As Libya dithers, fighters take on security role
Deep in the Sahara
desert, 700 km south, another brigade of fighters from Zintan -- a city
which prides itself as being one of the first to rise up against Muammar Gaddafi -- say they are securing the Akakus oil field in the absence of a national army.
Some of the fighters who ousted Gaddafi are not prepared to wait
for their interim government to form a cabinet and begin the long task of rebuilding a functioning state. They are doing it for themselves.
Armed militias are
acting as a pseudo-police force: setting up road checkpoints, directing
traffic and arresting those they regard as criminals.
Groups of fighters from Misrata, 190 km to the east of
the capital, have joined some Tripoli brigades to guard the naval base
where several military ships that escaped the bombing by NATO during the
war are docked.At the Akakus field, fighters are positioned around the main facility, armed with heavy machine guns and rockets.
"The protection of this field is by Zintani fighters to prevent looting," said one guard at the gate to the field, which stands in a vast expanse of sandy desert.
All of the militias
claim loyalty to the National Transitional Council (NTC), which promises
to lead Libya toward participatory democracy, but also to the clans,
towns or regions from which they hail.
Fighters give different reasons for not handing in their weapons and returning home.
Some say they are
being paid by their commanders or are worried that a pro-Gaddafi
insurgency will break out while the country is still weak. Others say
they have a moral commitment to serve Libya, even unofficially.
But there are suggestions the militias also want to wield political leverage over the emerging government.
STARTING AN AIR FORCE
While officials hold
secret meetings in Tripoli to decide on high-level positions, Colonel
Abdullah al-Mehdi is trying to get the air force back in the air.
"People are crossing
the border illegally from Niger and Mali. They are smuggling drugs and
attacking oil fields to steal cars and equipment," Mehdi, from Zintan,
told Reuters as he flew his favorite airplane from Gaddafi's defunct
Libyan air force, a twin-engined Russian military transporter.
"We need to position
planes at airports around the country to patrol the border." He said he
intends to move some fighter jets from the capital to the border town
of Ghadames and the southern desert city of Sabha.
"Two jets here, three there," the 49-year-old said.
Shouting over the
roar of propellers, Mehdi says he has been transporting fighters and
weapons to Libya's borderlands and worked as an air ambulance.
And more frequently
now that the eight-month civil war has ended, he has ferried
representatives of the interim government around the country to aid the
reconciliation with tribes who fought for Gaddafi.
"I also run a
prison," he added. Who Mehdi is working for is unclear -- both the
defense and interior ministers are yet to be appointed -- but he
collaborates with the Tripoli Military Council, the armed wing of the
NTC.
"What ministry, I am the ministry," Mehdi said, a broad smile emerging under his thick, graying mustache.With Gaddafi gone, Mehdi wants to reach out to the leaders of neighboring Mali and Chad to deal with drugs and weapons smuggling, before taking a holiday in Russia.
"I haven't had a day off or been paid for eight months," the pilot said in English.
"F*** money, we killed Muammar Gaddafi."
