By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 2 January 2014:
A row over the status of two Zwai men seized during a raid against Tebus at . . .[restrict]an agricultural project near the Sarir oilfield last month is threatening to derail attempts to ensure their freedom and that of nine Tebus seized in reprisal in Adjdabiya along with four Zwai students taken in a counter-reprisal.
The two Zwais are militiamen and the army brigade commader who captured them is refusing to free them as part of an exchange negotiated by Zwai and Tebu elders and mediated by elders from Jalu.
The two were caught by the army’s Brigade No. 25 a fortnight ago when they and other members of their militia attacked the Sarir Agricultural Project, near the Sarir oil field, in a move seen as a reprisal for the Tebu closure of Ajdabiya-Kufra road. In the incident, five other militiamen, all Zwai, were killed by the brigade. A largely Tebu unit, it has the job of guarding both the Sarir and Messla oil fields as well as the nearby Al-Shula oil compound.
In retaliation, members of the Zwai community in Ajdabiya then attacked Tebus there. One was killed and nine were seized, reportedly by the Libya Shield No. 2 Brigade and another unit called the Island Brigade.
A couple of days later, four Zwai students from Kufra heading to Jalu, where they are studying, were arrested by Brigade No. 25 while driving past the Shula oil compound in what is seen as a further tit-for-tat move. They are now being held alongside the two Zwai militiamen.
In the negotiations, the Zwai agreed to unconditionally release all nine of the Tebus seized in Ajdabiya. However, Ali Seeda, the commander of Brigade No. 25, says that he is represents the government’s authority in the Sarir area and is refusing to hand over anyone who has taken part in a raid or take part in any further negotiations.
He is being backed by Husain Aya, the Tebu civil rights activist who is the leader of the group that closed the Ajdabiya-Kufra road. He insists that only the seized civilians – the nine Tebus from Ajdabiya for the four Zwai students – can be part of the negotiations. The two militiamen, he says, have to be dealt with by the armed forces.
The Zwai negotiators now insist that the exchange must include the two militiamen.
The head of of Murzuk Military Council, Barka Wardoku, another Tebu, has also waded in the argument. He likewise insists that issues relating to civilians and militants had to be kept separate. “We’ll be setting off Tripoli in the next few days to meet the Defense Minister (Abdullah Al-Thinni) and conduct further negotiations on the matter”, he told the Libya Herald.
“It is crucial not to put everything in a tribal context,” he said. “If we do so, the state’s authority will either dissolve or be exploited.”
It was Defence Minister Thinni who negotiated an end to the Ajdabiya-Kufra road blockade with Hussein Aya.
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