Will 2012 Bring Tribal War to Libya?
20 Jan 2012
By Franklin Lamb
The weather in Tripoli this New Year's weekend is
unseasonably bone chilling with heavy rains flooding
the streets reminding this observer more of dreary
London this time of year than the southern Maghreb
coast of the Mediterranean. My modest family run
neighborhood hotel off Omar Muktar Street is clean and
cheap, but my room has no heat except what eventually
builds up under a stack of velour Turkish blankets.
Much valued by me and the only other registered guest,
a Libyan engineer from Sirte whose home was torched by
rebels in early October, is the hotel proprietor who
reopened in early November following closure since
last March. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge and
opinion on "the current situation" here. But the hotel
owner and his two English speaking sons are not the
only ones who are increasingly speaking out about
realities in the "new Libya" nearly two months after
NATO declared another victory and stopped
systematically and seemingly indiscriminately reducing
to rubble this essentially defenseless and militarily
speaking, Third World country, with the First Worlds
most advanced arsenal.
My good luck this trip was to find my best friend from
the months I was in Libya last summer. "Ahmad," who
like most contacts disappeared without a trace on
August 22nd following the fall of Tripoli to NATO
forces. As so many of us have learned, those we knew
this summer either fled fast, were jailed, or were
killed. "Ahmad" resurfaced in September via email to
explain that he was in hiding. He went deep down in
South Libya in a small Sahara town the name of which
he told me has never even made it on a map, much less
google earth. Then, a few weeks later Ahmad
disappeared again when he ventured out to see his
family near Tripoli. He was betrayed by friends for
militia cash, was arrested, tortured and jailed
without charges simply because his family was known to
be Gadhafi supporters. The last week of Ahmad's
incarceration, which ended only because one of the
guards recognized him as a former classmate, he and
the other more than 100, including Sheik Khaled
Fantouch, all held in a large room in a makeshift
Misrata militia prison, were given nothing at all to
eat and shared bottles of water to stay alive.
Life has become more complicated in Libya for about
everyone it seems including foreign visitors. One
example: Back in the summer, before August 21st, if
one found himself on a side street somewhere face to
face with some heavily armed and scowling types it was
a good idea to whisper, "Allah, Muammar, Libya, al bas
(‘that all we need!") and chances were quite good that
you would be warmly received. Now it's much more
complicated. More than 55 rebel militia, totaling more
than 30,000 armed fighters control parts of Tripoli,
some of them loosely under the protection and
direction of the TNC, Tripoli Military Commander
Belhaj. Belhaj, formerly with Al Qaeda spent seven
years in prison here when the US & UK sent him to the
Gadhafi regimes as part of its rendition program. His
party, now being formed into the Muslim Brotherhood
will likely win next June's election. His in the third
largest militia in Tripoli. The largest is run by Salh
Gait, from Tripoli, and according to his deputy has
5000 fighters and adding more.
These days in Libya it is a good idea to memorize the
name of the largest of the local militia and the name
of its leader so when approached by the heavily armed
unfriendly types one can rub two index fingers
together and say the leader's name while adding "mieh,
mieh" i.e. "good, good." One wants to avoid saying the
wrong militia and leader name because there is today
an uneasy calm among militias in Tripoli after a few
weeks of largely unreported skirmishes.
Largely unreported for the following reason. The
transitional government daily touts the new freedom of
the press here and they claim that there are 43 new
newspapers or magazines. That on the surface sounds
pretty good and there are more or fewer each week as
local and foreign funders fail to deliver on funding
promises or others start publishing a newspaper or
magazine.
What is remarkable about the "new free Libya, new free
media" is that it is 100 percent pro "new government".
I am advised that it's only partly out of fear of
consequences for failing to toe the line that accounts
for this apparent universal support for the TNC.
Another reason according to a western ambassador who
have returned to his post here is that the new media
sprang from the myriad militia and they simply have a
psychological issue with criticizing any of the
obvious problems which seem to be swelling by the day.
Ahmad agrees. "They were so involved with NATO and its
rebels that they do not want to admit that they were
wrong in many ways so they ignore what is really
happening in front of their eyes".
This observer witnessed one example yesterday at
"Green Square". "Almost everyone still calls it Green
Square rather than its TNC re-name of Martyrs Square"
the hotel proprietor explained, "because it's been
Green Square for decades and what's wrong with that
name? If you tell someone to meet you at ‘Martyrs
Square' its sounds silly to most of us. What if the
new Egyptian government renames Tahrir Square? Will
people in Egypt accept it?"
What surprised me yesterday is that there were two
well attended anti-government demonstrations being
held at opposite ends of this large space. One was led
by two women I knew during the summer who were and
openly say they remain, Gadhafi regime supporters. One
ran a women's lawyers' group last summer and the other
a women's group. The one demonstration was demanding
that the husbands and children of Libyan wives and
mothers be granted Libyan citizenship. The same
struggle that continues decade after decade in
Lebanon.
The other demonstration, led by the lady lawyer who I
last saw giving a speech at a conference at the
Corinthia Hotel a few days before Tripoli fell, was
organized by a group demanding accountability for
those who have disappeared and are being held in
scores of secret militia prisons around the country.
