Cirenaica – La regione petrolifera della Libia si dichiara autonoma
+ Wsj 120307, La Libia orientale si dichiara semiautonoma
– I capitribù della Cirenaica,
o una regione orientale della Libia attorno a Bengasi chiamata Barqa in arabo, che si estende da Sirte sulla costa fino al confine egiziano, e confina a sud con Chad e Sudan, da dove era iniziata nel 2011 la rivolta contro Gheddafi
– hanno dichiarato l’autonomia della regione e chiedono un sistema federale, quello in atto nel 1951-1963, con la divisione in tre Stati: Tripolitania ad Ovest, Fezzan a S-O, Cirenaica ad Est, chiedono finisca la marginalizzazione di Barqa, imposta per decenni da Gheddafi.
– Alla conferenza di dichiarazione dell’autonomia hanno partecipato 3000 persone, tra questi i capi di importanti tribù orientali, come Ubaidat, Mughariba e Awajeer, e i comandanti dell’esercito del Barqa, che raggruppa 61 milizie “rivoluzionarie” orientali.
Secondo il progetto delineato dalla conferenza, lo Stato di Barqa, che copre circa la metà del territorio libico, avrà un proprio parlamento, polizia, tribunale e una capitale, Bengasi.
Rimarrà al governo centrale la politica estera, le forze armate e le risorse petrolifere
– Il capo della comitato politico del Consiglio nazionale di transizione, CNT, Fathi Baja respingiamo il progetto nella sua interezza, rifiuta il federalismo abolito nel 1963.
– Il CNT non ha saputo imporre la propria autorità nel paese, ha poca influenza anche a Tripoli, dove le milizie formate durante la rivolta anti-Gheddafi, ha diviso la città in feudi. Previste elezioni politiche nazionali a giugno, per la formazione di un parlamento di 200 rappresentanti (62 per l’Est e 102 per l’Ovest, ripartizione rifiutata dalla conferenza della Cirenaica).
– I capitribù della Cirenaica riconoscono il governo di transizione di Tripoli come “simbolo di unità del paese” e “legittimo rappresentante nei vertici internazionali”.
– È stato nominato capo della regione lo sceicco Ahmed Zubair al-Senussi, cugino del defunto re Idris al-Senussi, e membro del CNT. Fra due settimane elezioni per il governo.
– Il capo del Consiglio di transizione nazionale, Mustafa Abdel Dschalil: i paesi arabi alleati hanno appoggiato la sollevazione per non essere contagiati dalla rivoluzione; è l’inizio di una cospirazione contro la Libia, a rischio l’unità nazionale.
– La debolezza principale della Libia post-Gheddafi è la mancanza di istituzioni politiche: alla caduta di Gheddafi il potere è stato preso da città, tribù e milizie, che hanno impedito al CNT di assumere un controllo nazionale.
In particolare due gruppi di milizie formati nelle città occidentali di Zintan e Misurata si sono accaparrate posizioni in istituzioni chiave, aeroporto compreso.
Kyrenaika – Ölreiche Region in Libyen erklärt sich für autonom
– Die Region rund um die Stadt Bengasi erklärt einseitig ihre Autonomie – und der Nationale Übergangsrat befürchtet eine "Verschwörung gegen Libyen".
Die ölreiche Region im Osten Libyens um die Stadt Bengasi hat am Dienstag ihre Autonomie erklärt. Die Schaffung eines föderalen Systems sei der Wille der Region, erklärten Stammesführer bei einem Treffen mit tausenden Teilnehmern.
– Scheich Ahmed Subair al-Senussi wurde zum Chef der autonomen Region Kyrenaika bestimmt, die sich von der Küstenstadt Sirte bis zur ägyptischen Grenze im Osten erstreckt.
– Die Übergangsregierung in Tripolis werde „als Symbol der Einheit des Landes und legitimer Repräsentant bei internationalen Gipfeltreffen“ anerkannt, teilte die selbsternannte Führung der Region mit.
"Sehr gefährlich"
– Der Übergangsrat lehnt den 1963 in Libyen abgeschafften Föderalismus allerdings ab. Der langjährige politische Häftling Subair, Vetter des früheren Königs Idris al-Senussi, ist selbst Mitglied des Übergangsrats.
– Der Chef des Nationalen Übergangsrats, Mustafa Abdel Dschalil, erklärte auf einer Pressekonferenz in Tripolis, befreundete arabische Staaten unterstützten den „Aufruhr“, um nicht „von der Revolution angesteckt zu werden“. Die Angelegenheit sei „sehr gefährlich“. Es gehe um den „Beginn einer Verschwörung gegen Libyen“, sagte er. Die nationale Einheit sei bedroht. Am Ende könnte ein „geteiltes, nicht demokratisches Libyen“ stehen.
Unter Gaddafi stark vernachlässigt
– An der Zeremonie zur Erklärung der Autonomie in Bengasi nahmen mehr als 3000 Menschen teil. In der Region hatte im vergangenen Jahr der Aufstand gegen den langjährigen libyschen Machthaber Muammar al-Gaddafi begonnen, der im vergangenen Oktober nach einem Nato-Luftangriff von Rebellen in seiner Heimatstadt Sirte festgenommen und getötet worden war.
