Over 30,000 Libyans march to protest militias

[~Tyson~]

From the National Post


A protester holds his daughter surrounded by army soldiers as they attend a march in Benghazi city, September 21, 2012. Thousands of Libyans marched in Benghazi on Friday in support of democracy and against the Islamist militias that Washington blames for an attack on the U.S. consulate last week that killed four Americans including the ambassador.



An armed Libyan man flashes the victory sign in front of a fire at the hardline Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia headquarters Friday in Benghazi. Hundreds of Libyan protesters forced members of a hardline Islamist militia out of their base, setting fire to and wrecking the compound.

Over 30,000 Libyans marched through the eastern city of Benghazi on Friday in an unprecedented protest to demand the disbanding of powerful militias in the wake of last week’s attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Scores of pro-government demonstrators entered the headquarters of the Islamist militia Ansar al Sharia, aiming to evict fighters from the site, Reuters witnesses said.

Police and army vehicles arrived at the scene, but there was no immediate signs of violence or confrontation.

The “Rescue Benghazi day” demonstration called for the government to disband armed groups that have refused to give up their weapons since the NATO-backed revolution that toppled Muammar Gaddafi last year.

It was not immediately clear if the militia headquarters had been occupied at the time, but there was sign of any fighters there.

“We entered here to give the place to the national security forces,” said activist Musaf al-Sheikhy.

The action appeared to be part of a coordinated sweep of militia headquarters by police, government troops and activists following the demonstration.

“We are taking over the premises of the batallion. This was at the request of the people, who demanded that the batallion leaves this place,” said Army Colonel Naji al-Shuaibi, who was leading the operation to take over the militia headquarters.



A Libyan man gestures as thousands of people march in Benghazi during a protest against militias on September 21, 2012. Thousands of Libyans rallied against militias in the tense city of Benghazi, drowning out a protest by radical Salafists furious over a film and cartoons deemed offensive to Islam.


PROTESTING THE MILITIAS

The attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, in which at least one militia is suspected of participating, has sparked a backlash among many Libyans against the multiple armed factions that have run rampant for months in cities around the country. The militias have become more powerful than the regular security forces, and successive governments since last year’s fall of Muammar Gaddafi have been unable to rein them in.

The militias, which are the legacy of the “revolutionary brigades” that fought Gaddafi in the civil war, have taken on roles as security, guarding state facilities and neighborhoods, but they also are accused of acting like gangs, detaining people, intimidating critics and clashing in the streets.

Friday’s march targeted in particular Ansar al-Shariah, a militia of Islamic extremists who officials and witnesses say participated in the consulate attack. The group is also accused of attacking Muslims who don’t follow its harsh interpretation of Islam.

“No, no, to militias,” the giant crowd chanted as it marched along a lake in the center of Benghazi, filling a broad boulevard. They carried banners and signs demanding that militias disband and that the government build up police to take their place in keeping security. “Benghazi is in a trap,” signs read. “Where is the army, where is the police?”

Other signs mourned the killing of U.S. Amb. Chris Stevens, reading, “The ambassador was Libya’s friend” and “Libya lost a friend.”

“Benghazi has been thrown wide open, it’s full of chaos, looting and crime,” said Ihsan Abdel-Baqi, a woman in her 50s who joined the march. “We want our dignity back. We are not afraid of anything.”

The giant crowd poured into a square in front of the main camp of Ansar al-Shariah in the city, unfurling a long Libyan flag and chanting, “With our lives and souls, we redeem you, Benghazi.” Military helicopters and fighter jets flew overhead, and police mingled in the crowd.



Visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns (centre) and Mohammed Magarief (3rd right), head of the Libyan national congress, attend a ceremony commemorating slain U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens in Tripoli September 20, 2012. Libya apologized on Thursday to Burns for an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in which Stevens died.

Several thousand Ansar al-Shariah supporters lined up in front of the camp in the face of the crowd, waving black and white banners. But there was no immediate friction between the two sides.

