Libyan PM accuses 'political party' of kidnapping him

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has accused a "political party" of organising his brief abduction by armed gunmen, the latest example of the lawlessness prevailing since Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow.

The Premier appeared in good health when he arrived at government headquarters after his ordeal, waving to waiting well-wishers as he climbed out of an armoured car.

"I hope this problem will be resolved with reason and wisdom" and without any "escalation", Zeidan later said in comments broadcast by state television as he left a Cabinet meeting.

The pre-dawn seizure of Zeidan came five days after US commandos embarrassed and angered the government by capturing senior al Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al-Libi on the streets of Tripoli, whisking him away to a warship in the Mediterranean.

Witnesses said Zeidan was held at a police station south of the capital, and that his captors released him after armed residents surrounded the building and demanded he be let go.

An employee at the hotel -- where Zeidan had taken up residence for security reasons -- told a news agency a "large number of armed men" had entered the building but that the staff did not know what was happening.

A Libyan government statement said Zeidan had been taken "to an unknown destination for unknown reasons by a group" of men believed to be former rebels.

In comments made later to France24 television, Zeidan accused a "political party" of organising the kidnapping him, without naming the group.

"It's a political party which wants to overthrow the government by any means," he said.

"In the coming days I will give more information on who this political party is that organised my kidnapping," Zeidan added.

After being freed, Zeidan met with his ministers and members of the General National Congress (GNC) -- Libya's highest political authority.

The Operations Cell of Libyan Revolutionaries, former rebels who had roundly denounced Libi's abduction and blamed Zeidan's government for it, said it had "arrested" the Premier under orders from the public prosecutor.

But the Cabinet said on its Facebook page that ministers were "unaware of immunity being lifted or of any arrest warrant" for him.

Later, the Brigade for the Fight against Crime, a police division made up of former rebels, claimed responsibility, the official LANA news agency.

The government said it suspected both groups of being behind the abduction.

The two groups fall under the control of the defence and interior ministries but largely operate autonomously.

A country awash with weapons

Two years after the revolution that toppled Gaddafi, Libya's new authorities are still struggling to rein in tribal militias and groups of former rebels.

Many Libyans blame political rivalries for the problems plaguing a country awash with militias and weaponry left over from the 2011 NATO-backed rebellion.

Zeidan, who was named premier a year ago, had condemned the US capture of Libi and insisted that all Libyans should be tried on home soil.

The GNC has demanded that Washington "immediately" hand Libi back, claiming his capture was a flagrant violation of Libyan sovereignty.

Libi -- whose real name is Nazih Abdul Hamed al-Raghie -- was on the FBI's most wanted list with a USD 5 million (EUR 3.7 million) bounty on his head for his alleged role in the 1998 twin bombings of US embassies in East Africa.

US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Zeidan's abduction as "thuggery," while UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned it "in the strongest possible terms".

Britain, which along with France had led the creation of a NATO no-fly zone in Libya at the start of the uprising, had earlier condemned the kidnapping and called for Zeidan's "immediate release".

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed Zeidan's release but said "the situation in the country is a matter of concern" and that the international community has the "responsibility to help Libyan authorities".

Public anger in Libya is growing as widespread violence -- including political assassinations -- proliferates, particularly in the east of the country.

A number of foreign missions have come under attack in Tripoli and in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of the 2011 revolution.

On September 11, 2012, four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed when militants swarmed into the US consulate in Benghazi.

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Show of Power by Libya Militia in Kidnapping

Libya’s prime minister, Ali Zeidan, was hauled from his bed at 2:30 a.m. Thursday by a group of militiamen who stormed into the luxury hotel where he lives in downtown Tripoli, a kidnapping that would be extraordinary by almost any standard.

¶But this was Libya, where militias have unrivaled authority.

¶A few days earlier, a group of armed men barged into Mr. Zeidan’s office to demand back pay. They refused to leave for hours and ransacked an office when they did leave. Other militias have hampered production of oil, shut down the water running to the capital, forced power cuts, and participated in gunrunning and drug trafficking — all with impunity.

¶Two years after the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the long-reigning dictator, an air of revolution still hangs over the streets of the nation’s capital, Tripoli, as a weak state struggles to build any sense of national unity, let alone control the unruly, heavily armed militias. It initially seemed that the gunmen may have grabbed the prime minister because they were angry over Washington’s claim that his government approved a commando raid to capture a Libyan citizen suspected of links to Al Qaeda and terrorist attacks.

