By Sami Zaptia
Tripoli, 21 November 2013:
At Tuesday’s GNC questioning of the Ali Zeidan government over the Gharghour incident, the government revealed . . .[restrict]that it will present its full report on the bloody incident within 10 days.
Acting Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister, Sadiq Abdelkarim, refused to give any more details beyond general replies and preferred not to anticipate what the report will say on the incident.
When asked if he could confirm if some protestors were armed and opened fire first on the Gharghour-based Misratan militia, he declined to answer.
However, at the questioning, various government officials confirmed that permission had been granted for the demonstration, but only in the Abu Harida/Al Quds mosque square and roundabout. No permission was granted for a march on the Gharghour militia base.
The government admitted that what had happened was “much bigger than they had anticipated”. The government confirmed that it had put in place a security plan starting at about 10 am. It admitted at once gunfire had started at Gharghour, officials had “lost control”.
“We tried to push demonstrators back”, but “the demonstrators retreated and returned with arms”. The government revealed that it had security personnel in civilian clothes amongst the demonstrators as well as a camera filming the event.
The film will be made available to the investigating committee, the government confirmed.
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