By Nigel Ash and Maha Ellawati.
Tripoli & Benghazi, 17 August 2013:
The Cyrenaica Transitional Council has said that if its demands for . . .[restrict]federal status are not met, it will seek to escalate the disruption of oil production and exports in the east of the country.
The CTC seeks a federalist Libya based on the 1951 three-province constitution. At a conference held today in Ras Lanuf, besides issuing its threat to oil supplies, the CTC agreed to reconstitute its leadership.
Some 200 members reportedly decided to pass the movement’s helm from its predominately tribal elders to younger leaders, many from its youth wing. The replacements have yet to be selected, but Ibrahim Sayid Al-Jadhran was confirmed as chairman of the political bureau. The movement’s formal head is Sheikh Ahmed Zubair Al-Senussi, a member of the old royal family.
A senior figure who attended the meeting told the Libya Herald this evening that one speaker compared Cyrenaica and its position within Libya to that of Kurdistan in Iraq. Kurdistan had proved an area of stability and prosperity “ and has become the only part of the country that works in a sea of chaos”. The speaker asserted that 80 percent of people from Cyrenaica wanted a federal solution.
In June, the CTC declared self-government and thereafter mounted a series of demonstrations including the occupation of the council offices in Baida.
Today’s meeting was told of a 12-point programme from the movement’s youth wing. While calling for full autonomy, the document pledged to maintain the unity of a federal Libyan state. It also projected laws based on the Sharia and the creation of a defence force and a judiciary.
The political bureau headed by Jadhran would be “ tasked with the administration of the province and the supervision of its institutions as well as the granting of the prerogatives of the province’s president.” This would be achieved through a provincial executive council, to be appointed by the political bureau. The bureau would also appoint a Shura Council. [/restrict]
