By Sami Zaptia
Tripoli, April 12
“In the new Libya, even prisoners will have justice. It will be a state based on justice . . .[restrict]and human rights.”
The comment from Nasser Al-Mana at the government’s weekly Wednesday press conference at the Prime Minister’s Offices was in response to a question as to whether Tuesday’s visit by the prime minister to a newly refurbished court room meant that it would be used to put Saif on trail.
Government sources had earlier this week indicated that within ten days, Qaddafi’s second son would be handed over by the Zintan militia, which captured him in the desert last November and has been holding him ever since.
Al-Mana’s reply on Wedensday was thought to be aimed more in the direction of the international audience and especially the ICC, rather than for his domestic audience.
Al-Mana would not, however, confirm the exact location of the court earmarked for Saif’s trail, but revealed that “numerous prisons and numerous courts in numerous cities all over the country were prepared to international standards”.
He added: “The government is ready to put on trail Saif or any other person — be they in Libya or outside Libya. All sectors of the state announced yesterday in the press conference held at one of the courts that they were ready. We will continue our efforts to put on trail all without exception all those that face accusation, including those that we requested Interpol to issue arrest warrants for yesterday.”
He also announced that there would be a special press conference by the Ministry of Justice soon giving further details of the forthcoming planned trails.
Much of the press conference concerned the attack on the prime minister’s offices on Tuesday, reported elsewhere (see “Government defends decision to suspend cash payouts to thuwar”) But there were other issues raised on Wednesday evening.
Will the elections be held on time?
Asked to confirm that the June national elections would still go ahead, the Al-Mana confirmed that “a committee headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister was created which has come up with a vision involving most ministries in various capacities. All the NTC, the Transitional Government and the Election High Commission assure that the elections will be on time”.
Nevertheless, he admitted that there were many who “were worried whether the environment would be appropriate for elections”.
He then appealed by calling on all to “put the need of Libya above all and contribute to calming the atmosphere. Democracy is a culture and not an administrative or political system. I call for responsible freedom”, the spokesperson stressed.
The Tripoli International Airport saga. . .
Regarding the thorny issue of Tripoli International Airport, Al-Mana confirmed that it had not been handed over yet. “We continue our efforts and hope that it will be handed over soon”, he retorted, and preceded to list the long measures of training and rehabilitation policies on offer for those thuwar still refusing to handover the airport.
Subsidies
Asked about how far government policy had developed regarding the issue of replacing the numerous inefficient and wasteful subsidies on electricity, fuel and food stuffs with targeted payments, the spokesperson confirmed that there was “a government committee including the Ministries of Economy, Finance and Planning to find a solution to the issue of subsidies. We hope it will announce its findings soon”, he assured.
He stressed that the state of poor border controls at the present time has further increased the rate of smuggling.
The Media
In a lighter moment, the spokesperson admitted that the government had been underperforming in its efforts to communicate with the media.
“We will improve our ability to communicate with the media,” he stressed.
Over 300 companies at 40th Tripoli International Fair – April 2 to 12
It was reported at the press conference that the Minister of Economy was happy that Prime Minister Al-Kib officially opened the 40th edition of the Tripoli International Fair (TIF), which ran from April 2 to 12. More than 150 companies from all over the world as well as 168 Libyan companies took part.
The official spokesperson was keen to highlight the fact that this edition of TIF included for the first time in many decades the active participation of NGOs, “which had been prevented from participation for over four decades by the previous regime. They were allowed and welcomed by the state to participate”, the spokesperson stressed.
He was also at pains to point out the special wing dedicated to exhibiting photographs of the Syrian revolution as a show of solidarity by the Libyan people.
The spokesperson announced that over 20 different exhibitions all over Libya in various sectors ranging from infrastructure to industry to agriculture will take place in Libya in 2012.
Oil production up
Oil production continues to rise, rising by 15 percent on last week, which is the highest level reached post February 17 Revolution, the spokesperson reported.
Reactivation of some housing projects
The spokesperson announced that the Ministry of Housing and Utilities is to reactivate 135 contracts for 120 local companies all over Libya.
The Ministry is also holding meetings with local companies regarding various projects such as 20,000 housing projects in Benghazi and 2,000 housing projects in Janzur.
Libya Herald, mindful of its large overseas readership and in response to enquiries from international construction companies, sent a written enquiry to the official spokesperson requesting a detailed list of projects, contractors, subcontractors, their nationalities, the total cost of the projects, the total cost of the balance of the works etc, that are being reactivated.
However, no further information was supplied by the official spokesperson.
It is also looking into easing the process of importing foreign labour for the execution of such contracts.
The Arab-Turkish Conference for Industry
The spokesperson announced that the Ministry of Industry is announcing that Libya will be hosting the Second Arab-Turkish Conference for Industry on May 7-8, to be held in Benghazi.
New airport to open and tenders for passenger terminals
The Ministry of Transport announced that Labraq airport near Al-Beida will be opening soon and that the first flight had taken off from the city of Ghat earlier this week.
The spokesperson also announced that international companies were being invited to tender for the refurbishment of both Misrata and Benghazi passenger terminals within a month.
Ministry of Education de-centralisation and conference
The Ministry of Education has announced some decentralisation measures by allowing schools all over Libya to contract with teachers of English, maths and computing.
It has also given small budgets to schools for payments for minor emergency maintenance to their buildings.
The ministry has also announced that it would be holding a national conference on education for all of Libya, which will include education experts, parents and NGOs. It is hoped that this conference would put in place a vision for Libya’s future education system
Welcomed the resumption of UK visas from Tripoli
The spokesperson welcomed the resumption of the issuing of UK visas by the British Embassy from Tripoli. He said that the Libyan Prime Minister had asked the British to help in the facilitation of visas for Benghazi residents by opening an office there.
Decentralisation of medical distribution
The Ministry of Health has announced that it has imported a shipment of medicine in association with the United Nation’s World Health Organization (WHO) and that as a further de-centralisation measure, eight new medicine distribution centres are to be opened all over Libya
It also announced that a national conference is being organized in cooperation with WHO in order to create a vision for the Libyan health sector.
Flight of fighter jets over Tripoli
The official spokesperson allayed the fears of Tripoli inhabitants that the low flying fighter jets heard over the skies of Tripoli were not foreign jets, but three MIG 21 Libyan Air Force jets from the Tobruk Freedom Squadron engaging in manoeuvres.
In conclusion..
Finally, in what had been probably the longest and most fruitful of the half a dozen official press conferences started only recently, the spokesperson rounded up by saying that despite the government having to move from one ‘crises to another, progress continues to be made. We are in a difficult state of transition for a state without institutions. How sad we are when we have to waste time, effort and money in solving conflicts without any real bases’, he added, referring to the spate of recent conflicts of Kufra, Sebha and the Zuara-Jmail-Regdaleen areas.
‘A state is not created within a day’, he finally pleaded.
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