East Libya claims semi-autonomy
Source: Agencies |
March 7, 2012, Wednesday
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TRIBAL leaders and militia commanders declared a semi-autonomous region in oil-rich eastern Libya yesterday, a move opponents fear will be the first step toward outright dividing the country six months after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.
Libya's National Transitional Council, the interim central government based in the capital Tripoli, has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the creation of a partly autonomous eastern region, warning it could eventually lead to the breakup of the North African nation.
"This is very dangerous. This is a blatant call for fragmentation. We reject it in its entirety," said Fathi Baja, the head of the political committee of the NTC.
Thousands of representatives of tribal leaders, militia commanders and politicians who made the declaration at a conference in Benghazi said the move is not intended to divide the country.
But they insisted the step was necessary to end the marginalization that the east suffered for decades under Gadhafi's rule. The former dictator focused development and largesse on the west, allowing infrastructure to decline in the east, an area that was a source of opposition.
The conference said the eastern state, known as Barqa, would have its own parliament, police force, courts and capital - Benghazi, the country's second largest city - to run its own affairs.
Foreign policy, the national army and oil resources would be left to a central, federal government in Tripoli. Barqa would run from central Libya to the Egyptian border in the east and to the Chad and Sudan borders in the south.
The plan seeks to revive the pre-Gadhafi system in place from 1951 until 1963, when Libya, ruled by a monarchy, was divided into three states: Tripolitania in the west, Fezzan in the southwest and Cyrenaica in the east - or Barqa, as it was called in Arabic.
Yesterday's announcement aimed to pose a federal system as a fait accompli before the NTC.
The council has called for national elections in June to select a 200-member assembly that will name a prime minister to form a new government and write a constitution.
The Benghazi conference rejected a draft law put forward by the NTC to organize the election, because it would give the east only 60 seats in the assembly.
The gathering appointed Ahmed al-Zubair, Libya's longest serving political prisoner under Gadhafi, to lead its governing council.
"Residents of Barqa, we are brothers. We protect each other," he told the gathering. "Libya will not be divided. It's one nation."
Libya's National Transitional Council, the interim central government based in the capital Tripoli, has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the creation of a partly autonomous eastern region, warning it could eventually lead to the breakup of the North African nation.
"This is very dangerous. This is a blatant call for fragmentation. We reject it in its entirety," said Fathi Baja, the head of the political committee of the NTC.
Thousands of representatives of tribal leaders, militia commanders and politicians who made the declaration at a conference in Benghazi said the move is not intended to divide the country.
But they insisted the step was necessary to end the marginalization that the east suffered for decades under Gadhafi's rule. The former dictator focused development and largesse on the west, allowing infrastructure to decline in the east, an area that was a source of opposition.
The conference said the eastern state, known as Barqa, would have its own parliament, police force, courts and capital - Benghazi, the country's second largest city - to run its own affairs.
Foreign policy, the national army and oil resources would be left to a central, federal government in Tripoli. Barqa would run from central Libya to the Egyptian border in the east and to the Chad and Sudan borders in the south.
The plan seeks to revive the pre-Gadhafi system in place from 1951 until 1963, when Libya, ruled by a monarchy, was divided into three states: Tripolitania in the west, Fezzan in the southwest and Cyrenaica in the east - or Barqa, as it was called in Arabic.
Yesterday's announcement aimed to pose a federal system as a fait accompli before the NTC.
The council has called for national elections in June to select a 200-member assembly that will name a prime minister to form a new government and write a constitution.
The Benghazi conference rejected a draft law put forward by the NTC to organize the election, because it would give the east only 60 seats in the assembly.
The gathering appointed Ahmed al-Zubair, Libya's longest serving political prisoner under Gadhafi, to lead its governing council.
"Residents of Barqa, we are brothers. We protect each other," he told the gathering. "Libya will not be divided. It's one nation."
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