By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 9 June 2014:
The Libya Reconciliation Committee of Elders and Wise Men have called for an end to the . . .[restrict]violence in Benghazi after being told to leave the city.
“We returned from Benghazi yesterday where we met with members of the Crisis Committee, revolutionary leaders and Benghazi elders,” a member of the Libya Reconciliation Committee, who asked to remain unnamed, told the Libya Herald.
The tribally-based committee has called for an immediate halt to all military operations in order to preserve the lives of the innocent. It also condemned terror of all sorts.
“We met and sat with a number of key figures in Benghazi, but were unable to speak with [retired General Khalifa] Hafter or Wanis Bukhamada, the head of the Saiqa Brigade,” the committee member explained.
Hafter had reportedly refused to see them.
“We were also unable to sit down with Ansar Al-Sharia members to discuss the Zahawi statement. We’ve asked them to denounce it, but they have refused,” he added.
He said it had been unsafe for the committee to move around the embattled city. It had, however, done its best to meet with as many major figures as possible until, he claimed, it had been told to leave by Ezzidine Al-Waqwaq, a brigade leader who controls the road to the airport and who has supported both Cyrenaica Military Council and now the fight against Ansar Al-Sharia.
“We complied unwillingly,” the committee member said.
There are other endeavours to bridge the divide between Haftar’s forces on the one side and Ansar Al-Sharia and Libya Shield forces on the other, although all seem doomed to failure at present. [/restrict]
