Gunmen press siege of Libyan ministries

Members of the Libyan army, many of whom are former revolutionaries who fought against Muammar Gaddafi, protest in front of the defence ministry headquarters in Benghazi yesterday. The protesters say they have not been paid for several months.

AFP/Tripoli

Gunmen pressed their siege of two Libyan ministries yesterday, leaving the authorities in a dilemma of whether to risk a bloody confrontation or reinforce the image of a helpless state by negotiating patiently.

They have encircled the foreign ministry since Sunday and the justice ministry since Tuesday, demanding the sacking of former officials from the ousted regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

The same groups, most of them former rebels who fought to oust Gaddafi in 2011, briefly occupied the finance ministry on Monday.

On Sunday, former rebels who had once been responsible for security at the headquarters of Libyan national television blockaded it although broadcasts were not interrupted.

And angry policemen invaded the interior ministry twice, on Monday and Tuesday, to demand higher pay and promotions.

Yesterday, vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers blockaded the foreign and justice ministries as traffic flowed smoothly on the May Day holiday.

“The siege of the foreign and justice ministries is continuing and will go on until our demands are completely satisfied,” Aymen Mohamed Abudeina, a member of a group committed to ensuring the exclusion of former Gaddafi officials from public life, told AFP.

The justice ministry has dismissed the idea of using force to break the siege, saying the government preferred to “let wisdom prevail”.

The government regularly promises firmness against these militias, and a campaign was recently launched to dislodge them from several public and private properties.

But the authorities avoid any use of force despite repeated attacks against state institutions by former rebels.

“In a tribal society such as Libya, any victim could trigger a deadly conflict,” warned an official on condition of anonymity.

“The situation could escalate by just a spark.”

On Tuesday, Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani explained the inaction of the government, saying “we want to save lives.”

But Fathi Tarbel, a former minister in the transitional government and human rights activist, said that “weakens the authorities and gives an image of an incompetent and weak state”.

He called the sieges sheer “banditry”.