By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 15 August 2014:
Tripoli residents are awaken to yet another Friday – the third Friday in August alone – . . .[restrict]of thuds and shock waves caused by the military activity of the two camps of warring militias.
The calls for a ceasefire by both the government and the House of Representatives (HoR) locally, as well as internationally by the UN, EU and African Union seem to have fallen on deaf ears so far.
Nor have the warnings, it seems, that the attack on innocent and defenceless civilians in their residential areas or the unjustifiable destruction of state property – are all against international laws and human rights – had any effect on ending the clashes.
The fact that Friday, like a Sunday in practicing Christian countries, is considered a religious day in Muslim Libya does not seem to matter to the warring militias, as the pounding sound of projectiles competed with the call to lunchtime prayers.
It is not clear whether the decision by the HoR to call for international help in ending the fighting between the militias will have an effect on the two clashing parties, either. The warnings do not seem to have resonated with the militias with little explanation by either the Libyan government or the HoR on the one hand, nor the international community on the other, as to what leverage they posses in order to succumb the militias to cease firing.
Yesterday, a delegation from the United Nations Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) arrived in Misrata to discuss with Misrata Municipal Council “the current situation in Libya and the possibility of developing appropriate solutions to get out of this crisis and work to build constitutional institutions”.
The fighting in Tripoli, that had originally started around the International airport, seems to be currently concentrated in the south western and western regions of Tripoli. Overnight reports have reported missiles falling in Swani, Njila and Sirraj. Yesterday the Tobacco factory area of western Tripoli seemed to be the focus of the fighting.
There does not seem any discernible logic or aim to the fighting, as the conflict seems to have reached a stalemate with neither party able to totally overwhelm their opponent.
The Misrata-led pro-Islamist, pro General National Council (GNC) and anti HoR camp failed in its military aim of speedily capturing Tripoli International Airport prior to the HoR convening – in the anticipated fear that the HoR would take some kind of legislative action against their camp.
The Misrata-led camp also quite plainly failed to prevent at any cost the HoR from either convening at all or convening away from their coercive reach and influence away in the relatively distant eastern city of Tobruk.
Today, both camps have called for large demonstrations in Martyrs’ Square in Tripoli in support of their cause. Last Friday medium sized demonstrations did precipitate, but the acute shortage of petrol may have been one of the causes of low turnouts.
The demonstration was also marred by friction between the two camps of supporters as gunfire was heard and wrongful arrests were allegedly made. This Friday, more petrol seems to have trickled through to the public and there is a possibility that the demonstrations could have larger turnouts.
Last week also marked a watershed in the state’s loss of control over its two main official TV stations: Al Wataniya (The Nationalist) and Al-Rasmiya (The Official) TV stations. They both largely ignored the pro HoR demonstrations, highlighting the anti HoR demonstration instead. They have also been airing unbalanced programmes, chat shows and tickertape messages against the HoR.
The anti HoR camp, are it seems, upping the ante by attempting to impose a news blackout by throttling any HoR news coming out of Tobruk. They are attempting to win the information and media war – to affect events on the ground and just in case they lose the war on the ground.
Having failed to prevent the meeting of the HoR, they are trying very hard to dilute its legitimacy by questioning it legality and casting doubt on the legality of any of its laws and decisions.
The irony is that the state has now lost control of both its main TV stations, with the HoR losing control over the Al-Rasmiya channel and the government losing control over the Al-Wataniya channels. Both channels, like the case of the militias, are officially recognized and are therefore part of the state of Libya and both are fully funded by the state of Libya.
The state budget for the two national channels is listed as LD 61 million in the 2014 budget. The irony is that pro HoR, pro state and pro official institutions viewers now have to rely on the three main privately owned TV channels for news on the HoR.
These are the Dawlia (International) Channel, owned by the Chairman of the National Forces Alliance (NFA) party Abdulmajid Mlegta, Assema (Capital) TV, owned by Juma Usta and Libya (First) Awalan TV, owned by the Tatanaky family.
It will be interesting to see how large today’s demonstrations will be and which side will claim and find empowerment from them. Equally, it will be revealing to monitor what kind of TV coverage and editorial ship the demonstrations receive – especially by the two state owned, but now not controlled, TV channels.
It will also be interesting to see where local and international efforts at mediation will get this week – as the crises moves into its second month.
It is also unclear how long can the innocent civilians of residential areas of Tripoli continue to endure this indiscriminate shelling – and how long can the Libyan government, the HoR and the international community wait on mediation that seems to be deadlocked.
Presently, it seems that neither side of the fighting militias has anything to lose from this low level engagement. The real losers are the innocent civilians and the state of Libya. The dynamics of the equation need to be urgently and seriously changed so that either or both sets of militias, and their ultimate backers, have a lot to lose by continuing this conflict.
Deep leverage on the roots of the militias – the tribes, towns, and cities – needs to be brought to bear in the form of the threat of long term (Schengen) visa and travel blacklists, personal and regional economic and financial embargoes, embargoes on ports and imports and construction projects etc. Pressure also needs to be brought to bear on Tunisia, Jordan and Turkey etc – the main destination of the militia warlords and the militia injured.
With the lazy Libyan summer coming to an end and school and university academic terms beckoning, Tripoli, and therefore Libya, cannot afford another month of commercial, economic and social paralysis. A solution out of the crises needs to be – must be – found urgently. [/restrict]
