Tripoli pictures June 2016

Golf Gargaresh, in the western suburbs of Tripoli. Such a tricky course than the one committed post-revolutionary Libya.

Taha Jawashi for L'Express

Leaded by political chaos, security fears and the scourge Daech, daily from Tripoli to Misrata is a constant struggle. Which forced people to navigate between solidarity and system D.

The swing is strong, the game of graph approach, accurate putting. And, indeed, the quintet of retirees surveyed club hand the course in Gargaresh seafront in the western suburbs of Tripoli, has merit. For here, no green fairways: it engages, at a time when the shadows stretch, golf in hostile terrain. At any time, the dimpled ball can squirt on a shard of glass or a cinderblock fragment.
The greens? Even green. Brownish areas, half land, half sand, which is smooth squeegee the time comes. Leaning against a rocky beach, this nine-hole - not counting the crevices and gullies - draws in model reduced Libya today: a rough nation to unpredictable trajectory, striated fault lines.

Kidnappings and clashes between

Of course Tripoli, capital long delivered to militia chaos, no longer paralyzed with funk. The last major clash between two rival brigades of mid-April. And one must backfire who first Ramadan evening, answering the call to prayer, not a shootout, but brief fireworks welcoming the breaking of the fast. Ala, 20, a student of English, and his sister Iman, future pharmacist two years younger, followed this year near normal curriculum. Although their father, Salem, assists in college once heard a burst of assault rifle. "And even if says the elder, three of our teachers, Filipino origin, shorten some courses to go home early."
precarious lull, so: June 10, hooded gunmen killed since their release 12 detainees barely placed on parole, all accused of taking part in the repression of the deadly insurgency in February 2011, the regime the late Muammar Gaddafi.
Other persistent anxiety factor, the villainous abductions, often orchestrated by a mafia network anchored in the southwest suburbs. "Three or four cases a month on average, admits Hassan Abdullah, spokesman of the North Tripoli Central Security Force with a common mobile. Money That said, these types can ransom of 1 million dinars. - 600,000 euros at the official rate, three times less on the black currency market - and end up compromising to 400 dinars.


The target: the businessman or his son, but also ordinary citizens who just sold his house, supposedly holding a cash package. Or the gun holder of a rival faction of reckoning bottom. "In 2016, the bloodhounds of the Force were released unharmed three hostages. To the families they counsel also not to deal with the kidnappers.

the French School of the library.

"They want to do it fast, argues Hassan. If you refuse to pay, there is a chance they release their captive. Or they kill, that's true. That is the risk." Formally under the authority of the Interior Ministry, the anti-crime unit has not forgotten much loyalty to the Islamic forces Rada Abdul Rauf Kara powerful militia Greater Tripoli.

Neither total war nor peace of souls

"On the security front, said a diplomat familiar Asian Libyan turmoil, armed groups forged in the time of the revolutionary impulse still dictate their law. And Fayez el-Sarraj should reflect that." Referring to Prime Minister frail government of national unity , or RNG, fruit of the agreement signed in December 2015 in Skhirat (Morocco) under the aegis of the UN.
Neither total war nor peace of souls Malek knows every corner of this in-between volatile. Beard short, balding and with glasses nerd, this economics graduate opened in early April in the neighborhood of Ras Hassan Route 66 Cafe, appointment of Tripolitanian bikers enamored of vintage bikes. But it no longer parks his white Ladybug on the embankment opposite.
"One night a masked commando guys was a hit on it, he raconte-, annoyed. Six impacts. No doubt the American side and plugged my institution he dislikes ..." Close? No way. Better, Malek, who, for lack of functional administrative services, has built the Route 66 without a shadow of a permit, would have no objection to pay license and taxes. "Rather, he said. It would be a sign of stabilization."
The young Abir tasted also the rigidities of social norms. Manager of a fitness club, where one learns - among women - to zumba and Arab and Indian dances, she thought he could give her yoga classes in the open air, on the beach Regatta. Error: under intense pressure, Abir had to quickly abandon this daring.

Patience and solidarity

On the radar screen return to normality, although other red lights flash again. Starting laments the head of mission of a medical NGO, for "a health system in free fall for five years." "The specter of the epidemic lurks, says he. As for the hospitals overwhelmed by the influx of wounded, they also suffer from the freezing of bank accounts, so budgets, and caregiver staffing decline."

The Route 66 Cafe in Ras Hassan. "No doubt his American side it displeases" sighs Malek, owner.

Another index, the queues every morning wind to cash-strapped banks surroundings. NCO in his state, Mohamed deserted time for a cigarette break the crowd that this feverish BNP Paribas agency. "My March balance has been transferred to three months late, says thirty emaciated. From there to withdraw 500 dinars allowed ... The last time I was able to get 150 after six hours of wait. How am I doing? Allah provides for everything. "
And solidarity of his flock does the rest: it is thus possible, in this period of Ramadan which no believer balk at the expense, obtain from such a trader a wad of cash in exchange for a check of the same amount; bonanza amputated by the least charitable, a little strong Islamic Committee. Suffice to say that the phenomenon amplifies the waltz labels. Cooking Oil, bread in a semester, the prices of basic commodities has tripled. And everyone wonders about the course qu'atteindra lamb at the time of Eid, epilogue of the fasting month. Only gasoline seems to escape soaring: the full costs the equivalent of 2 euros.
Not enough to encourage Libyan Tripolitans to adopt the electric car. Converting even more illusory that they need to live to the rhythm of cuts. "At least five or six hours of power cut a day," a tour guide rattle weaned customers, crossed in a shopping street that cradles the hum of generators. Elsewhere, the stench from piles of garbage bags that saturates the hot air: outsourced to private companies likely to recruit sub-Saharan or Bangladeshi immigrants, the garbage collection is at best uncertain.

