By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 17 September 2015:
The Warshefana say they are willing to make peace and reconciliation with all Libyans and other tribes “without . . .[restrict]exception”. However, in a statement published on Facebook, the Warshefana, based south west of Tripoli, set seven conditions “necessary to the success of any reconciliation in the near future”.
Heading the list, they said that “catastrophe” of the 17 February Revolution was preventing reconciliation and peace. This is seen as indicating that that the they believe Libya has to move on from the revolution and concepts of “revolutionary legitimacy” and build the country anew.
Other conditions are that all parties must “stop supporting terrorist organisations and the Kharajites” (a reference to the Islamic State) and instead support true Islam and what they called the Malaki Salafist principles”. (The term “Salafist” in Libya means devout and purist.)
The Warshefana also called for all prisoners and detainees to be released and the victims of clashes and attacks since the outbreak of the revolution to be compensated.
In the aftermath of the revolution, the Warshefana were regularly condemned as Qaddafi supporters. At the beginning of last year, revolutionaries, mainly from Tripoli and Zawia, blitzed the area, killing hundreds of locals and forcing several thousand to flee. As a result, when most of those same revolutionaries last summer joined Libya Dawn, the Warshefana allied themselves to its opponents, the Zintanis and the House of Representatives. Since then a slow campaign has resulted in Warshefana recapturingmost of their area, but at considerable cost. [/restrict]
