By:Christopher Stephen
Tripoli was placed under a security lockdown as the governing National Transitional Council sought to impose control over local militias and demanded that residents give up their weapons by the end of the month.
Side streets were closed and armed security units set up checkpoints on main roads in the Libyan capital in the most extensive security operation in the city since Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces in August. Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib said in a statement he ordered armed military units to impose the lockdown.
Citizens have complained that the militias, many from outside the city, lack discipline and have engaged in skirmishes with residents and nightly shooting in the streets.
Tripoli residents have until Dec. 31 to hand in firearms, and non-Tripoli militias must leave the city by Dec. 20, the National Transitional Council said in a statement yesterday.
“The people demand safety provided by legitimate government enforcement bodies, and it is our duty to respond,” Razzak Abuhajar, the head of Tripoli’s city council, said in a statement. “These plans, coordinated by the government and the people of Tripoli, reflect a necessary step in the city’s transitional process.”
Tripoli’s 11 military councils, each responsible for police and security in its district, set up the checkpoints with support from the city council, the NTC said.
Total Closure
“Some streets face total closure,” the statement said. “Others will prevent the movement of any armed vehicles” except those of the interior and defense ministries.
State-sanctioned demonstrations will be conducted daily in Tripoli’s central Martyrs’ Square to build support for the government. On Dec. 20, “if militias have not left the city, the public of Tripoli and Libyan government will close the whole city to traffic,” the statement said.
At Tripoli’s city center Safari Hotel, home to western journalists, an armed militia checkpoint with traffic cones stopped and searched cars. Side streets were blocked, some with builder’s rubble, others with tree trunks, and traffic was lighter than normal.
Revolutionary units were welcomed into the capital on Aug. 21, battling with forces loyal to Qaddafi. In recent weeks, there have been complaints that the units, from Misrata, 150 miles east of the city, and Zintan, 90 miles southwest, have become disorderly.
Remaining in Control
Zintan militia remain in control of Tripoli’s international airport amid reports they had detained Tripoli Security Council chief Abdul Hakim Bilhaj for two hours when he arrived to take an international flight.
Units from Misrata remain in the outlying eastern suburbs, where they share duties controlling checkpoints with local militias, Taha Zarti, an official with the militia from the eastern district of Suq al-Juma, said in an interview.
Libyan officials, still grappling with the aftermath of the nation’s seven-month war, want to establish a security authority after the swearing-in of the last six of the government’s 24- member cabinet on Dec. 11,
In the past month, rival militia units have clashed in eastern Tripoli, on the border with Tunisia and in the town of Beni Walid, 95 miles south of Tripoli, news organizations have reported.
While oil exports have increased, with the National Oil Corp. declaring last week that output had reached 840,000 barrels per day, more than half the pre-war output, improved security could encourage foreign companies to set up business in Libya.
Source: Bloomberg