¶But these same militiamen had been pressing the government for the prime minister’s resignation, and thus many in Tripoli believe the commando raid was simply a pretense. When he was freed unharmed a short time later, Mr. Zeidan demonstrated just how vulnerable the central government is, thanking the “true revolutionaries” who worked for his release and appealing to armed groups to help build the state.

¶“I hope that they would be a part of the state, and have an effective role through its civil and military institutions,” he said in a televised speech. “I hope that we deal with this situation wisely, using our brains, away from worries and magnifying the situation, and we try to mend what we can.”

¶All across Tripoli, militia members fill the gap left by a weak central government. The men guarding government buildings and the main intersections still wear a variety of American military fatigues and are stationed at antiaircraft guns mounted on the backs of pickup trucks. Graffiti from the moment of liberation is still scrawled on walls and buildings. “Game over Gaddafi,” one reads in English.

¶Weapons from Colonel Qaddafi’s enormous arsenals are now in private hands. Every household has a gun. There are about 200,000 armed militiamen in the country, all on the government payroll, yet many are loyal only to their own commanders, not the central government.

¶Formed during and after the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, Libya’s militias have evolved into a patchwork of often competing regional and political allegiances. They reflect two emerging political blocs: one drawn from prominent families from the western region around Tripoli, based in the Nafusah Mountains town of Zintan, and the other in the bustling midcoast city of Misurata, known for its strong revolutionary record.

¶Militias from the two regions clashed in Tripoli during Ramadan in what residents said was a grab for government property. Zintan militias have refused to turn over to the central authorities a son of Colonel Qaddafi, Seif al-Islam, and temporarily shut down the oil pipeline that flows from Libya’s southern oil fields to the port of Zuwarah to press demands with the central government.

¶In eastern Libya, around Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising, some of the largest militias are loosely or explicitly Islamist, and they often clash with former Qaddafi army units that defected in the revolt. Other militias push for a greater degree of autonomy from the capital.

¶Libya’s tribes have also emerged as powerful, and disruptive, players. When a militia in Tripoli kidnapped the daughter of Colonel Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief after she visited her father in prison, the chief’s powerful tribe in the south retaliated swiftly by cutting the water to the capital for a week, an extraordinary burden for residents in the desert heat of late summer.

¶The government has tried to bind these disparate and competing forces into the ranks of the national army and police, placing them on the government payroll and ordering regional militias to leave the capital. Those moves have only been half successful. Many Libyans criticize the government for paying the militiamen in the first place, since it has caused thousands more men to join the militias.

Credits: nytimes

லிபிய பிரதமர் அலி ஜைடன் ஆயுதம் ஏந்திய நபர்களால் கடத்தப்பட்டார்

லிபிய பிரதமர் அலி ஜைடன் திரிபோலியில் உள்ள ஹோட்டல் ஒன்றில் இருந்து ஆயுதம் ஏந்திய நபர்களால் கடத்தப்பட்டுள்ளதாகத் தகவல் வெளியாகியுள்ளது. 

லிபிய பிரதமர் அலி ஜைடன் திரிபோலியில் உள்ள கொரிந்தியன் ஹோட்டலில் இருந்தபோது அங்கு வந்த ஆயுதம் ஏந்திய சிலர் அவரை கடத்திச் சென்றனர் என்று தகவல் கிடைத்துள்ளது. அவரை யாருக்கும் தெரியாத இடத்திற்கு கடத்திச் சென்றுள்ளதாகக் கூறப்படுகிறது. 

அலியை கடத்தியவர்கள் முன்னாள் போராளிகள் என்று லிபிய அரசு இணையதளத்தில் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. லிபியாவில் உள்ள போராளிகளை தடுத்து நிறுத்த உதவி செய்யுமாறு மேற்கத்திய நாடுகளை அலி நேற்று முன்தினம் கேட்டுக் கொண்டார். ஆயுதங்களை ஏற்றுமதி செய்யவே தங்கள் நாடு பயன்படுத்தப்படுவதாக அவர் குற்றம் சாட்டியிருந்தார். 

கடாபி அரசு கவிழ்க்கப்பட்ட பிறகு நாட்டின் சில பகுதிகளை தங்கள் பிடியில் வைத்திருக்கும் பழங்குடியின போராளிகள் மற்றும் இஸ்லாமிய போராளிகளை அடக்க லிபிய அரசு போராடி வருகிறது.

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