Libya's ex-oil minister criticises new leaders

HONEST OPINION: Former Libyan oil and finance minister Ali Tarhouni has spoken out against the country's new leadership.

Πηγή: stuff
By VANESSA GERA (AP)

Nov 26 2011

A senior official in Libya's outgoing transitional government has sharply criticised the country's new leadership as an unrepresentative "elite" supported by outside powers.

Former oil and finance minister Ali Tarhouni also suggested in a press conference late Thursday that at least one of those foreign powers is meddling excessively in Libya's internal affairs - an apparent reference to Qatar.

Tarhouni, a former professor of economics and finance at the University of Washington, was one of the most visible and internationally respected faces of the Libyan revolutionary leadership that presided over the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

But he said he refused an offer to join Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib's transitional Cabinet, because he believes that those now in power are not representative. He accused them of being "supported from the outside by money, arms and PR."

"The voices that we see now are the voices of the elite," he said.

The US-educated Tarhouni, who managed the then-rebel government's financial system, is one of the first senior Libyan politicians to openly question the new government's legitimacy.

He said the countries who backed the rebellion have interests in Libya, "some which we know and some which we don't know." While he didn't elaborate, Tarhouni did not object when a journalist suggested that he was speaking about Qatar.

The Gulf state was a leading Arab backer of the uprising that toppled Gaddafi's regime, providing warplanes to the NATO-led air campaign as well as direct help to the revolutionaries with arms and other equipment

Tarhouni, who spoke several hours after el-Keib's new government was sworn in, said he felt relieved at finally being able to speak his mind freely.

"Some are thinking of imposing their will on the Libyan people and that's a mistake," Tarhouni said. "For me the question of sovereignty is the most important. This revolution was for re-establishing dignity and sovereignty."

Earlier this week, the chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, also indicated that Qatar was meddling in Libyan affairs.

He said Libyans remain grateful to "our brothers" in Qatar for supporting the revolt against Gaddafi, but said Qatar was doing some things in Libya "that we as the NTC don't know about." He said his leadership protested to Qatar's leaders, but was told that the Gulf state had a right to be involved because it "betted on the success" of the revolution.

Libya's new Cabinet, a gathering of mostly older men who are relatively unknown, faces daunting challenges. They must prepare the country for democratic elections in seven months while establishing control over a nation shattered by four decades of Gaddafi's rule and eight months of civil war.

Tarhouni said that more than 90 percent of Libyans are not represented by this new leadership.

"It is about time that we hear the true voices of the masses," he said.

Tarhouni said he plans to spend the coming months giving lectures and speaking to young Libyans about democracy and the creation of civic institutions. He also said he would be preparing for the upcoming elections, without giving more details.

In another sign of disappointment with the transitional leaders, about 200 men rallied in Tripoli's main square Friday evening to demand justice for about 15 soldiers killed two days earlier in an ambush by Gaddafi loyalists.

Some rallying in Martyrs' Square held up photos of those killed and one banner said "Where is the army?"

The protesters demanded that the transitional leadership find and punish those who carried out the attack near Bani Walid, one of the last two Gaddafi bastions to fight the revolutionary forces during the war.

Libya Finance Minister Blasts Qatari Aid to Militia Groups

NTC leader Jalil visits fighters Tuesday in Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte.

Πηγή: Wall Street Journal
By CHARLES LEVINSON

Oct 12 2011

TRIPOLI—Libya's governing National Transitional Council issued its sternest public rebuke of Qatar on Tuesday, warning the Gulf emirate to stop funneling arms, money and other support to Libyan factions without the approval of Libya's interim governing authority.

"It's time we publicly declare that anyone who wants to come to our house has to knock on our front door first," Ali Tarhouni, Libya's oil and finance minister and the deputy chief of the NTC's executive committee, told a news conference. "I hope this message will be received by all our friends, both our Arab brothers and Western powers."

Mr. Tarhouni didn't name Qatar, but his comments came in response to a journalist's question about recent allegations that Qatar has continued to ship weapons to militia leaders in Libya weeks after the capital's fall, and without the approval or knowledge the ruling NTC. An NTC official said afterward that Qatar was "without any doubt" the target of his comments.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the controversial Islamist commander of the Tripoli Military Council who is alleged to have received the most recent weapons shipments, denied the allegations. "We do not receive any help, military or non-military from any entity," he said in an interview. "I challenge anyone to prove otherwise."

Mr. Tarhouni's comments come as tensions are heating up between the country's Western-backed and more secular minded NTC leadership, and a loose-knit coalition of Islamist militia leaders who played a leading role in the fight to oust Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

Those tensions have been evident elsewhere in the capital as well. In recent days, followers of the rigid Salafi school of Islam have destroyed dozens of gravestones at mosques around Tripoli, saying gravestones are a form of idolatry that violates Islamic law. On Tuesday night, they faced off with local militia men defending a mosque in Tripoli's Zawiyat al-Dahmani neighborhood that had gravestones the hardliners sought to destroy.

