For Libyan rebels, democratic rule will be huge challenge

For Libyan rebels, democratic rule will be huge challenge
UNITING THE OPPOSITION Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, a former justice minister, enjoys respect among Libyan rebels but is not considered a strong leader. UNITING THE OPPOSITION
Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, a former justice minister, enjoys respect among Libyan rebels but is not considered a strong leader.

CAIRO - Libya’s rebels began as a disparate group of former government insiders, Western-leaning intellectuals, businessmen, and even a smattering of ex-Islamist militants. But they were united by one goal: to unseat Moammar Khadafy.

They won international recognition by forging a leadership council that espoused democracy. With Khadafy’s regime on its last legs, the question now is whether the opposition can take over the plundered country and lead it effectively.

The task of putting Libya back together after six months of civil war and 42 years of Khadafy rule is all the more difficult because the nation has no experience at the ballot box or with democratic institutions. Khadafy ran the country according to his whims and idiosyncratic political philosophy. And he brooked no dissent.

“The rebels want a Libya reconciled with itself, that is democratic, whatever that may mean,’’ said George Joffe, a Libya analyst at Cambridge University. “But the way in which they’re going to do that isn’t clear. . . . There are absolutely no basic structures they can use.’’

Without any practical experience to fall back on, the council has done an imperfect job of managing the territory under rebel control since the uprising began Feb. 15, when youth activists started protesting in Benghazi. As the demonstrations spread and the revolt gained steam, more experienced hands rushed to join the movement and fill the leadership void.

Eventually, the rebellion formed the National Transitional Council. Members are representatives from each rebel-held city, and are selected by similar local councils.

Heading the NTC is Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, a pious former justice minister who joined the rebels in the uprising’s first high-level defection. Despite past links with the Khadafy regime, he enjoys the respect of broad swaths of the rebel public for his criticism while minister of the tight control of security forces. But he is not considered a strong leader or a dominating personality.

Abdul-Jalil is one of several former regime members who make up a powerful bloc on the council. The group includes the head of the rebels’ acting Cabinet, Mahmoud Jibril, as well as the rebels’ chief diplomat, Ali al-Essawi.

Jibril, educated at the University of Pittsburgh, helped draw up ambitious visions for the future. One of them, titled “Libya 2025: A Look Ahead,’’ called for a restricted role for the state, free expression, and the opening of the free market.

Past efforts inside Khadafy’s government have earned former regime members respect in rebel-ruled eastern Libya. They say they strive to create a democratic state, but they are not natural politicians, and the long periods many spent abroad make them distant figures.

The movement also has sought help from Libyans who have returned from exile eager to play a role in the nation’s rebirth. Chief among them is Ali Tarhouni, a straight-talking economics professor who left his teaching job at the University of Washington to become finance minister in the rebel Cabinet.

The rebellion has also found space for Islamists, including former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a radical Islamist organization that staunchly opposed Khadafy. Some high-ranking officials in the rebel security apparatus and military have backgrounds in the group.

Some divisions have already emerged in the rebel camp, and those could expand if Khadafy falls.

Joffe said the national council’s relationship with Libya’s Berber minority in the western Nafusa Mountains is unclear. The Berbers have spearheaded the offensive on Tripoli, as well as the uprising in the western port city of Misurata that played a central role in the war.

“We don’t know whether they’ll be prepared to accept leadership of the council’’ down the road, he said.

The National Transitional Council was on the brink of collapse as recently as late July, with the killing of military chief Abdel-Fattah Younis.

Younis was a highly divisive figure who served as Khadafy’s interior minister until he defected to the rebellion early in the uprising, bringing his forces into the opposition ranks.

His move raised hopes among rebels and Western allies that the uprising could succeed. But some rebels remained deeply suspicious that he retained some loyalties to the dictator.

His body was found dumped outside Benghazi. The rebel leadership has insisted the assassination was the work of the Khadafy regime, but several witnesses say Younis was killed by fellow rebels.

