Libya seeks regional co-operation to combat crime

Libyan interim Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib yesterday said that increased regional co-operation was required to tackle the escalation of cross-border criminal activities. “The border regions have witnessed a noticeable escalation of drugs and weapons contraband,” Kib said in Tripoli at the opening of a two-day ministerial regional conference on border security. He said illegal immigration was on the rise and that smugglers were taking advantage of lax border controls to traffic an array of products, including expired foodstuff, medicine, and liquor into Libya. “Terrorist groups will always find in border regions an auspicious environment to conduct incursions and destabilise security,” Kib said, urging the region to intensify efforts to stop these actors. “We have to boost regional co-operation in order to eradicate these development and activities,” Kib said. The two-day conference brings together ministers and representatives from Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan and Tunisia, with the aim of enhancing cooperation. Diplomats and delegates from the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union and the UN are also attending the conference. Kib also accused former regime members of trying to harm Libyan ties with its neighbours. “Remnants of the collapsed regime who fled to neighbouring countries are spending Libyan money, which they stole, to harm the people of Libya and the country’s relations with its neighbours,” he said. Algerian Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said there were “clear indicators” that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had exploited tensions in Tunisia and Libya to acquire and proliferate weapons. “The deterioration of security in the region and the extensive proliferation of weapons required intensified efforts to secure our borders,” he said. And he added that Algerian intelligence services had stopped a Libya-bound convoy loaded with ammunition in January and foiled three other similar operations since the start of the year. Separately, the Tunisian foreign minister was quoted as saying yesterday that Tunisia and Egypt want a united Libya and reject calls for federalism for their neighbour,. “Tunisia and Egypt share the goal of preserving national unity, security and stability in Libya,” the official LANA new agency quoted Rafik Abdessalem as saying. At a meeting in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi last Tuesday attended by thousands, tribal and political leaders unilaterally declared the region of Cyrenaica autonomous, raising fears the country might split up. Thousands of people demonstrated across Libya on Friday against the proposed secession of the oil-rich region, a move that was sharply condemned by the interim government in Tripoli. “The unilateral announcement of Berqa (or Cyrenaica) made by some groups was rejected both by the the Libyan elite and the Libyan people in general,” Abdessalem said after a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo. “One of the lessons drawn from our experience of the Tunisian revolution and the subsequent Egyptian revolution is that Arab politics are closely interwoven and that we influence each other,” he said. “The security and stability of Libya concerns us all as Arabs and as neighbouring countries,” the foreign minister said.