| New York Times - |
BENGHAZI,
Libya - Two Islamist militias in the eastern city of Darnah announced
Saturday that they were disbanding, bowing to a wave of antimilitia
anger that has swept parts of Libya since a deadly attack on an American
diplomatic mission on Sept.
2 Islamist Militias Disband in Libya Amid Anger Over Killings
By SULIMAN ALI ZWAY and KAREEM FAHIM
Published: September 22, 2012
BENGHAZI, Libya — Two Islamist militias in the eastern city of Darnah
announced Saturday that they were disbanding, bowing to a wave of
antimilitia anger that has swept parts of Libya since a deadly attack on
an American diplomatic mission on Sept. 11.
Related
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Angry Libyans Target Militias, Forcing Flight (September 22, 2012)
Times Topic: Libya — Revolution and Aftermath
A local political activist said that one of the militias, the Abu Salim
Brigade, had surrendered several bases in the city. A second militia was
also said to have agreed to disband, Reuters reported.
The announcements came a day after tens of thousands of protesters
marched in Benghazi demanding the dissolution of militias formed during
the revolt last year against Libya’s strongman, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Protesters stormed four bases in Benghazi, routing a rogue Islamist
militia whose members were tied to the attack on the American mission,
in which the American ambassador and three other Americans were killed.
They also attacked armed groups nominally under the command of the
government, which does not have a well-organized army.
The announcements in Darnah on Saturday, welcomed by residents who had
held a sit-in demanding the militias disband, were a reminder of the
delicate task facing Libya’s new leaders. As they move against the
militias — which have been both a destabilizing force as well as, at
times, the sole provider of security — the government faces the
possibility of a power vacuum.
After the uprising, the militias, flush with weapons from looted
armories or supplied by foreign backers of the revolt, became more
powerful than the new government.
Some of the groups were led by hard-line Islamists, including former
prisoners in Colonel Qaddafi’s jails and veterans of the war in
Afghanistan. Some have openly spoken of creating an Islamic state in
Libya.
The army chief of staff, Yousef al-Mangoush, begged the protesters on
Saturday not to attack those militias working under the Defense
Ministry. At least four people were killed Saturday during an attack in
Benghazi on one of those militias, the Rafallah al-Sehati Brigade.
Early Sunday, leaders from that brigade joined government officials at a
news conference at Benghazi’s airport. The leader of Libya’s national
Congress, Mohamed Magarief, said there would be greater coordination
between the government and “security brigades that fall under its
umbrella” and that brigades not working with the state would be
disbanded.
Other officials, though, suggested that a direct confrontation with any
of the militias would be too risky. Saleh Joudeh, a member of Congress,
said the problem could not be solved “over one week.”
“You can’t come to these bodies that already exist on the ground and
tell them that I want to finish you, or that I want to integrate you,”
he said. “If we do that we’re fooling ourselves and we’re fooling the
people.”
He said the government would seek talks with the fringe militias.
“We do not want to repeat Qaddafi’s mistakes by exporting them to other
countries to fight,” he said. “They are our sons, and they are our
responsibility.”
Others, though, wanted a swift and vigorous effort to end the reign of
the militias, especially those led by hard-line Islamists.
“They say they are handling security, but what security do we have?”
said Ashour Bentaher, a political activist in Darnah, where residents
have struggled to shake the city’s reputation as a hotbed of militancy.
“There are assassinations, there are bombings, kidnappings — what
security?”
“We do not want to be like Somalia,” he said.
The wave of anger that had been building against the militias peaked
with the attack on the American mission in Benghazi on Sept. 11. Libyan
officials said that members of the Ansar al-Sharia militia were
responsible.
The White House praised the Benghazi protests as a stand against
extremism. They show that Libyans “are not comfortable with the voices
of a few extremists and those who advocate and perpetrate violence, to
drown out the voices and aspirations of the Libyan people,” said Josh
Earnest, a White House spokesman.
Ansar al-Sharia members left their base on Friday as protesters streamed
in. On Saturday, at the looted base of the Rafallah al-Sehati brigade,
soldiers wearing national army uniforms stood guard.
Elsewhere in Benghazi on Sunday, there were fresh reminders of the
persistent political violence that brought residents to the streets. Six
bodies, said to be members of the national army who had been executed
with gunshots to the head, were found in a neighborhood that has become a
frequent dumping ground for the victims of Benghazi’s many unsolved
crimes.
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