The militias first arose when Benghazi and the rest of the east rose up against Gaddafi’s rule early last year.

Residents formed local “brigades” that took up arms and fought regime forces. Over the civil war that followed such militias formed around the country.

Since Gaddafi’s fall and death around a year ago, the militias have remained in place and have grown stronger, boasting arsenals of automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and pick-up trucks with heavy machine guns. Many have no particular ideological bent, but some are strongly Islamist.

Their strength was on display in the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate. Heavily armed gunmen believed to be militiamen mixed in with a crowd of Libyans protesting an anti-Islam film outside the mission, Libyan officials say. Libyan security forces at the scene withdrew because they were heavily outnumbered and outgunned.

The government has been unable to convince militias to disband or integrate into the regular army or security forces, which remain underfunded and weak. Many say authorities have inadvertently fueled the growth with a program that pays militiamen to join a state-sponsored council that does little to bring them under government control.


Protesters take part in a march in Benghazi city, September 21, 2012. Thousands of Libyans marched in Benghazi on Friday in support of democracy and against the Islamist militias that Washington blames for an attack on the U.S. consulate last week that killed four Americans including the ambassador

[Aquilla]

22 September 2012 Last updated at 14:47 BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19680785

Libya: Islamist militia bases stormed in Benghazi



Crowds clashed with militia fighters - before forcing them to retreat



The militia suspected of killing the US ambassador to Libya nearly two weeks ago has been driven out of its base in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Police and protesters stormed the HQ of the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia.
The HQ of the Sahaty Brigade, said to have official backing, was also stormed. At least nine people were killed there, another died elsewhere.
The attack on the US consulate was triggered by an amateur video made in the US which mocks Islam.
Protests against the film have been held across the Muslim world. At least 19 people died in ****stan on Friday alone, in clashes with police trying to stop protesters attacking US diplomatic buildings.
US citizens have been urged not to travel to ****stan and the US embassy has paid for adverts on ****stani TV showing President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning the film.
Government-backed group Witnesses say supporters of Ansar al-Sharia gathered outside its Benghazi headquarters, in front of the crowd, waving black and white banners.
They fired into the air to try to disperse the protesters, but fled with their weapons after the base was surrounded by waves of people shouting "No to militias".

Buildings and a car were set alight and fighters evicted.
In a statement later, a spokesman for the group said militiamen had evacuated the premises after their commander had ordered to "hand them over to the people of Benghazi" to preserve security.
However, in a standoff outside the headquarters of the Sahaty Brigade in the city, three people were killed and at least 20 injured according to witnesses and officials.
The two sides are said to have exchanged rocket and light arms fire for two hours before the brigade decided to move out.
Protesters then set fire to one of the main buildings and pillaged a weapons depot, a journalist for AFP news agency at the scene reported.
On Saturday, sources said the bodies of another six people had been found in or near the Sahaty Brigade headquarters. They had been shot in the upper back, possibly indicating execution-style killings.
Another person was killed and another 20 injured in other incidents, city hospitals said.
The BBC's Rana Jawad in the capital Tripoli says the Sahaty Brigade is believed to be operating under the authority of the ministry of defence.
Senior Libyan officials say that while they welcomed the protests, people should differentiate between the rogue militias and honest rebel brigades that helped to secure the town in last year's uprising against Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Earlier, some 30,000 protesters marched through Benghazi calling for an end to the armed groups and a return to the rule of law.




Libyans have seized on the chance to march against the presence of militias

There has been a wave of hostility towards the militias since US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others Americans died in last week's attack on the Benghazi consulate.
"I don't want to see armed men wearing Afghani-style clothes stopping me in the street to give me orders, I only want to see people in uniform," said university student Omar Mohammed, who took part in the takeover of the Ansar al-Sharia compound.
Many Libyans have expressed outrage at the attack on the US consulate. Ansar al-Sharia denies being behind it.
Libya's interim government has since come under renewed and intense pressure to rein in well-armed extremist militia groups and force them to disband.
Friday's march was the largest seen in Benghazi - considered the heartland of Libya's uprising - since Col Gaddafi was deposed.
Armed militia groups which helped to defeat Gaddafi remain powerful in many parts of the country.
They are better armed and more numerous than Libya's official army, and there have been reports of militias intimidating and carrying out killings against rivals.