Der Übergangsrat hatte während des Aufstands gegen Gaddafi seinen Sitz in Bengasi. Die Region war unter Gaddafis mehr als 40-jähriger Herrschaft stark vernachlässigt worden.
– BENGHAZI, Libya—Tribal leaders and militia commanders on Tuesday declared oil-rich eastern Libya to be a semiautonomous state, a unilateral move that opponents fear will be the first step toward outright dividing the country six months after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.
– The thousands of representatives of tribal leaders, militia commanders and politicians who made the declaration at a conference in Benghazi said the move isn’t intended to divide the country. They said they want their region to remain part of a united Libya but insisted the move was needed to stop decades of discrimination against the east.
– The conference said the eastern state, known as Barqa, would have its own parliament, police force, courts and capital—Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city—to run its own affairs. Under their plan, foreign policy, the national army and oil resources would be left to a central federal government in the capital Tripoli in the west. Barqa would cover nearly half the country, from central Libya to the Egyptian border in the east and down to the borders with Chad and Sudan in the south.
– Libya’s National Transitional Council, the interim central government based in Tripoli, has repeatedly voiced its opposition to an autonomous east, warning it could eventually lead to the breakup of the North African nation of six million.
– "This is very dangerous. This is a blatant call for fragmentation. We reject it in its entirety," said Fathi Baja, the head of political committee of the NTC. "We are against divisions and against any move that hurts the unity of the Libyan people."
– The declaration underscored the weakness of the NTC, which has been largely unable to establish its authority around the country since the fall of Gadhafi in August and his subsequent death in October. The council holds little sway even in Tripoli, where militias that arose during the anti-Gadhafi revolt have divided neighborhoods up into fiefs.
– The prime minister of the interim government created by the NTC, Abdurrahim el-Keib, said Monday that the government hasn’t been up to the task.
"The government is not doing its job. My evaluation of its performance is not good," he said in an interview on state TV. "The steps we are taking are slow."
– The NTC has called for national elections in June to select a 200-member assembly that will name a new prime minister to form a government and then write a constitution.
– The Benghazi conference also illustrated one of the fundamental weaknesses in post-Gadhafi Libya—the lack of political institutions. Over 42 years in power, Gadhafi stripped the country of any credible representative bodies. As a result, since his ouster, towns, cities, tribes and militias across Libya have largely taken authority into their own hands. The local power centers have confused and often thwarted the NTC’s attempts to establish any national control.
– Tuesday’s announcement aimed to pose a federal system as a fait accompli before the National Transitional Council. The goal is to revive the system in place from 1951 until 1963, when Libya, ruled by a monarchy, was divided into three states: Tripolitania in the west, Fezzan in the southwest and Cyrenaica in the east—or Barqa, as it was called in Arabic.
– The Benghazi conference has no official status. The impact it has depends on how much influence its participants can wield among the population of the east and how strongly they push their demands on a resistant Tripoli. So far other regions haven’t made any moves to create their own states or call for a federal system.
– Easterners say the step is necessary to end the marginalization that the east suffered for decades under Gadhafi’s rule. The former dictator focused development and largess on the west, allowing infrastructure to decline in the east, an area that was a constant source of opposition to the regime.
– Many in the east accuse the National Transitional Council of continuing to favor the west. After Libya declared liberation in October, the NTC and the interim government moved its offices to Tripoli. The majority of ministers in Mr. el-Keib’s cabinet are from the west.
– Barqa advocates also point to the presence in Tripoli of powerful militia groups from the western cities of Zintan and Misrata, who impose their will on the ruling authorities. The two militias swept into the capital in the push that toppled Gadhafi and have since positioned themselves around vital institutions, including the airport.
– At the conference, delegates raised the old Barqa state flag—black with a crescent and a star. The gathering appointed Ahmed al-Zubair, Libya’s longest-serving political prisoner under Gadhafi, as leader of a planned governing council for Barqa state. Mr. Zubair, a descendant of the former Libyan King Idris whom Gadhafi ousted in 1969 coup, is also a member of the National Transitional Council.
The conference said elections would be held in the east in two weeks to chose a governing council.
– It rejected a draft law by the NTC on the planned June election that would give the east 60 seats in the assembly, compared with around 102 for the west. Drafters say that reflects the west’s larger population, but easterners see it as a continuation of discrimination.
– Mr. Zubair pledged to protect the rights of the region but also said Barqa state would recognize NTC as the representative for Libya in the international arena.
"Residents of Barqa, we are brothers. We protect each other," he told the gathering. "Libya will not be divided. It is one nation."
– Among those who attended were top leaders of heavyweight eastern tribes, including the Ubaidat, Mughariba and Awajeer, which hold a powerful sway over large sectors of the population in the east. Also attending were commanders from the Barqa Army, a grouping of 61 eastern "revolutionary militias." Several senior Defense Ministry officials also attended and supported the declaration.
– Fadl-Allah Haroun, a senior tribal figure and militia commander, said the declaration aims for administrative independence not separation.
"Federalism is not division but unity. We are not talking about changing the flag or national anthem. We are talking about different administration, a parliament and managing the financial affairs," he said.
Instead of a federal system, the NTC and Mr. el-Keib’s government have called for decentralization that would give considerable powers to municipal and local governments—but not such large states—while preserving a strong central government in Tripoli.