By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli 6 May 2013:
Militiamen today reinforced their siege of the Foreign and Justice Ministries in Tripoli.
The main road in . . .[restrict]front of the foreign ministry was blocked by gunmen with various types of weaponry and vehicles with anti-aircraft guns. Some traffic was being allowed allowed along the road, but it was intermittent.
“We are about 1,500 revolutionaries – thuwar, not militiamen as some people and media sources have stated,” said Mohamed Farhat from Tripoli who at the foreign ministry.
Some 200 thuwar had been asked to besiege the foreign ministry, he said, while the others had surrounded the Justice Ministry and the state TV.
A colleague of his, however, insisted that there were 5,000 of them besieging the ministries.
In front of the Justice Ministry, Mahmood Faitori told the Libya Herald that the revolution has not yet finished and the revolutionaries were giving the General National Congress enough time to make real political change in the country. They would wait to see if the one-month period to implement the Political isolation Law produced results. If it did not, there would be consequences, he warned, but adding that it would be hard to say at this point in time what they would be.
“We had peacefully demanded the law about six months ago and the congress members did not respond at all,” Faitori explained.
At the foreign Ministry, the militiamen said they would not allow the Foreign Minister, Mohamed Abdulaziz, or any of his staff to resume work until they felt that there had been real change.
Farhat added that none of the protesters had shot a single bullet at anyone. He added that they did not belong to any battalion or political party, that they were just revolutionaries demanding a ban on those who worked for Qaddafi’s regime.
Congressman Ibrahim Ghariani, from the National Forces Alliances (NFA) however told the Libya Herald that the NFA and other congress members were convinced that the gunmen were controlled and sponsored by parties and blocks within Congress for personal and regional interests.
The Prime Minister made a similar claim on TV on Saturday night. [/restrict]