NATO strikes target Gaddafi compound: witnesses

NATO strikes target Gaddafi compound: witnesses


A number of blasts were heard from apparent NATO missile strikes targeting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound and other sites in Tripoli on Tuesday, witnesses said.

Libyan officials said four children were wounded, two of them seriously, by flying glass caused by blasts from NATO strikes in the Tripoli area overnight.

Officials showed foreign journalists a hospital in the Libyan capital where some windows had been shattered, saying the damage was the result of a NATO strike that toppled a nearby telecommunications tower.

The journalists were also taken to a government building housing the high commission for children that had been completely destroyed. The old colonial building had been damaged before in what officials said was a NATO strike on April 30.

No other information was immediately available, but the Tripoli blasts occurred against a backdrop of a stalemate in the rebel war to unseat Gaddafi and the resulting dilemma for Western powers over whether to offer covert aid to the rebels.

Few details were immediately available, but the blasts occurred against a backdrop of a stalemate in the rebel war to unseat Gaddafi and the resulting dilemma for Western powers over whether to offer covert aid to the rebel cause.

On Monday, rebels said NATO bombed government arms depots four times during the day about 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Zintan, a town in the Western Mountains region where conflict is escalating.

"The site has some 72 underground hangars made of reinforced concrete. We don't know how many were destroyed. But each time the aircraft struck we heard multiple explosions," a rebel spokesman, who gave his name as Abdulrahman, said by telephone.

Another rebel spokesman said the planes also struck around Tamina and Chantine, east of Misrata, where besieged rebels are clinging on in the last city they control in western Libya.

Gaddafi's forces have launched a ferocious assault on Misrata and hundreds have been killed in weeks of fighting.

Opposition newspaper Brnieq said Libyan rebels were leading an uprising in the suburbs of Tripoli after being supplied with light weapons by defecting security service officers.

The report on the newspaper's website could not be independently verified. A Reuters reporter said he could not hear any gunfire and a government official denied the report.

Two months into a conflict linked to this year's uprisings in other Arab countries, rebels hold Benghazi and towns in the east while the government controls the capital and other cities.

The government says most Libyans support Gaddafi, the rebels are armed criminals and al Qaeda militants, and NATO's intervention is an act of colonial aggression by Western powers intent on stealing the country's oil.

Libyan state television reinforced that view, saying NATO warships bombed "military and civilian targets" in Misrata and in the adjacent town of Zlitan on Monday.

WESTERN DILEMMA

The military deadlock confronts allies including the United States, Britain and France with a choice over whether to exploit loopholes in the sanctions regime they engineered in February and March to help the rebels, analysts and UN diplomats said.

Another option would be to circumvent the sanctions secretly but both courses risk angering Russia and China. They wield U.N. Security Council vetoes and are increasingly critical of NATO's operations under a resolution aimed at protecting civilians.

The rebels face a government with superior firepower and resources but they reported a financial breakthrough on Monday, selling oil worth $100 million paid for through a Qatari bank in US dollars.

A rebel military commander said his fighters killed 57 troops and destroyed 17 military vehicles during a major battle west of the insurgent-held city of Ajdabiya on Monday.

The commander, whose statement could not be immediately verified, also told Al-Jazeera television two rebels were killed in the fighting, halfway between Ajdabiya and the strategic oil port of Brega where Gaddafi forces are entrenched.

Given the rebels' failure to achieve their main target of toppling Gaddafi, the war is focused on Misrata, Zintan and a Libyan border crossing near the Tunisian town of Dehiba.

Two rebel spokesmen in Misrata spoke of intense fighting in the city and at its strategically important airport.

Rebels were trying to extinguish fires at a fuel storage depot bombarded by the government on Friday.

A ship chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived in Misrata, bringing medical supplies, spare parts to repair water and electrical systems and baby food.

The war has killed thousands and caused extensive suffering, not least for tens of thousands of economic migrants from sub-Saharan Africa forced to flee overland or by boat.

Dozens have died trying to reach Italy and the migration creates not only the possibility of a humanitarian crisis but also poses a political headache for NATO and the European Union.