Libya: Opposition Leadership Under Strain
Killing of rebel commander puts pressure on Benghazi administration to rein in militias.
Libya: Opposition Leadership Under Strain
Killing of rebel commander puts pressure on Benghazi administration to rein in militias.
As the Libyan revolutionary government undergoes a reshuffle, in the wake of the assassination of rebel general Abdel Fatah Younis, Libya expert Noman Benotman looks at the strains within the Transitional National Council, TNC, as it continues its struggle against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
What does the cabinet reshuffle say about internal conflict within the Transitional National Council, TNC?
I strongly believe, from the information I receive from inside Libya, that it has nothing to do with a power struggle or that it is aimed at solving political differences. Rather, it has come in response to two main issues – firstly, the assassination of Abdel Fatah Younis, and secondly, pressure from the Libyan people themselves. Every day since the Younis assassination, there have been increasing demands that the TNC take real and radical moves in response.
People say that there are some people in the top echelons of the TNC who need to be questioned about it, and that decisions made by the executive made Younis vulnerable to attack. To get to someone like him, the attackers would have had to catch him off guard. He had been asked by the TNC to come to Benghazi, so he left the protection of his huge army and surrendered, after making a phone call to check the order was genuine. I am not accusing the council of wanting to harm him intentionally, but a lack of professionalism among the senior level made him vulnerable.
We don’t have an established political system with checks and balances, and every day the pressure has built up over this issue. So it was the right move to disband the executive office.
Are tensions emerging between different factions of the revolution?
There are political differences, without a doubt. When I hear anyone trying to deny that, I as a Libyan get scared. Such denial of the truth reminds me of Hitler and Mussolini, a symbol of that kind of mindset.
The main three groups are the liberals, the Islamists and the nationalists. The latter is just a functional term for those, the vast majority, who want the revolution but do not specifically follow one particular ideology or another – like the prime minister Mahmoud Jibril.
There are also some divisions between the leaders who were exiles and those who remained in Libya, but they are cultural rather than major political clashes.
And while there is political diversity, within the council there is still room for manoeuvre to work out all these differences.
How much authority does the rebel army have over the armed militias in the east of the country?
There are only loose relations between the NTC and the militias. In Benghazi alone, there are some 30 security brigades. To exactly categorise them would need real field research but there is an Islamist presence, and they define themselves proudly as the thawar (the revolutionaries) to distinguish themselves from the army. Officially, the TNC has started the process of absorbing these groups into the army. There are some measures in process and some brigades have been forced to dismantle. But I don’t think this will be a very quick process and it is not going to be easy.
What steps do the TNC need to take in to rein in the armed groups?
There needs to be a crystal clear and drastic reorganisation of the whole armed forces. Unless there is one sole chain of command then we face many risky scenarios.
With a country still at war, having such independent - and armed - actors means you can’t predict their reaction and behaviour.
The only solution is a radical reorganisation of the armed forces. I have heard reports that there are efforts at cooperation and coordination between the army and the militias. But in this situation, one of war, such negotiations are not possible. It’s necessary to have one clear chain of command.
Noman Benotman is a senior analyst at the Quilliam think-tank and a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who later disavowed extremism.
Daniella Peled is IWPR’s Arab Spring editor.
