Tripoli, 18 May:
The government is sending 400 well-armed troops to Ghadames where there have been violent clashes between local residents and Tuareg . . .[restrict]who were forced out of the town last September and who want to return . They have been living in nearby Awaal and Derj ever since. An NTC conciliation team led by Mohammed Al-Hareizi, who normally operates as its official spokesman, is also in the town.
The fighting started a week ago but turned bloody on Wednesday when nine people, eight of them Tuareg and one a local resident were killed. One of those killed was the local Tuareg leader, Isa Talaly.
Hareizi, who arrived in the town on Wednesday evening, told Libya Herald last night that some of the troops had already arrived and that the main body would arrive on Saturday. The forces include both regular army units and members of brigades from all over the country under the ministry of defence’s control.
He said that the town was quiet now but he was himself caught up in the latest clashes earlier in the day when local residents started attacking a delegation of Tuareg elders who had been asked to come to Ghadames to present their grievances to the NTC team. The clash, which took place in the town’s district of Tukash had not involved any weapons, he said. The locals were armed with just sticks and stones, but they included women and children as well. “I was visiting the area, suddenly the people of Ghadames started to attack the Tuareg. I was in the middle of the clashes.” He said that locals set fire to Tuareg homes there to prevent them returning.
He reported that as part of the mediation efforts, locals had agreed to hand over the bodies of the eight dead Tuareg. He said that 21 Ghadames people had been injured in the clashes, two of them seriously. One had been transferred to Tunisia, the other to Tripoli. He did not know numbers of Tuareg injured as they had taken them back with them to Awaal.
It is reported that the Tuaregs expected to be attacked on Thursday and had brought ambulances and a medical team with them when they went to Ghadames to negotiate.
On the main issue — Tuareg returning to Ghadames — the locals remain adamantly opposed, however. Hareizi said he was “trying to solve the problem in Ghadames” and that he would stay until it was resolved. [/restrict]
