Libya : Freed From Qadhafi, but Not Divisions

05.03.2012

A large map of Libya hangs on the wall in the home of Idris al-Rahel, with a line down the middle dividing the country in half.
Al-Rahel, a former army officer, leads a movement to declare virtual autonomy in eastern Libya, where most of the country’s oil fields are located. The region’s top tribal leaders met last week in the east’s main city, Benghazi, to consider unilaterally announcing an eastern state, linked to the west by a tenuous “federal union.”
Opponents fear a declaration of autonomy could be the first step toward outright dividing the country. But some easterners say they are determined to end the domination and discrimination by the west that prevailed under strongman Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Al-Rahel points to the capital, Tripoli, on the map, in the west. “All troubles came from here,” he said, “but we will not permit this to happen again.”
The move shows how six months after Qaddafi’s fall, the central government in Libya has proved incapable of governing at all. The collapse has worsened as cities, towns, regions, militias and tribes all act on their own, setting up independent power centers.

After liberation from the rule of Qaddafi, Libyans dreamed their country of six million could become like the United Arab Emirates: a small state flush with petro-dollars that is a magnet for investment. Now they worry that it is turning into another Somalia, which has had no effective government for more than 20 years.
Libya may not face literal fragmentation, but it could be doomed to years of instability as it recovers from four decades of rule under Qaddafi, who pitted neighbor against neighbor, town against town and tribe against tribe.
“What Qaddafi left in Libya for 40 years is a very, very heavy heritage,” said Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the National Transitional Council, which in theory rules Libya but doesn’t even hold sway in the capital.
Signs of the government’s weakness are everywhere.
Tripoli remains under the control of various revolutionaries-turned-militiamen, who have resisted integrating into an army.
Kufra, deep in the deserts of the south, is a battleground for two rival tribes, one Arab and one African, who killed dozens in two weeks of fighting last month.
And Misurata, the country’s third-largest city and just a two- hour drive east of the capital, effectively rules itself, with its militias exacting brutal revenge on anyone they believe to have supported Qaddafi.
Even some easterners are worried. Fathi al-Fadhali, a prominent writer originally from Benghazi, says Libya isn’t ready for a split system. First, the country has to overcome the poisons of Qaddafi’s rule and establish a civil society where rights are respected.
“We are all polluted by Qaddafi’s evil, violence, envy, terrorism, and conspiracies,” he said, “myself included.”