Building titanic outstanding

Visually, another incongruity plot: the profusion of titanic fixed sites, on which ensure petrified cranes cohorts inert sentinels. Resorts unfinished, office towers overdue residential buildings skeletons committed mostly under Gaddafi, the proud projects have not survived the sinking of the Jamahiriya or the flight of foreign investors. Come out they one day from their torpor? Mystery.

Unfinished construction sites in the capital, the era of ghosts where the oil bonanza dopait dreams grandeur.
So controversial it may be, the irruption of the GNA had the merit of clarifying the landscape in a torn Libya a time between three executive and two bedrooms, plagued by appetites of hundreds of brigades richly endowed arsenals. Nevertheless: the influence of the cabinet Sarraj still too hesitant to settle the entanglements of everyday life. The insults suffered by lean delegation qu'enverra this summer Tripoli to Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games should earn him automatically a gold medal. "To stories of Finance and visas sighs one of its pillars, we missed several qualifiers. Not to mention the preparation ..."

Installed since March 30 in the naval base of Abu Setta, he hardly spell, Fayez el-Sarraj, scion of a famous dynasty Tripoli, sitting patiently expanding its shots rallies; one day the Central Bank, the next such unit hitherto loyal military intelligence Khalifa Haftar, former general of the Gadhafi era firmly established in Cyrenaica (eastern province).
Nevertheless: the disappointment already flush. "This is a notable and educated measured concedes a jeweler of the medina. But he lacks charisma. This country needs a strong man." "Nothing tangible on the ground, echo plague the Absily blogger. The passage of time is against him."
similar finding in Salem, the aimless guide "Sarraj ad promises, but worse Moreover, he did not elbow and must bend to the dictates of the Muslim Brotherhood and militia leaders.." Less anxious, bow Figures of an embryonic civil society still leave the former architect the benefit of the doubt.

"Sound governance, transparency and freedom of expression"

"At least he and his entourage to show they open to our pleas for good governance, transparency and freedom of expression," says Amjad Badr, Hexa Connection host. Despite its modest means, this NGO teaches in Tripoli and Benghazi (eastern), workshops in summer camps for children, art blog and Internet literacy.
"Luckily, our political class disregards these issues too to judge us subversive, ironic Amjad Only problem:. The suspicion inspired by the financial support provided by a think tank in Washington ..." No doubt this pioneer could devote a seminar the formula tagged in English on a fence in the district of Fashloum: "do not ask what the government can do for you ask yourself what you can do for your country.."
Maxime implementation 230 kilometers further east, in Misrata, a proud port city founded by the Romans in II century AD. Heirs Cretans, Maltese merchants and Ottoman past, its children know that "free Libya" must fighters of the former Tubartis. They who, in spring 2011, resisted the furious attacks of Gaddafi artillery. They who today lead the siege of Sirte ; and whose MIG fighter en route to the threatened bastion of jihadists Daesh, flying in a loud roar the Museum of Martyrs, conservatory heroism home.
Of course, the local hospital also lacks cruelly equipment, treatments and surgeons. Of course, in the absence of the Minister of Information, the team of public television Misrata TV does not know how to turn guardianship. But the city seems safer and more serene than Tripoli.

A neighborhood football tournament dedicated to the spirit of tolerance.

"My dairy plant at full capacity, insists Mohamed Raied, president of the Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Libya. Their prices remain unchanged, I route all over the country and my 1500 employees are on deck. " Soon, the purpose of this stocky and square boss takes a political turn. Anything goes: the errors of the Central Bank, guilty of squandering 20 billion euros of foreign exchange; massive recruitment of officials "paid to do nothing, to ransom an assistantship that encourages laziness", contempt for the private sector, left to itself.

Fight for union

"It is to change the economic laws of the interior that I won a seat in parliament, admits Raied. Without success at this time." On the fate promised to renegade general Khalifa Haftar, which denies the legitimacy of union government, the shock of CEOs not more tacks: "No way to appoint the head of the army in exchange for his allegiance, slice -t it. at best, they granted him the command of the Eastern region or a seat in a college staff. "
At dusk, when flat on the terraces lapping shishas, ​​the verdict is less forgiving. "The power can only be a friendly nostalgic pensioners Gaddafi, asserts an unemployed person. Better is the partition of unity with Haftar." Despite the liveliness of ancestral regionalist tropism, the scenario of the collapse has few followers.
"The resentment is so in view of the sacrifices, supports a spawning TV Misrata, the idea yesterday marginal, is gaining ground." "Totally excluded, response Mohamed Raied Libyan social fabric results from an inextricable mixture. 350000 Misrati live in Benghazi tribal mosaic where 200 homes and an avenue named after my family."
This June 8, the sandy stage area Habdah al-Badri, dedicated to football in September, hosts one of the matches  "Beyond the love of football, a message of reconciliation," argues the tournament promoter. Las! By the tenth minute red card punishes a murderer tackle irascible visitor. As union, concord is a struggle.

