS.

By Rebecca Murray
MISRATA, Libya, Feb 25 2012 (IPS)

This week more than half the residents eligible to vote in Libya’s embattled coastal city of Misrata cast their ballots for local council representatives in their first democratic election in decades.

“The elections were great,” says family man and aid worker Mohammed Amer, 31. “They went very smoothly. I went to the centre and elected someone, and my wife elected someone else,” he laughs. “It was like a big celebration. Everyone was happy. It is especially great for old men and women to see this.”

The 28 winners from a total of 242 candidates now form Misrata’s local government. These tangible results contrast with what is widely perceived as an opaque and complex national electoral process announced by the National Transitional Council (NTC) based in Tripoli. The NTC have slated elections in June for a national assembly, which will pick a committee to draw up Libya’s constitution.

Misrata, Libya’s third largest city with an estimated 300,000 residents, is still recovering from a brutal siege last year. A street side museum commemorates the city’s victorious role in the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in October. The memorial is crowded with spent ordnance, memorabilia scrawled with graffiti, identification cards belonging to Gaddafi’s mercenary fighters, and a wall lined with pictures of Misrata’s dead and disappeared.

Multi-storey buildings remain pockmarked or gutted, especially along Tripoli Street, the main commercial artery. Queues are omnipresent outside banks to withdraw limited amounts of cash, and at gas stations. Egyptian migrant workers stand patiently at busy intersections holding paint cans and brushes to advertise their services, and a few business owners pour savings into the reconstruction of their small shops.

But Misrata, like other cities in Libya, has yet to receive reconstruction funds from the transitional government. Houses and businesses, including those owned by the previous government, lie damaged and dormant.

Mohammed Abdullah Ashab has sunk over 20,000 dollars into rehabilitating an upscale bookshop and a boutique filled with glittering gowns. These stores are in stark contrast to the piles of rubble and scrawled graffiti facing them.

“The NTC came to look at the damage,” he says. “But we won’t be compensated until a government is established. I am doing the reconstruction out of my own pocket.”

Atiya Al-Dreini, administration director for Misrata’s executive committee, and a winning candidate in the local elections, proudly shows off the refurbished Ottoman-era building housing the municipal offices. A destroyed wing is walled off; strewn with rubble and garbage. A brand new police car and two newly recruited traffic officers stand in the middle of the street in front.

“There is no national reconstruction budget yet,” Dreini says, noting that they took the money to clean up the office out of the current operating budget. “The committee to evaluate building reconstruction has finished its work, but is just waiting to include some people who fled their houses and are returning.

“This all takes time,” Dreini adds. “We had 42 years of corruption and need to break with the past. We are changing the whole system of the country, and this needs big money.”

Another stumbling block was bleakly illustrated in an Amnesty International report released this month. The report also covered Misrata, and warns that militias are one of the biggest threats to Libya today:

“Hundreds of armed militias, widely hailed in Libya as heroes for their role in toppling the former regime, are largely out of control. Their actions, and the refusal of many to disarm or join regular forces, are threatening to destabilise Libya, hinder the much-needed building of accountable state institutions based on the rule of law…”

“Most (brigade) members want to return to their professions – Misrata is a commercial region,” says Dreini. “Even during the tyrant’s day, most people didn’t want to join the security or police services. The mentality is still like that. But when they hear of clashes, like in Bani Walid, they will be ready to fight and join back with their brigades.”

Hasan Al-Homa, 31, sits outside a large sports complex with half a dozen young men in military fatigues and guns – part of an affiliated 200 militia that fall under Misrata’s military council leadership. He left his factory job to join a brigade during last year’s war. He wears the militia’s name on a laminated identification card.

Homa was wounded by a sniper during a ferocious battle in Misrata’s Tripoli Street, but recuperated in time to participate in the fall of Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte. He is married and has a two-month-old daughter. He is ready to return to his old job “once the national elections are over,” he says. “Even then, if there is a big (military) operation, we will join up to do it together.”

“We have about 200 brigades,” says Misrata’s military council head, Ramadan Ali Zarmouh, who reports directly to Tripoli’s Ministry of Defence. “Some rebels have gone back to their normal lives, but the brigades themselves still exist.

“Everyone knows that the brigades are temporary and must be dissolved at some point, and go back under police, military or civilian life,” he says. “We are currently establishing committees to work on short-term contracts for the Ministry of Defence. Those starting out will make 600 Libyan Dinars (around 480 dollars).”

International Crisis Group researcher Bill Lawrence is doubtful about an immediate capacity to rebuild the national army. “In Libya’s exceptional case there are no foreign troops or peacekeepers. So they are going to have to bring people in from the outside as trainers.

“No matter how many times the militias say they are going to disband, it’s not going to happen. The government doesn’t have strong institutions and is going to have to live with these militias, who are not ideological, but are defending turf and local issues under the military and civil councils.” (END/IPS/MM/IP/HD/RA/RM/SS/12)