By Adam Ali.
Benghazi, 7 February 2015:
The government should stop spending money on . . .[restrict]despatching ambassadors abroad and focus instead on looking after ordinary people and equipping the army properly. That broadly was the message of a small demonstration in Benghazi yesterday evening.
This has been the second successive week that several dozen protesters have turned out.
There was a general suspicion that the government was not spending funds wisely and that the interests of normal citizens were not being considered. People also made clear to this reporter their anger at the continuing fighting and lack of security in Benghazi.
Parts of the city had been devastated and daily life had become a real struggle. Some demonstrators called for the firing of the Thinni government while others pressed for the formation of a military council.
There were also jaundiced views about the current UNSMIL peace process. One man told the Libya Herald: “Civil society institutions spent a lot of time trying to talk to the leaders of these Islamic militias and all they said that they wanted to establish an Islamic state and they would do it by force”.
The man continued that the Islamic militias had turned out in the end to be the losers, adding “We do not and will not allow this dialogue with terrorists”. [/restrict]