French exception

It is a tranquil haven nestled in the Hay al-Andalus neighborhood. A neat island row of colorful, spacious rooms overlooking a playground old: Welcome to the French School of Tripoli, founded in 1956. She soon blow its 60 candles? No. Lack of funds. From kindergarten to fourth fortnight of teachers welcomes 44 students - four times less than before the 2011 revolution - almost all from non-French speaking families; which are struggling in these troubled times to pay the tuition.


Here, no crowded classrooms: three children in first grade, five in EC 2 and ... one fifth. "The constant stress, sighs Farah Ben Othman, president of the association of parents, forced to abandon his hairdresser, his studio stylist and during baking. The school takes all my time." One regret: April 16, during his flying visit to Tripoli, the Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has failed to make a detour to this corner of France which, however, housed a time of chaos background post- Gaddafi, the ambassador and his guardian angels.

NEW WAR FRONTS IN LIBYA

New war fronts have opened up in Libya in recent days, with the forces of General Khalifa Haftar who bombed positions of Petroleum Defence Guards (PDG) tasked with control of oil sites Ibrahim Jadran and clashes erupted yesterday east of Tripoli between local fighters and a brigade from Misrata.

A situation which threatens to complicate the already difficult task of Fayez Sarraj GNA, supported by the international community, struggling in recent days even with the protests of the population due to lack of electricity and water in different parts of the country, including Tripoli and Benghazi.

As reported by the Libyan media, the fighters of General Haftar, head of the Libyan armed forces that meet the European authorities of the country, yesterday bombed a military base of the Guards of Jadran, loyal to GNA in Ajdabiya, located close to plants and oil fields.

Haftar argued that it was a base of terrorists, according to the Libya Herald, and Jadran has promised to respond to the attack.

Already last Saturday the Haftar forces encountered in Ajdabiya with fighters of the Defense Forces of Benghazi, a new formation branded as a terrorist by GNA, but supported by the Grand Mufti and Western Libya government Ghwell Khalifa, PM in Tripoli before and after arrival of executive UN Fayez al-Sarraj, the third government of the country in practice which continues to issue directives.

On that occasion Haftar had accused the Jadran forces had supported the new militia. In a statement reported by the Libya Herald, the Ghwell government declared that the Defense Forces want to liberate Benghazi Ajdabiya and Benghazi by the followers of the former regime of Muammar Gaddafi, making clear reference to the general Haftar (pictured below) and its Strength.

Same argument used by the Grand Mufti Sadiq Al-Gharyan, who asked the "revolutionaries" to focus on Benghazi to "fight Haftar and his soldiers", guilty of "reported in the country the Gaddafi regime and its symbols."

Speaking at the TV show "Islam and the life" by satellite Tanathuj in Gharyan called "revolutionaries'' to focus on Benghazi, after the battle of Sirte, not to attack the people, but the attackers to fight Haftar and his soldiers.

More than 200,000 innocent people have been displaced and more than 200 religious were killed and their houses burned by Haftar "added forces, as reported by Observer Libya.

According to Libya Herald this new force would be formed by Islamic militias (al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood) defeated by Haftar in Benghazi and had retired to the south west.

In the aftermath of the fighting in Ajdabiya, the president of the parliament of Tobruk, Agila Saleh, had declared a state of emergency and created a military zone from Tobruk to Ben Jawad, 150 kilometers east of Sirte, entrusting it to driving a military governor.

Just such a decision had fueled fears of clashes between the forces of Tobruk and those of Jadran, placed under the command of Ajdabiya-Sirte operations center created by the government of al Sarraj, and earlier this month they had chased the jihadists of the Islamic State ( Isis) by Ben Jawad thanks to the intervention of PFG Jadran.

Meanwhile continues the offensive against Isis in Sirte, launched on May 12 by Misurati militias who support GNA.

An operation that has so far left at least 200 dead and hundreds wounded in the pro-government forces files. Yesterday GNA has announced that soon there will be a "decisive battle" against the jihadists, "besieged in a small area of ​​Sirte".

The Air Force of Misrata has asked civilians to leave the city of Sirte in view of heavy air strikes against the neighborhoods where they are holed up men of the Islamic State.

According to GNA sources, the militias of Misrata continue the bombing with heavy artillery against areas in IS hands, hitting precisely the warehouses of ammunition and Group locations thanks to information provided by the intelligence, probably drones and Anglo-American staff flanked by the militias of Misrata.

The battle in the city still seems tougher than expected and only yesterday were killed 34 men of Misrata militia and dozens were injured.

A councilor of  Tripoli Municipality, Ahmed Wali, has asked Italy to take charge of at least 15-20 serious injuries in the battle of Sirte. "It's important. We need immediate help and I hope that your country can help us at this time. "

The Italian Air Force has already evacuated more occasions wounded in combat by Libya to treat them in Italy.

Finally, new clashes broke out yesterday at 60 kilometers east of Tripoli, just between a brigade from Misrata and local forces in the city of Qaraboulli for still unclear reasons, according to what reported by local media.

The explosion of a munitions (or firecrackers?) depot has claimed more than 30 dead and a dozen wounded.