[~Tyson~]

From the Globe and Mail by Ibrahim Majbari and Dominique Soguel

The Libyan authorities said late Saturday they had decided to dissolve all militias and armed groups that do not come under state authority.

The move, a day after Benghazi residents rebelled against the militias in violence that killed at least 11 people and wounded over 70, was announced by Mohammed al-Megaryef, head of the national assembly, in the eastern city.

The authorities also decided to put in place an “operations room” in Benghazi bringing together the army, forces of the interior ministry and defence ministry brigades comprising former rebels.

And they called on the army to impose its authority by putting its own officers at the head of brigades born out of the 2011 revolt, which escalated into civil war and toppled the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

The new authorities have not been able to disband these civilians-turned-fighters though many of their units have joined the ministry of interior or ministry of defence.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Libyans demonstrated against militias.

It came 10 days after an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi sparked by a American-made film that mocks Islam left four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, dead on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Hundreds of them later stormed bases of militias sparking clashes that left 11 dead and dozens wounded.

The fighting centred at the headquarters of Raf Allah al-Sahati, a salafist brigade under the defence ministry, which was looted.

The measures were the outcome of meetings including de facto Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur, army chief Yussef al-Mangush, intelligence services head Salem al-Hassi as well as national assembly and local council members.

Meanwhile, the army issued an ultimatum ordering militias and armed groups to evacuate military compounds, state property and properties of members of the former regime, the official LANA news agency reported.

It ordered “all individuals and armed groups occupying military barracks, public buildings or property belonging to members of the former regime or [Gadhafi’s children] to evacuate these sites within 48 hours.”

Hundreds of former rebels have taken over strategic, state-owned military and civilian facilities as well as the properties of supporters and leaders of the former regime in the wake of its fall.

Six members of the security forces were among those killed in the unrest that rocked Libya’s second city.

The security force members appeared to have been executed, a medical examiner at the Benghazi Medical Centre morgue told AFP.

“In total we’ve received 11 fatalities” she said, including four bodies in “civilian clothes” and another that was found at the headquarters of Raf Allah al-Sahati.

Critics say militias in the eastern city have put themselves above the law, particularly those that refused to be placed under the authority of the defence ministry after the fall of the regime.

The protesters first attacked a group based in a security building in central Benghazi before turning their wrath on the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia, a radical Salafist militia and the main paramilitary group in the city.

Ansar al-Sharia has been accused of – but denied – involvement in the murder of the four Americans in the U.S. consulate.

The militiamen took flight as hundreds of protesters stormed and then set their compound ablaze. They also evicted them from Al-Jalaa hospital where they were replaced by military police.

National assembly chief Mr. Megaryef initially welcomed the Benghazi protest but later urged the demonstrators to withdraw from the bases of loyal brigades.

Mr. Megaryef met military, tribal and political leaders in the city on Saturday, members of his entourage said.

As the violence expanded, Libyan authorities called on the demonstrators to distinguish between “illegitimate” brigades and those under state control, warning that neutralising loyal units risked causing “chaos.”

The warning highlighted the dilemma facing the government a year after Col. Gadhafi’s overthrow, with the fledgling security forces dependent on former rebels who fought in the uprising although such groups also challenge government authority.

The trigger for the assault on the paramilitaries was a “Save Benghazi” rally after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday that was attended by an estimated 30,000 peaceful demonstrators.

They paid tribute to Mr. Stevens and carried banners calling for justice to be done.

It drowned out a smaller rally of a few hundred people called by the jihadistsand hardline Islamists furious over a the U.S.-made film and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by a French satirical magazine.