NTC head Mustafa Abdel Jalil denounced the grave vandalism at Tuesday's news conference and asked religious authorities to issue a decree against it. "It's not allowed in Islamic law to do this," he said.

Mr. Tarhouni's comments mark a jarring change in tone for Libya's leadership toward Qatar. The tiny sheikhdom was one of the rebels' most robust backers throughout the conflict, providing aid, weapons and advanced communications gear, among other support, for the six-month rebel effort to oust Mr. Gadhafi.Qatar also dispatched teams of special-forces soldiers to train rebel fighters.

But the Qatari aid circumvented the NTC, the official interim governing body established by rebels to oversee territories freed after more than three decades of Gadhafi rule. Instead, Qatar channeled most of its support to independent rebel militias that were dominated by Islamist commanders, according to Western and rebel officials.

Qatari officials deny they have played favorites or armed any faction of the rebels at the expense of another.

Mr. Tarhouni spoke Tuesday during the unveiling of budget documents that cover the NTC's spending from March to late September. Little of the funds needed to arm, equip and supply rebel forces were channeled to fighters through the NTC, according to the records, which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

NTC officials have grumbled for months about what they allege is Qatar's favoritism within the rebel ranks. But they have largely avoided airing their criticisms publicly at the risk of alienating a key backer for their struggle against Col. Gadhafi.

Now that Col. Gadhafi is on the run and rebel commanders and political leaders are jockeying for influence, Qatar's support for mostly Islamist forces in the country has become increasingly controversial. Mr. Tarhouni's comments appear to be the most defiant challenge to Qatar by a senior NTC leader to date.

"To any country, I repeat, please do not give any funds or weapons to any Libyan faction without the approval of the NTC," Mr. Tarhouni said. "Do not enter our territory unless NTC approves it."

Libyan official delivers $16M to southern city

Πηγή: AP
By RAMI AL-SHAHEIBI and BEN HUBBARD

Sep. 27 2011

SABHA, Libya (AP) -- Libya's transitional government delivered 20 million dinars ($16 million) Tuesday to this remote southern city beset by fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, hoping to bolster support for revolutionary forces.

Journalists accompanied the oil and finance minister, Ali al-Tarhouni, and the cash on the first flight to touch down in the desert city of Sabha since a NATO enforced no-fly zone order in March. The 20 boxes of 20-dinar notes, each weighing 116 pounds (78 kilograms), were delivered to the Sabha central bank.

Revolutionary forces have gained control of much of the area but still face heavy resistance.

"The forces inside these areas are not opposed to joining us but they do not want to disarm," said Ahmed Bashir, spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council in Sabha. "They have the weapons and no manpower. We have the manpower and lighter weapons."

More than a month after sweeping into Tripoli and ending Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule, the fugitive leader's supporters are still putting up a fierce fight on three fronts: in Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, the town of Bani Walid southeast of the capital and in pockets in the country's vast desert south, including Sabha. Most of the recent fighting has occurred in Bani Walid and the Mediterranean coastal city of Sirte.

Gadhafi's whereabouts are unknown, although he has exhorted his supporters to fight on several times in audio messages.

Syrian-based Al-Rai TV, which has become the former regime's mouthpiece, aired video of Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, and it said it was taken last week. The same video, however, appears to have been uploaded to YouTube on March 6. A second YouTube video appears to show the same event with an upload date of Feb. 27, early on in the uprising.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi's last known public appearance was on Aug. 23 in Tripoli. Many have speculated that he is hiding in Bani Walid. Like his father, he has been charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity for the regime's bloody efforts to repress the uprising.

In Sabha, revolutionaries are based in the city's largest neighborhood, al-Gurtha. They have set up a national council office and checkpoints on roads leading to areas where Gadhafi loyalists refuse to hand over their weapons. Residents are able to cross checkpoints into Gadhafi loyalist-held areas, but only if they have family inside, and even then they risk being accused of being Gadhafi supporters.

Bashir said the area has no Gadhafi brigades, but there are worries that armed Gadhafi loyalists may ambush revolutionary forces from the desert.

In Sirte, commanders said Libyan revolutionary forces battled their way into the eastern outskirts in a bid to link up with anti-Gadhafi fighters besieging the city from the west. Anti-Gadhafi forces first attacked Sirte nearly two weeks ago, but have pulled back in the face of heavy rocket fire and loyalist snipers.

Abdel-Basit Haroun, a revolutionary field commander, said fighters reached a roundabout less than six miles (10 kilometers) east of the city center. He said the plan was for the forces from the east and west to meet inside Sirte.

"We are almost there, but the hard phase of the takeover has just begun," Haroun said in a telephone interview from the eastern city of Benghazi. "We stopped using heavy weapons because the residential areas are packed with families, children and women. We are also facing snipers all over the rooftops of tall buildings."