The opening of new fronts in recent days has prompted the UN envoy for Libya, Martin Kobler, to launch a new appeal for unity: "It 's essential to have a unified command of the armed forces under the supreme guide of the GNA Presidential Council. Only a united and well equipped Libya can fight militias and terrorism. "

It seems almost clear, however, the failure of the project to unify Libya under Sarraj, a leader "parachuted in" by the UN in Tripoli with the support of Turkey and Qatar, but with neither the charisma nor the representativeness to assume control not only of Libya but even of Tripoli since it does not have a credible military force but it must rely on militias which, like that of Misrata and Jadran which aim - both of them - to cultivate and strengthen private or partisan interests.

GNA vs IS (Daesh) in Sirt on 22.6.2016

Libya: government militias one kilometer from HQ of the IS in Sirte on 22.6.2016

Allied militias of Misrata and those which are part of the operation "to Bunian to Marsus" against IS (Daesh) in the Libyan city of Sirte, former stronghold of deceased Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, continue their advance.

This morning the militiamen loyal to GNA in Tripoli came to a kilometer away from jihadists IS or Daesh HQ which is in Ouagadougou ex Congress Hall, impressive building built - with Administration City - in the centre of Sirte by Italian ex ENTERPRISE, Emaco Group Libya (Italy) subsidiary.

The operation "to Bunian to Marsus" forces advance in three directions and were able yesterday to win the Dushm the area with warehouses of IS weapons, considered as the most important area of ​​the city. For the taking of this part of the city, several militiamen of Misrata died.

Also yesterday, also it was also defeated district 700 and it is believed that these successes are the most important ones in the last 10 days.

Among the victims of Sirte figure also the head of the brigade Mashashia, allied to those fighting in the operation "to Bunian to Marsus". A military source of the operation, led by Tripoli government, announced today that Muaz Mohammed al Shuishin, head of the brigade Mashashia, was killed during clashes with IS last night.

With him several members of this brigade were wounded.

This is reason why Tripoli Presidential Council held a meeting yesterday with representatives of the Committee for the wounded militiamen, to discuss how to treat about a hundred wounded militiamen, hospitalized in Misrata returning from Sirte.

It is of 49 dead and 120 injured, the death toll so far detected in the ranks of the militia of Misrata for the offensive still being conducted on Sirte.

According to reports from a source of the operation "to Bunian to Marsus", these sad numbers refers only to battles within the city, started in early June, and would have risen recently as a result of latest battles which have also been the most violent since the operation started last May to liberate Sirte from IS.

The fighters of IS, for their part, would have killed 189 militiamen opponents from the start of the military operation "to Bunian to Marsus" launched from Misrata forces "loyal" to the GNA, in Bin Jawad 110km south-east of Misurata, at the beginning of May.

What emerges from a weekly newsletter which is distributed online by the Libyan branch of so called "Caliphate". According to its statistics and updated the 10th day of Ramadan (June 16), were injured in the fighting 677 government militiamen with 60 vehicles, two tanks and a warplane would have been destroyed.

ONE OF LIBYA ANALYSIS

Serious tragedies continue in Libya, in silence. If we perceive echoes here and there, we do not know the most disastrous ones.

Entire villages were emptied of their populations, groups were decimated, and hundreds of Libyans, when they were not slaughtered, were condemned to seek refuge in migrant camps.

A friend reveals this sad reality.

That of tribe dictatorship, dogma and money, the hegemony of militias, and crush of any attempt of civil society and opposition awakening.

Left to its uncertainties, Libya undergoes the law of jihadism, multiple alliances and allegiances, and the risk of fragmentation.

By building an oil revenue redistribution system based on a heritage status of this resource, Gaddafi was convinced that this model was capable to hold the Libyan society into the circle of allegiance.

This was one of his most tragic miscalculation, since it was originally a series of failures that the "Guide" has continued to commit in fighting the growth of the insurgency and the collapse of its political system.

Gaddafi was unable, at the dawn of the 2011 insurrection, to seize the profound changes that took place in his country and, in particular, the emergence of new relations that articulate one hand, the tribal realities the other one with the rise of new players from the rentier system margins.

A system that was no longer able to be the unalterable social cement dreamed by the Architect of the Jamahiriya.

Trafficking and informal market generated a pervasive globalization and caused deep imbalances that participated, paradoxically, to the consolidation of tribal powers outside the annuitant Gaddafi system, mainly in the communities excluded alliances formed around the " Guide".

These segments of the population, that the Jamahiriya had deliberately excluded from the redistribution of oil wealth, have distinguished themselves by the cohesion between their members and have resisted casualization, through their involvement in the parallel market and the economy shade.

This collective initiative spirit saved swathes of Libyan society, that the official authorities were relegated in destitution and enabled them to face new destructuring constraints.

Stresses that the corrupt and exclusionary system erected by the "Guide" was unable to satisfy.

Since the fall of the Jamahiriya, following the massive military intervention by the coalition, the country moved to the rhythm of the clashes, the main issues have no relation with democratic slogans of the uprising.

The objectives of the militias involved in the fighting were/are now the control of tribal territories, the occupation of the tracks of cross-border smuggling, presence in strategic sites and predation of resources.

These objectives are the common denominator of all armed factions, whether jihadists, tribal or ethnic.

Security challenges facing Libya in its post-insurgency phase are documented and aggravated by the structural weakness of the institutions resulting from the successive elections held in the country.

These institutions are illustrated by their inability to impose itself as the main levers of regulation of conflicts between various parties in the country.

