By Farah Waleed.
Tripoli, 28 April 2013:
Following the blockade of the Foreign Ministry earlier today, militiamen blockaded the Interior Ministry and Al . . .[restrict]Wataniya TV. The forces – mostly from from Misrata but also from Suq Al-Juma, Tajoura, Sabratha, Zawyia as well as Benghazi and other towns – say they will stay until Congress passes the Political Isolation Law.
In the case of Wataniya TV, the forces alleged it was full of Qaddafi-sympathisers.
Adel Gharyani, spokesman for Coordinating Group on the Political Isolation Law which would ban thousands of Qaddai-era officials from state posts, said that the Congress must approve the political isolation resolution.
The Foreign Ministry has more members linked to the Qaddafi regime than any other ministry, Gharyani claimed.
He also urged Congress to vote out the government of Ali Zeidan.
“Our demands are clear – the Libyan authorities should be cleared of the personnel from the former regime”, he said.
The Zeidan government was allowing such people to maintain leadership positions as ambassadors and diplomats, he added, claiming that it was putting the 17 February Revolution in danger.
The militiamen and their supporters have given Congress till Tuesday, April 30, to approve the Isolation Law. They do not say what they will do if it does not meet the deadline.
A demonstration in support of the law is planned for Tuesday in Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square after Asr prayers.
As a result of today’s action, the Tripoli rumour mill went into overdrive this evening. There were claims that other ministries would be blockaded tomorrow, that columns of militiamen were heading from the east to the capital to assist their colleagues and that Interior Minister Ashour Shuwail was resigning because of the security breaches, first with the French embassy bombing, then today’s ministry sieges. Such was the scale of the latter rumour that the Prime Minister’s office felt obliged to deny it, according to the Libyan news agency LANA.
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