By Aimen Eljali.
Tripoli, 15 November 2103:
There are to be three days of mourning in Tripoli starting as of tomorrow for the . . .[restrict]protestors shot in Gharghour today. They had been demanding the removal of the Misrata militia allegedly responsible for last Thursday’s violence in the city.
The announcement was made by Tripoli Local Council leader Sadat Elbadri on TV this evening. He also made several demands. This were that the killers of the protestors be arrested; that towns and cities with military forces deployed in the capital withdraw them to outside the city; that the army and joint forces secure the area of Gharghour; that a state of emergency be declared; and that the government and Congress take full responsibility for the country’s security.
Tripoli, he said, did not blame Misrata for the slaughter, now put at 37 dead according to Hashim Bishr, head of Tripoli SSC. It was the work of a rogue brigade, he said as he called on residents not to take any reprisals.
The council, Elbadri added, would help the families of those who had been “martyred” (as he put it), to gain their rights in the matter.
He also called on local residents to leave the area in case of further fighting.
Speaking this evening to the Libya Herald, he said that he did not believe that Misrata was sending massive reinforcements to relieve the brigade now reported to be holed up in Gharghour. “It will be just a few. They won’t come. Tripoli is boiling” over the killings, he declared. “We are trying to secure Tripoli”, he added, stating that joint forces were in the process of doing so.
He also criticised the Prime Minister who, he said, had initially tried to blame him for calling the protests and the protestors for the violence. Zeidan had only changed his mind, he said, after he himself had gone on TV and said that the Prime Minister was wrong.
Considerable speculation on social media that a a convey of some thousand vehicles had left the city bound for Tripoli were untrue, Misrata councillor Jibril Al-Raied told this paper.
Meanwhile, it has been announced that the Attorney General is setting up an investigation into today’s bloody events in Ghargour, including the use of anti-aircraft guns against the demonstrators.
With input form Ashraf Abdul-Wahab. [/restrict]