Realising the weakness of the authorities and the perils that await their interests, the tribes hastened to acquire armed militias.

These ones were quickly hoisted the sovereign status of forces on the territories of the tribes.

The hegemony of armed groups is one of the main causes of the difficult reconstruction of the army in Libya.

The power of the militias within the political spectrum of the country and on tribal territories enables them to work to the marginalization of the military hierarchy with their last battalions stationed in Cyrenaica.

This sidelining of the army by successive governments is an interested concession on the part of a political elite without popular support, to increasingly powerful militias, but especially highly reviled by the people.

Alongside the tribal clashes between armed factions, a new form of violence now opposes local militias to jihadist groups.

This violence knows, since the beginning of 2015, a significant revival in the city of Sirte and in the vicinity of Tripolitanian coast, due to the inability of the new authorities to contain a major security risk, peril they had smoldered for more than two years, hoping to use this in their fratricidal wars against adversaries, the tribal confederation suspected of loyalty to the deceased 'Guide'. However, the jihadist threat is not ready to be contained within the borders of Libya, since the divisions and armed clashes between local tribes and terrorist groups are involved in the spread of violence generated by bonds customary revenge.

The extent of tribal ramifications and the presence of jihadist networks in Sahara-Sahel region are aggravating factors of violence in this part of the continent.

The rise of armed factions and their involvement in the spread of arms trafficking and crime in Libya highlight insecurity in the border regions of neighboring countries.

These regions are, for over two decades, precarious situations and deep crises as economic, security-food, especially in the southern steps of the Fezzan.

In the northern parts of Niger,Mali and, intermittently, Algeria and Tunisia, dissident groups taking advantage of the chaos in Libya and significant resources found in this country, to ignite sedition homes.

Their projects are made possible thanks to the involvement in the circulation of arms flows and networking banditry, smuggling and cross-border terrorism.

The synergy of the strategies inherent in players jihadism, networks of illicit trafficking, local cartels banditry and separatism is expected to enroll more and more in the realities of the Sahara-Sahel countries in favor of the magnitude of the crises that shake the States of the region.

Given this dynamic destabilization fusion, Daesh leaders have reached a strategic order of conviction; no victory is possible for the terrorist network if it faces structured armies or powerful ethnic or religious groups like Shia and Kurdish factions.

Therefore, the geostrategic configuration suitable for Daesh would confront local disunited militias, torn inextricable divisions of tribal and territorial order.

The facts of highly publicized weapons and recent victories Daesh and the considerable financial resources held by this organization in Libya have opened the way for the establishment of a jihadist grouping pole, much of which consists veterans of the war in Syria and Iraq.

Alongside these fighters, Arabs and seasoned majority to fight Daesh, with its immense drawn of Libya resources, is now able to mobilize more terrorists candidates from the countries of the Sahara-Sahel region and could therefore, work to destabilize neighboring regions whose populations suffer from poor conditions.

Does the defeat of Daesh need a new foreign intervention in Libya? The answer would be ‘yes’ if 2011 allied assault achieved its objectives and did not result in the collapse of the Jamahiriya and the outbreak of fratricidal war.

The existence of independent Libyan territorial entities of all forms of authority of the state, invested by terrorist groups, coupled with the absence of a national agreement among the warring parties on crucial issues like the sharing of resources and the organization of power and the persistence of a long tradition of hostility among tribes, help to transform any military action in a disaster of unfathomable implications.

Probable intensive aerial shelling, that would help the Western powers against local powers, would impose, for a time, to a large Libyan political spectrum, their vision for the institutional future of the country, but it would be impossible to maintain cohesion around a settlement dictated by bombs. The rejection of a foreign orderly political solution would inevitably lead to a partition of the country because the potential losers of armed intervention would be better equipped this time to impose their land claims.

Claims increasingly supported by tribal tensions and separatist temptations provinces.

On another level and in the shadow of fighting between militias, major cities are witnessing the birth of movements for social and political protest movements brought and led by young people from urban elites or disadvantaged and precarious strata.

This new dynamic is clearly away from traditional tribal institutional frameworks and political parties formed after the uprising.

The objectives of political dissent and social protest movements are focused on a real and effective participation of the popular strata in the negotiation of a new contract for the building of a more just Libya, free from arbitrariness and chaos militiamen .

It would be dishonest to close this book without mentioning ‘Chatwy’ these Libyan Bedouin poetry sweet texts .

The verses of poetry which are often borrowed from the Koranic numerous metaphors rhetoric to treat painful experiences of men of the desert, their pains, frustrations and deprivations.

In April 2016, the jailers of Tamynah prison in Misrata where the Jamahiriya supporters were imprisoned, discovered on the wall of a cell where was languishing poet and officer Ahmed Abdeljalil Maâdani and before his death this poem was written in blood letters (sorry for very poor translation from Arabic) :

Before closing the path of destiny

And go to meet his sacred face

I would like to make this donation secret

In asking you to remember the flames

Those who caress their incandescent languages

Your murderous hands and hearts extinguished Do you think this war

A left in the darkness of the winners and losers? Do you really buried the Guide?

Have you broken his memory?