A revolutionary brigade commander on the city's western front, Al-Tohami Abu Zayan, said anti-Gadhafi forces can take Sirte "whenever we choose," but are holding back to protect civilians. He said fighters are in touch with civilians inside and working to secure them a way out of the city.

For nearly two weeks, revolutionary forces have regularly fired mortars, Grad rockets and tank shells into the city. Civilians have been fleeing for days, driven out by the fighting as well as deteriorating living conditions, including shortages of food, water and medicine.

The fighters besieging Sirte have received a boost from NATO airstrikes, which have played a key role in decimating Gadhafi's military forces since the alliance first intervened in the Libyan civil war in March. British Maj. Gen. Nick Pope said Royal Air Force aircraft struck targets in Sirte and Bani Walid on Monday.

"In Sirte, a formation of Tornado GR4s attacked ammunition stores, destroying their targets with Paveway guided bombs," he said.

He said strikes also hit Bani Walid after NATO reconnaissance identified a psychological warfare center and a firing position used by Gadhafi forces.

NATO said about 200,000 Libyan civilians are still threatened by forces loyal to the country's former regime, primarily in Sirte and Bani Walid.

"Remaining Gadhafi forces refuse to recognize their defeat. As a last resort, they are hiding in civilian areas," NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie said at a news conference in Naples.

Forces loyal to the former regime are looking for Gadhafi opponents, taking them hostage and sometimes executing them, Lavoie said. But he said the loyalists cannot hold out long and NATO's mission would end soon.

Meanwhile, a Tunisian judicial official said Libya's former prime minister has been freed from jail after an appeals court overturned his conviction for illegally entering Tunisia.

Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi was arrested Sept. 22 on charges of illegal entry after he was found without a visa as he tried to flee across the border to Algeria. He was convicted the same day and sentenced to six months in prison.

Libya's transitional government said last week it would ask Tunisia to send al-Mahmoudi home to face justice. A justice ministry spokesman says no official extradition demand has been made.

Islamists emerge in force in new Libya

Πηγή: Washington Post
By Leila Fadel

Wednesday, September 14

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, commander of the Tripoli Military Council, is now responsible for keeping order in Tripoli. He was formerly the emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

TRIPOLI, Libya — For decades, bearded men in Libya were afraid to walk in the streets or go to the mosque, worried that to be seen as an Islamist would land them in prison, or worse.

As Libya’s leader, Moammar Gaddafi regarded Islamists as the greatest threat to his authority, and he ordered thousands of them detained, tortured and, in some cases, killed. The lucky ones fled the country in droves. But with Gaddafi now in hiding, Islamists are vying to have a say in a new Libya, one they say should be based on Islamic law.

Although it went largely unnoticed during the tumultuous civil war the regime lost last month, Islamists were at the heart of the fight, many as rebel commanders. Now some are clashing with secularists within the rebels’ Transitional National Council, prompting worries among some liberals that the Islamists — who still command the bulk of fighters and weapons — could use their strength to assert an even more dominant role.

“We don’t want any vacuums or for those Islamists to steal the revolution,” said a senior rebel leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal rifts.

Among the Islamists in the rebel ranks, a small fraction were militants who had previously waged war abroad. Some had fought Islamic wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Kosovo under a militant banner; some ended up in the arms of more extreme groups such as al-Qaeda. The city of Derna, a key bastion of resistance against Gaddafi in eastern Libya, was home to dozens of Libyan fighters who fought in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In the fight against Gaddafi’s forces, the Islamist militants played an important role among the rebels’ rag-tag forces because of their experience in battles abroad. With a place in the new Libya, most have said that their days as militants are over. The largest of the organizations, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, has re-branded itself as the Libyan Islamic Movement for Change.

Some Islamists are blunt in expressing resentment about fellow rebels.

“Secularists don’t like Islamists,” said Ismail Sallabi, an influential cleric who is among nine leaders commanding rebel forces in eastern Libya. Before the revolution, he said, he had never held a weapon. “They want to use Islamists in the fighting stage and then take control.”

“I’m proud to be an Islamist, and this is a historic chance for the West to understand Islamists up close,” Sallabi said.

Libya is a conservative Muslim nation, and its future government will probably reflect that; the governments of Egypt and Iraq are among Arab states that base their governance on Islamic law. While Gaddafi’s government tolerated little in the way of activism, Libya’s Islamist groups appear to have emerged from his reign as the best-organized among political groups, and secularists among Libya’s new leaders appear determined not to alienate them.

One early step intended to rein in Islamists is the creation of a Supreme Security Committee, which has put the most powerful rebel commander, former militant Abdelhakim Belhadj, under civilian control. But in an interview, Ali Tarhouni, a liberal who heads the committee, also sounded a conciliatory note.