By Maha Ellawati
Benghazi, April 5: A shooting . . .[restrict]incident on a Benghazi housing estate on Monday in which one person was killed and four more injured was an individual act and had no political connections according to a local official.
The attack took place on the Bu’Atni housing estate following a protest by dozens of young men demanding payment from the authorities. They had blocked the road to Benina Airport and surrounded a number of vehicles. According to the general coordinator and spokesman for Benghazi’s Preventive Security Force, Hussein Ben Hameed, the Citizens’ Safety Division of the Supreme Security Committee was sent in to break up the protest. Tempers flared and during the altercation a member of Citizens’ Safety Division opened fire on the protestors.
The Supreme Security Committee is the Libyan government’s main and only official body enforcing law and order in the country currently. It comes under the Ministry of the Interior.
Ben Hameed said that the Preventive Security Forces had intervened to resolve the matter and had demanded that the Supreme Committee hand over the offender and that he be brought to trial.
Following the killing, there was a very strong backlash with a number of cars being set on fire. Bin Hameed said that a number of leading respected figures in Benghazi were then asked to intervene to calm the situation.
Bin Hameed blamed Interior Minister, Fawzi Abdelal for the incident on the basis that he had not properly activated the security forces and not appointed a committee to assess their members. Those joining the security forces should have been checked and certified first, he said.
He added that the Preventive Security Committee would announce a scheme in the coming days under which all existing members of its forces would be re-assigned on a five-year contract to various duties. This would be done by a specialized committee according to the men’s abilities and skills and their psychological and physical health. The aim, he said, was to put the right man in the right place. [/restrict]