By lights Allah threw in my being

And through His prophets will gather my last breath

I swear before His throne

You be hanging ignominy, generations yet

And at the bottom of your souls

Be tattooed your crimes

For before your treachery, there was only one Gaddafi. Today, there are hundreds

And the camel that gave you so much milk

You've abused to better exploit

Lonely, she can not give you that the blood you are Ignorant of His generosity

You decided to kill the taste for flesh You never thought the day after

When you are bitten by the fangs of hunger, It will be useless to regret his milk.

LIBYA - nation-building again?

One of most painful lessons we learned from the Iraq war is that nation-building in Middle East rarely works out as planned.

The US, at the behest of neoconservatives, spent years of effort and trillions of dollars trying to construct a single set of civic institutions in Iraq, only to watch the army disintegrate without a fight before the Islamic State and the parliament slip towards the brink of collapse.
But just because the liberal interventionists couldn’t conjure up a new Iraqi government from scratch doesn’t mean it’s swearing off nation-building entirely. They’re back, and their next target is Libya, currently awash in chaos thanks to the deposal of Moammar Gaddafi, with two rival parliaments, fractious militias in between, and a stretch of the coast under Islamic State control. Into this has stepped the Government of National Accord (GNA), an unelected and fledgling body negotiated into existence with help from a West that’s hoping to unite Libya once again.
Meaning: get ready to give nation-building the old college try once again. And problems are already cropping up.
Start with the fact that the GNA didn’t exactly get off to a promising start. Facing Islamist threats and crossed arms from the existing parliament in Tripoli, the new government’s presidential council was forced to sail into the city after striking a number of deals with militias to secure its safety (prior to that, it was based in neighboring Tunisia). To this day, the GNA operates out of a heavily secured naval base rather than Tripoli’s government buildings, an indication of just how controversial it remains.
At the head of the GNA is Fayez Sarraj, a Libyan elite from a prominent family. He talks about national unity and ruling by consensus, but he also hasn’t been able to dispel suspicions that the GNA is alien—a Western plot by way of Tunis—and unrepresentative. That might be too strident a judgment, but it contains a germ of truth: not a single Libyan has cast a vote for the GNA’s presidential council.
“The real players, the real doers on the ground starting with militia leaders, political leaders, and tribal leaders, were not invited,” a former Libyan prime minister told CNN last week. “We had one government then we had two governments, now we’ve ended up with three governments.”
One of the two remaining governments, the House of Representatives operating in the east out of Tobruk, has refused to endorse the GNA. Tobruk has a robust military led by the iconic General Khalifa Haftar, that’s done its own work rooting out ISIS and al-Qaeda in Benghazi. And in a nose-thumb to Tripoli, Tobruk recently began issuing bank notes that are produced in Russia as currency. There’s little reason for it to accept western authority anytime soon, and its geographical separation—Tobruk is 1300 kms from Tripoli—places it outside the reach of the nascent GNA, at least for now.
The GNA has tried to compensate by aligning itself with several of the country’s factions, including the powerful Libya Dawn militias and fighters from Misrata, in order to boost its military might. This has set up something like a second Race to Berlin, as forces from both east and west rush towards Sirte, ISIS’s self-styled capital in Libya, to kick the Islamic State out. Sirte will probably fall and the GNA will get some deserved plaudits when it does, but the real issue is what the militias will do after that, deprived of a common enemy with plenty of quarrels to reopen.
The problem with our latest nation-building project is that, as with Iraq, Libya is an artificial nation. Once a disorderly kingdom divided into three autonomous provinces and a labyrinth of tribes, it was united by the Gaddafi regime whose brutality ensured that it became a cohesive state. But Gaddafi is gone now, that glue is dissolved, and the country has fractured accordingly—the labyrinth of ideologies, loyalties, and enmities at work in Libya today is truly remarkable.
Out of this discord, the West hopes to bring harmony. It hopes to bring it with a government that was formed in another country and shipped across the sea. By the way, one of the governing principles in the GNA’s charter is that “Islamic Sharia is the source of all legislation, and that all that contradict it shall be deemed null and void.” Perhaps now is a good time for us to get out of the nation-building business?

BATTLE FOR SIRTE 16.6.2016

Fighting Islamic State in Libya

The battle for Sirte

FOR few days, it seemed that Libya’s new government of national accord (GNA), headed by Fayez al-Serraj, the prime minister, was on the verge of a momentous victory last week. Forces aligned with Mr Serraj had driven the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) back over 100 miles. They then captured the airport and seaport of Sirte, the group’s stronghold and the hometown of Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator overthrown (and killed) in 2011. The jihadists were pinned down in the city centre. “The operation will not last much longer,” said Muhammad Ghassri, the GNA’s spokesman, on June 9th.
But up to that point, IS had not put up much resistance. Now the jihadists are hitting back in an attempt to retake the port and other areas. Hundreds of its fighters, many from abroad, remain holed up in Sirte. The GNA’s offensive has stalled. Its forces, made up mostly of militias from Misrata, in the west, have thus far shown a willingness to take casualties. More than 100 of their men have died and some 500 have been injured. But in order to clear Sirte of jihadists, more sacrifice will be needed.