According to her committee's research, in addition to
the 7000 plus pro Gadhafi loyalists acknowledged as
imprisoned by the TTC,, 80% identified by name, the
Committee for Justice for the Disappeared, claim that
there are more than 35,000 Libyans being held secretly
by militia that are outside the control and sometimes
even the knowledge of the essentially powerless TNC.
Ahmad agrees with this figure from what he learned in
prison and explained that he would take me to a school
near my hotel before classes open on January 7th and
if we walk by at night without traffic noise we can
hear the shouting of guards and screams of prisoners
being held.
It does appear that at least for now, demonstrations
are being allowed although they were plenty of
observers watching and which ones are from the TNC and
militia security forces is anyone's guess.
Ahmad just arrived to pick me up and informed me that
neither demonstration was reported in this morning's
papers thanks to the new Libyan feel good media who
don't criticize the new government.
Photos of 12/29/11 women's demonstration at Green
Square, Martyr's Sq) in Tripoli in favor of the right
of Libyan women to give their husbands and children
Libyan citizenship
Born in Libya, Only know Libya, Loyal to Libya, belong
to Libya (photos: fplamb)
The lady who heads the woman's group has several
issues her group plans to raise. One is the fact than
Libyan women have been disappearing from public places
and not heard from again. One of her suspicions is
that some are ending up in the homes of former Gadhafi
relatives and supporters of the regime. She estimates
that just in Tripoli more than 90 such homes, all of
them in desired areas, often on the sea, were
ransacked by various rebels gangs, stripped of
possessions, some appearing now in various street
souks for sale. Following the trashing of some of the
properties, many militia members got a better idea.
Why return to say, Benghazi, Misrata, or wherever they
came from when they can just live here in Tripoli and
in relative luxury? Militiamen are now doing this by
the hundreds, "Mara" the women advocate claims. "They
are well-armed, living off a little militia pay, but
mainly from various crimes, these groups are repairing
some of the damage they caused and have moved in long
term even charging rent to some new arrivals. Mara
added, "If they see an empty house, especially if it's
a really nice one, they assume, often correctly, that
it belonged to a Gadhafi relative, official or
supporter and they think it's theirs for the grabbing.
And they are grabbing. They dare anyone or even
another militia or the non-existent new government to
try to remove them. They have no intention of
returning to where they came from and less on given up
their arms. Actually they are stockpiling more weapons
and explosives both as security and to increase their
political bargaining power. It appears that Libya is
up for grabs for so many, local and foreign
operations." The same lady said the population of
Tripoli has risen by one million and the locals want
the "outsiders" to return to their towns and leave
Tripoli's real residents to take care of their city.
The outsiders are said to add to traffic problems and
a decline in security so people stay inside at night.
Some of the home invaders have moved in their families
from other parts of Libya and some are accused of
holding kidnapped female foreign domestic workers and
are suspected by the women advocacy groups, kidnapping
women off the streets and enslaving them within their
sanctuaries.
What outrages many here is that the new "government"
will not even acknowledge that these problems exist.
Just as the new government has no desire for the
International Criminal Court to investigate any crimes
from either side because they don't want investigators
snooping around asking questions.
Libyans inside the country and those seeking safety in
nearby countries, are increasingly turning to the ten
largest Libyan tribes to put an end to this situation
and many other problems.
One situation that is said to be ready to explode in
violence is from areas like Bani Wallid and Serte
where NATO and its local forces killed many civilians
that no human right group even knows about. One local
militia commander explained to me and my two
colleagues some of what he learned while helping run a
secret prison: "Whatever intra-tribal or geographical
divisions existed a year ago, they are 500 times worse
today. The Tribes are arming and have given the new
government several deadlines for committing to rebuild
destroyed homes and businesses, helping homeless
families, and getting the guns off the streets and
sending the armed gangs back to where they came from.
To date nothing has been achieved by the new
government and people are growing very angry."
Other current problems causing strife here are the
rising prices on everything except electricity which
no one has paid in the whole country according to my
sources since last February. But the electricity cuts
are similar to during the NATO bombing. Lack of money
is a problem with citizens not being allowed to
withdraw more than 750 dinars each month. Money is
still relatively scarce and if one accepts that 7
billion was taken out of Libyan banks by former Libyan
officials and businessmen early last spring, more than
8 billion was withdrawn by citizens in a panic last
summer before a limit of 500 dinars per month was
imposed by the Gadhafi government.
This observer has been advised both in neighboring
countries and inside Libya by Tribal officials that
war in coming maybe as soon as March 1. "Our history,
our culture, our dignity, is at stake. It is the
responsibility of the Tribes to cleanse the country of
these outlaws just as we did against the Italian
colonizers."
During a meeting in a nearby country one Gadhafi
loyalist explained: "We know which tribes worked with
NATO and sold out their birthrights. Some did the same
thing with the Italians and over the years with
foreign oil companies. We will fight to restore a path
for the Libyan people knowing that mistakes were made
by the Gadhafi regime but also that his support today
ranges from 90% in Wafala Tribe areas like Bani Walid
to close to 60% in Tripoli. He is not coming back but
many of his good policies will return enshallah."
Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon. He is
reachable c\o fplamb@gmail.com
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