Islamists in Libya are major force: minister

AFP/Tripoli

Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdelali speaks at a news conference in Tripoli yesterday

Interior Minister Fawzi Abdelali warned yesterday that Islamists amount to a “major force” in Libya both in terms of numbers and arms, following a surge in violence including attacks on shrines. “These people are a major force in terms of numbers and the equipment they have in Libya,” said the minister as he reversed a decision to resign that he had taken after accusations of lax security. “These people have arms and big groups. We must not close our eyes to this,” the minister told a press conference, ruling out a head-on confrontation with Islamist hardliners. “As for me, I am not going to go into a losing battle and will not kill people because of a tomb,” he said, referring to the destruction of shrines by the hardliners as “a very complicated business” that required dialogue. But he would take them on if instructed by Libya’s elected assembly. Abdelali stressed that the security services in their current state lacked the necessary equipment to enforce order in the face of the proliferation of arms in Libya. Many of the heavily armed revolutionaries who defeated Muammar Gaddafi’s regime last year have refused to be integrated into the security forces. “The amount of arms in Libya exceeds all estimates. Once we have a real army which can deal with groups that possess heavy armaments, the interior ministry will be able to carry out its mission,” he said. Abdelali said he was withdrawing his resignation, two days after having announced he was standing down. “When I submitted my resignation, I thought I would be relieving many people. But it seems that my resignation will further complicate security and I have decided to withdraw it,” he said. An aide said on Sunday that Abdelali quit “to protest against congressmen criticising the government and to defend the revolutionaries”, referring to former rebels who now form part of Libya’s security services. That same day the newly elected General National Congress, or national assembly, accused the interior ministry’s High Security Committee of being lax or even implicated in the destruction of shrines, including those of Sufis. Dozens of people took to the streets of Tripoli on Sunday and Monday to protest the violence, which also included double car bombings in Tripoli that killed two people as Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr a week ago. Islamist hardliners last Saturday bulldozed part of the mausoleum of Al Shaab Al Dahman, close to the centre of the Libyan capital. The demolition came a day after hardliners blew up the mausoleum of Sheikh Abdessalem al-Asmar in Zliten, 160km to the east. According to witnesses, another mausoleum, that of Sheikh Ahmed al-Zarruq, has been destroyed in the port of Misrata, 200km east of Tripoli. The UN cultural body Unesco’s head, Irina Bokova, yesterday expressed “grave concern” at the destruction of the Sufi sites and urged perpetrators to “cease the destruction immediately”. “I am deeply concerned about these brutal attacks on places of cultural and religious significance. Such acts must be halted, if Libyan society is to complete its transition to democracy,” she said in a statement. In a travel warning, meanwhile, the US State Department has advised its citizens “against all but essential travel to Libya”. “The incidence of violent crime, especially carjacking and robbery, has become a serious problem. In addition, political violence in the form of assassinations and vehicle bombs has increased,” it said on Monday. “The embassy’s ability to intervene in such cases remains limited, as these groups (behind attacks) are neither sanctioned nor controlled by the Libyan government.”