The fighting has certainly hurt IS, which had used its control of roughly 180 miles (290km) of coastline around Sirte to bring in supplies and new recruits. It has now lost almost all of that territory—the latest in a string of setbacks for the jihadists. In February militias backed by American air strikes destroyed its base in Sabratha, in the west. Last year local forces kicked it out of Derna, in north-east Libya. The group’s collapse has led some to doubt previous estimates that it had some 6,000 fighters in Libya, which was seen as a growing jihadist hub.
Many of the group’s leaders are thought to have slipped out of Sirte and gone south. The GNA had threatened its offensive for weeks, so the jihadists knew it was coming. Though aided by American and British soldiers, who are helping with logistics and intelligence, the GNA’s forces failed to secure all of the routes out of Sirte. That would have needed better co-ordination with local militias. “Even if Sirte is liberated, that does not mean that IS is gone from Libya,” says Jason Pack of Eye On ISIS in Libya, a monitoring service.
The offensive may also be intensifying rivalries in Libya, which has been mired in a hot and cold civil war for over two years. The two-month-old GNA, which is backed by the UN and based in Tripoli, the capital, has largely displaced the former government in the west. But it still has not won the support of a rival government in the east. The Libyan National Army, which is led by Khalifa Haftar and aligned to the eastern government, has not participated in the battle for Sirte. The parliament in the east, which must approve the UN-sponsored agreement creating the GNA, says it will vote on the deal—a promise it has made before.
The GNA’s quick advance has, for now, weakened Mr Haftar’s claim to be the West’s best hope of defeating Libya’s jihadists. He looms over the eastern government and is often considered a spoiler of efforts to unify the country. Some say he is losing recruits to the GNA. But it too has been exposed. Its fighting force, drawn from the western town of Misrata, is much the same as the one that backed the old western government and battled Mr Haftar. “It is not a unity government, just a rebranding of Misratan militias,” says Mr Pack. Their loyalty can be fickle. Last year they fought another militia that is now attacking IS from the east.
Despite controlling state institutions, such as the central bank and the national oil firm, the GNA has struggled to establish its authority. It has also been reluctant to assert it in some areas, so as to avoid fuelling separatist sentiment in the east. The offensive against IS, if successful, may rally more Libyans to its side. The UN also hopes to give it a boost: on June 14th the UN Security Council authorised a European naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya.
But there is also now the risk of the jihadists resorting more to terrorism, as they have done elsewhere in the region. An attack in Tripoli or on state infrastructure could quickly undermine the gains the GNA has made. IS was able to gain ground in Libya because a lack of unity led to chaos. That underlying problem still has not been solved

RAMADAN IN LIBIA in collaborazione con un Musulmano

15 Giu 2016

Per le questioni religiose, per esempio per determinare l’inizio del Ramadan o per il pellegrinaggio, in Libia usiamo il calendario lunare. Avvistare la luna nuova è essenziale per individuare il primo giorno del mese di digiuno, che può essere diverso nei vari paesi del Medio Oriente e dell’Africa.
Ai tempi di Gheddafi, la Libia dichiarava l’inizio del Ramadan sempre un giorno prima o uno dopo l’Arabia Saudita. Raramente abbiamo cominciato il digiuno nello stesso momento, perché politica e religione sono due lati della stessa medaglia in mano a chi governa.
A volte abbiamo cominciato due giorni prima o due giorni dopo, con un effetto di buffa confusione. Il muftì non ha mai osato mettere in discussione il volere di Gheddafi. D’altro canto, ancora oggi i muftì non osano farlo nemmeno in Arabia Saudita. Quest’anno tutti i paesi del Nordafrica e del Medio Oriente hanno cominciato il Ramadan lo stesso giorno. Be’, tutti a parte Giordania e Marocco, ma comunque è il miglior risultato di sempre.
Dal barbiere e davanti alla tv
A parte le questioni legate ai muftì e ai governanti, il Ramadan significa per ognuno qualcosa di diverso. Per gli impiegati significa poter arrivare tardi al lavoro, per i barbieri segna l’alta stagione, visto che tutti devono tagliarsi i capelli prima dell’Eid, la festa che segna la fine del Ramadan. Per i proprietari di supermercati e negozi è un festival dello shopping che dura un mese. È un buon momento anche per i canali televisivi libici, che registrano un aumento di spettatori. In Libia si guardano i programmi televisivi libici solo durante il Ramadan: forse diventano più attraenti perché siamo sfiniti dalla disidratazione.
Per altri significa smettere di bere alcolici per almeno 40 giorni prima del Ramadan e non toccarne fino all’ultimo giorno di digiuno. Anche se può sembrare strano, molti libici bevono alcolici e fanno sesso al di fuori del matrimonio, ma non mangeranno mai maiale né si sottrarranno al digiuno.

I bellissimi contorni e le insalate che ci mancano tanto durante l’anno compaiono di nuovo in tavola, e il caffè ha un sapore angelico

Quest’anno, la sera prima della conferma, mio fratello sperava e pregava che il Ramadan cominciasse il giorno seguente. Sarebbe stato il giorno delle sua laurea, e voleva che fosse durante il Ramadan.
Perché? Perché una festa di laurea in Libia significa diventare un bersaglio umano per torte, cibo e a volte oggetti più pesanti se tra i vostri amici ce n’è qualcuno particolarmente su di giri. Non avete idea di quanto fosse contento quando hanno confermato che il giorno dopo sarebbe stato il primo del Ramadan. Quel giorno, così orgoglioso e sicuro di sé, era intoccabile.
orgoglioso e sicuro di sé, era intoccabile.

Vicino alla ex cattedrale di Tripoli, in piazza Algeria.

