Πηγή: New York Times
By KAREEM FAHIM
August 8, 2011


BENGHAZI, Libya — Rebel leaders dissolved their own cabinet on Monday, in an effort to placate the family of an assassinated rebel military leader and quiet discord in a movement already struggling to remove the country’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, from power.

A rebel spokesman said that the prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, the only member of the cabinet who kept his job, would have to present a new slate of cabinet members to the rebel legislative body, the Transitional National Council, for approval in the coming days. The cabinet was dissolved, the spokesman said, “for improper administrative procedures” that led to the arrest and subsequent killing of the military leader, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, a former top Libyan commander who defected to the rebel side.

The move left the rebels without several of its leaders — including the ministers of defense, finance, interior and justice — as they try to fight a three-front war, run dozens of cities under their control and rein in armed militias that have multiplied since the February uprising.

And it threatened to halt a flurry of negotiations between the rebels and foreign governments, just as the rebels have started to wrest millions of dollars in loans and other grants from their allies.

Mazin Ramadan, a member of the finance committee, said that he believed the changes were supposed to take effect on Thursday and that he planned on continuing his work: “The interruption is not good. But this is not something we are going to worry about. This is not going to stop us.”

The reshuffling also seemed to represent an effort by interest groups within the rebel movement, including homegrown leaders who helped start the uprising, to assert their power by sidelining leaders who had returned from exile and held key posts.

For months, there had been complaints that cabinet members were unknown to most Libyans, spending most of their time abroad — especially in Qatar, the country that has emerged as the rebels’ most enthusiastic patron.

A rebel spokesman said that Mr. Jibril, who has rarely been seen in Benghazi, would be required to start spending more time in Libya.

The killing of General Younes had raised fears of internal strife, after members of his tribe, the Obeidi, said they would turn to violence unless there was a proper investigation. His family cautiously welcomed Monday’s reshuffling but demanded more action. “We only care about justice,” the family said in a statement that was also signed by the Obeidi. “We don’t seek power. We insist on bringing those involved with the assassination, regardless of their ranks or titles, to be prosecuted by a fair, civilized judicial system.”

General Younes was killed more than a week ago in murky circumstances. His family’s outrage has been focused on events that preceded the killing, when the general was summoned to Benghazi to be questioned by leaders, including Ali al-Essawi, Mr. Jibril’s deputy, according to General Younes’s family.

Rebel leaders have delivered mixed messages about the motive for the killing. Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the rebel council, called the assassination a “conspiracy” by the Qaddafi government. But others have said the general was killed by rebels seeking revenge for his role in the brutal suppression of an Islamist insurrection in the eastern city of Darnah in the mid-1990s.

Before he joined the rebels, General Younes served as the head of the Libyan special forces and the interior minister.

In recent months, Islamists have been suspected in the killings of other former Qaddafi officials. Despite pledges by the rebels to fully investigate, the shootings of at least three former Qaddafi internal security officers several months ago remain unsolved.