By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 20 October 2014:
“The Libyan people will not be silent about the military occupation of Tripoli or the terrorist . . .[restrict]groups in Benghazi. The evidence of this is the great tension inside Tripoli which is waiting for the official Libyan army to enter so that they can rally with it to eliminate these military groups. Victory is coming”, proclaimed a bullish Prime Minister Abdullah Thinni.
Thinni paid “tribute to honourable military officers and police who are fighting in the eastern and western front” and who were able in the last few days to gain a large victory and defeat the terrorist groups”.
The PM was commenting during an interview Friday carried by Zintan TV on the fighting going on between the two opposing forces in both western and eastern Libya. “The aim on both fighting fronts is to target the (terrorist) groups”, explained the PM regarding his government’s goals in the ongoing battle.
“Our (military) target is the (armed) groups, whether the so-called Libya Dawn, which wreaked destruction on the ground in Tripoli and claimed that it had entered Tripoli to achieve security. But unfortunately we did not see the alleged security”, added Thinni.
“We acknowledge that there was a failure in security in the city of Tripoli, and there were also (armed) groups outside the authority of the state”, he said acknowledging the lack of security in the form of increased crime, car jackings and kidnappings in Tripoli prior to the capital’s takeover by the current rulers of Tripoli, the armed Libya Dawn opposition group.
The popular belief in Tripoli is that much of this high rate of crime (compared to the Qaddafi days) was blamed on armed criminals and or armed militias from Zintan and Wershafana.
There is no hard evidence for this popular belief, save the fact that since the Zintani militias were in control of the areas of high crime, they were either directly responsible or were aiding and abetting. The same logic is applied for crime committed in and on the border of the Wershafana region.
It is notable today, that, since the withdrawal/pushback of the Zintani and Wershafan forces, crime is markedly down – a fact that has proved favourable with Tripolitanians and has no doubt been noted by PM Thinni.
“But the scale of destruction caused by the operations of the (armed) group, the so-called Libya Dawn, who claim that they carried out their (military) operation in order to restore security and safety to the city of Tripoli – does not have any basis in truth”, Thinni said rejecting Libya Dawn’s premise and justification for occupying Tripoli by force.
Instead of imposing security the armed group, Libya Dawn, Thinni explained, “went out to the area of Wershafana (an area south west of Tripoli) and completely destroyed and burned houses and even the killing of animals, a barbarous act even Israel has not committed in the Gaza Strip”, Thinni said.
“Of course the (official) Libyan army will fight them as long as they remain outside the authority of the state”, he stressed. Thinni complained that the official Libyan army fighting these terrorist groups outside the control of the state, on the eastern and western fronts, does not receive the financial, logistic or munitions support that it needs.
“The scene in Benghazi is different from the scene in Tripoli”, Thinni continued, explaining the fighting in the two regions. “Certainly the (armed) groups present in Benghazi is the group Ansar al-Sharia and its goal is clear: to destroy the entire state and establish an Islamic emirate in the eastern region, as they claim”.
“And the good thing is in the eastern region is that the people of Benghazi fully reject this approach and resist these groups in collaboration with the army and the police and all the good people of the sons of Libya “.
“While the scene in Tripoli differs entirely. The so-called Libya Dawn, when the General National Congress (GNC) existed, used the excuse that it was the legitimate power. As soon as the mandate of the GNC ended and there was the election of another House of Representatives (HoR), and they did not gain the power that they had hoped they would, through the will of the people, which must be respected, and complied with”.
“But these people do not understand the peaceful handover of power and wanted to impose their own agenda. They used legal and illegal means to achieve their goal. They destroyed the country. These crimes do not enjoy the statute of limitations (that is people can be taken to court for these crimes even after the passage of many years). Thinni warned.
“The Libyan people will not be silent about this and the evidence of this is the great tension inside Tripoli and their waiting for the army to enter (Tripoli) so that they can rally with it to eliminate these groups. Victory is coming, God willing”. [/restrict]