Io cerco di uscire il meno possibile durante il giorno. Le persone sono stressate e non posso biasimarle. Stare senza caffè il mattino, considerando tutto quel che dobbiamo sopportare, equivale a interpretare una scena di Walking dead, e io stesso sono una persona meno piacevole senza caffeina e nicotina in circolazione nel mio organismo. Quindi la cosa migliore che posso fare è privare l’umanità della mia spiacevole compagnia, almeno durante la prima settimana.
Il sole tramonta più o meno alle otto e un quarto. A quell’ora tutta la famiglia si riunisce attorno a un tavolo, e ogni cosa è come se la assaporassi per la prima volta. La zuppa libica è una parte essenziale del pasto di rottura del digiuno. È senza alcun dubbio la zuppa migliore che potrete mai assaggiare. I bellissimi contorni e le insalate che ci mancano tanto durante l’anno compaiono nuovamente in tavola, e il caffè ha un sapore angelico.
Dio farà un’eccezione
Dopo il pasto completo, in teoria comincia la giornata, ma di notte, come quella dei vampiri. Magari ti viene voglia di andare a fare una passeggiata, perché di notte la città è affollata e piena di vita. La gente sorride e socializza dal vivo, non mandando messaggi o condividendo post. Tanti passano il tempo in moschea a leggere il Corano e a pregare.
Devo dire che quest’anno la parte più difficile del Ramadan non sarà solo astenersi dal mangiare, bere e fare sesso durante il giorno. Dovremo digiunare anche nel linguaggio, evitando di imprecare.
Le sfide quotidiane che ogni essere umano deve affrontare non sono un problema, né lo sono le difficoltà riservate nello specifico ai libici. Affrontarle durante il digiuno non è così male come sembra. E lo stesso vale per le interruzioni di energia elettrica qualche ora prima del tramonto.
La cosa più difficile è che abbiamo tre governi, due parlamenti e un consiglio di stato e tutti i giorni, per sedici ore, non possiamo maledire nessuno di questi. È troppo.
Credo che quest’anno Dio farà un’eccezione.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION

For religious issues, for example, to determine the start of Ramadan, or the pilgrimage, in Libya we use the lunar calendar. To sight the new moon it is essential to identify the first day of the fasting month, which can be different in the various countries of the Middle East and Africa.To Gaddafi's time, Libya declared the start of Ramadan is always one day before or one after Saudi Arabia. Rarely we have we started fasting at the same time, because politics and religion are two sides of the same coin in the hands of those who govern.Sometimes we began two days before or two days later, with a funny confusion effect. The mufti has never dared to question the will of Gaddafi. On the other hand, even today, the muftis do not dare to do it even in Saudi Arabia. This year all the countries of North Africa and the Middle East began Ramadan on the same day. Be ', all except Jordan and Morocco, but it is the best result ever.
Apart from the issues related to the Mufti and to the rulers, Ramadan means something different for everyone. For employees it means to be late to work, for barbers marks the high season, as everyone must cut their hair before Eid, the feast that marks the end of Ramadan. For owners of supermarkets and shops is a shopping festival that lasts a month. It is a good moment for the Libyan television channels, which recorded an increase of spectators. Libya Libyan television programs you watch only during Ramadan, perhaps become more attractive because we are exhausted from dehydration.For others it means stop drinking alcohol for at least 40 days before Ramadan or touch until the last day of fasting. Although it may seem strange, many Libyans drink alcohol and have sex outside of marriage, but never eat pork or shirk fasting.The beautiful side dishes and salads that we miss so much in the year appear again on the table, and the coffee has an angelic flavorThis year, the evening before the confirmation, my brother hoped and prayed that Ramadan began the next day. It would have been the day of his graduation, and wanted it to be during Ramadan.Because? Because a graduation party in Libya means becoming a human target for cakes, food and sometimes heavier objects among your friends if there is someone very excited. You have no idea how glad when they confirmed that the next day would be the first of Ramadan. That day, so proud and confident of himself,, was untouchable.
I try to leave as little as possible during the day. People are stressed and I can not blame them. Live without coffee in the morning, considering all that we have to endure, it is to play a scene of Walking Dead, and I myself am a person less enjoyable without caffeine and nicotine circulating in my body. So the best thing I can do is to deprive humanity of my unpleasant company, at least during the first week.The sun sets more or less at eight-fifteen. At that time the whole family gathers around a table, and everything is as if the assaporassi for the first time. The Libyan soup is an essential part of the breaking of the fast meal. It is without any doubt the best soup you will ever taste. The beautiful side dishes and salads that we miss so much in the year appear on the table again, and the cafe has an angelic flavor.
After the meal, in theory start the day, but at night, like the vampires. Maybe you feel like going for a walk, because at night the city is crowded and full of life. People smile and socialize live, not sending messages or sharing post. Many spend time in the mosque to read the Koran and pray.I must say that this year the most difficult part of Ramadan will not only refrain from eating, drinking and having sex during the day. We will also have to fast in the language, avoiding the curse.The daily challenges that every human being has to face are not a problem, nor are the difficulties reserved specifically to the Libyans. Address them during fasting is not as bad as it seems. And the same goes for interruptions of electricity a few hours before sunset.The hardest thing is that we have three governments, two parliaments, and a council of state, and all the days, sixteen hours, we can not curse any of these. It's too much.I believe that God will make an exception this year.