By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tunis and Tripoli 12 July 2015:
There is growing anger among Libyan revolutionaries as Tunisia begins work on a fence and . . .[restrict]ditch and bank defences along the entire length of the 459km border between the two countries.
The Supreme Council of Revolutionaries in Tripoli has angrily denounced the work as a “blatant attack on Libyan sovereignty” and an act of aggression.
The Tunisian government, which says the work will completed by the end of the year, insists the barrier is essential to stop the movement of terrorists, as well as the lucrative work of smugglers. A major source of revenue is the export of cheap, subsidised Libyan petrol and cooking gas for resale in Tunisia. Gangs on both sides of the border are involved.
In Tripoli, opponents of the scheme are accusing the Tunisians of trying to grab Libyan territory under the guise of security measures. The Tunisians say the frontier defences are being constructed entirely on their side of the border.
There has never been a formal dispute over the demarcation of the western land frontier. A disagreement over the sharing of offshore oil territory was decided in Libya’s favour in 1982 by the International Court of Justice.
The entire new border structure, part fence and part ditch, is, say the Tunisians, to be patrolled by drones and be equipped with sophisticated electronic surveillance.
Some security analysts have however questioned the utility of the frontier barrier. One area of terrorist activity in Tunisia is Gafsa, which is along part of the border with Algerian. Tunisian security forces yesterday killed five militants in the region. Libya also has a porous border with Algeria across which militants are known to have crossed regularly.
It will only be a minor inconvenience for terrorists to move in an out of Tunisia via Algeria rather than Libya. It will however present more of a problem for fuel smugglers.
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