Was ist los in Libyen? Ursachen, Wirkung und Entwicklung / Sammelstrang

[Towarish]

etwas, was auch ihm noch blühen könnte falls russland ihn fallen lässt.

Der Aggressor hat gesprochen!

[Steiner]

Eine bemerkenswerte Aussage des derzeitigen libyschen Ratteninnenministers. Laut seiner Aussage hat man gegen die Zerstörung der Sufischreine deshalb nichts unternommen, da die Salafisten den NTC-Milizen an Waffen und Männern!!! überlegen sind. Man will laut seiner Aussage keine Schlacht beginnen, die man sowieso verlieren wird.

Tripoli: Interior Minister Fawzi Abdul Ali has warned that Islamists amount to a “major force” in Libya both in terms of numbers and arms, following a surge in violence including attacks on shrines.

“These people are a major force in terms of numbers and the equipment they have in Libya,” said the minister as he reversed a decision to resign that he had taken after accusations of lax security.

“These people have arms and big groups. We must not close our eyes to this,” the minister told a press conference on Tuesday, ruling out a head-on confrontation with Islamist hardliners.

“As for me, I am not going to go into a losing battle and will not kill people because of a tomb,” he said, referring to the destruction of shrines by the hardliners as “a very complicated business” that required dialogue.

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[Steiner]

Der LibyanHerald hat eine sehr gute Zusammenfassung über die Zerstörung der Sufi Schreine herausgebracht. Laut diesem Artikel war es den Salafis nur deshalb möglich die Schreine zu zerstören, da sie die Unterstützung von lokalen NTC-Brigaden hatten......

The tanks at the checkpoints set up right after Tripoli were enough to give away that something was wrong — as indeed there was. Only 15 kilometres outside Zliten, the town famous for its Sufi shrine, the sounds of distant explosions told people waiting in the long queues of cars at the last check point before Zliten what was happening. A fight was underway and with each loud explosion taking place fairly regularly its intensity was clear to everybody. The explosions came from a 106mm gun.

It was not until the small hours of the Friday morning that it was evident the clashes which had started as a tribal issue had engulfed the whole city.

The explosions increased and intensified after midnight and the sound of small calibre weapons were audible, like anti-aircraft weapons — compared to those of 106mm. The local radio stations in Zliten were broadcasting war-time programmes and blaming the chaos on Qaddafi supporters. It was reported that a green flag had been raised in the city centre and that the revolutionaries were now trying to clear the area. A warning was then issued that 100 tanks and hundreds of armed cars were on their way to Zliten in support of the Qaddafi forces with plans to seize the town. It turned out to be not true.

The radios were calling for all revolutionaries to come out and fight for the town. It was 2 a.m. Suddenly one of the stations switched to airing Takbeers on repetition whilst the other congratulated the people that reinforcements have arrived from Misrata and Tripoli. This too never happened.

The explosions kept happening at regular intervals through the night. The loudest took place around 5 a.m. on Friday morning, followed by another loud explosion 15 minutes later. A group of people in cars drove to a building nine kilometres west of Zliten — I was told it was a water plant — raided it and set it on fire. A petrol station was also set alight a few hours later in the same area.

Random explosions kept occurring after sunrise. The security officials then raided a compound where a building had been burned earlier. They kept shooting at the empty buildings and setting rounds towards the sea. They were, unintentionally, firing towards the part of the valley where some friends and I were camping. It lasted just about five minutes. We lay on the ground the whole time to avoid the bullets that were flying over our heads with the distinctive ‘whizzing’ sound.

The road towards Zliten was empty although there was some activity inside the city. Houses were bullet ridden, used shells scattered all around the area suggesting the intensity of the fighting that took place.

It had started as a clash between two branches of the local Awlad Al-Sheikh tribe following the killing of a man from one of the them. The tribe are descended from Sidi Abdel Salaam Al-Asmer whose shrine was the focus of Friday’s battle. Fighting escalated on Thursday to a fully-fledged gun battle involving heavy weapons after both sides called in allies from outside, some coming from Bani Walid. This angered locals and exacerbated the conflict. Meanwhile Salafists in Zliten were already involved in the conflict and used the chance to demolish the shrine.

Belonging to a Sunni school of thought that sticks to a strict interpretation of the faith, they view the idea of praying to saints and considering them holy as polytheism and the practices going on in such shrines as un-Islamic. The keeper of the Zliten shrine was also accused of black magic, however, no evidence was shown.

The dome in the main round-about, named after the marabout whose shrine was destroyed, was also destroyed.

The building with shops across from the shrine was totally burned and so was a mobile shop in an adjacent street. The streets were littered with used shells and debris, the houses were bullet ridden and there were two burned-out cars in front of the shrine. The holes in the walls suggested the use not only of 14.5mm anti-aircraft gun but the heavier calibre ones as well.

When the Salafists attacked the shrine and the dome in the square, heavy fighting took place but they were large in numbers — almost all the brigdades were involved in the demolition.
The popular version, however, is that the shrine was demolished by one of the two branches of the Awlad Al-Sheikh tribe after some people came from Bani Walid to avenge the death of the man killed. Another version was that the clash was not tribal but that Qaddafi supporters were involved in the demolition. It was later clear that the people involved in the destruction of the shrine were not pro-Qaddafi. This seems to have been an attempt to cover up the issue.

Speaking while efforts to exhume the body were ongoing, the fighters present at the shrine said that 16 people had been killed in the fight and that where they were was nothing less than a ‘frontline war’. This too may have been an exaggeration, although they faced stiff resistance from people trying to stop the demolition of the shrine.

The situation around the area of the Asmariya Islamic University complex which houses the shrine was all the more chaotic not only with the heavy presence of armed men but with several people visiting it. Their faces were grim and they recited prayers to make their discontent clear. There was a great deal of argument between the visitors and those demolishing the shrine although all ended with both sides saying “May Allah guide you to the right path” to the other.

The shrine was incorporated in the mosque. The fighters destroyed the dome by planting explosives on it and then the grave was destroyed by a jack hammer. The Salafists and their supporters tried to exhume the body in order to rebury it secretly so that there would be no longer be shrine in which to pray. They dug down five metres but did not find anything — and nothing has been said since about a body being found.

The mosque was also badly damaged, with the minarets sprayed with bullets and missing chunks of masonry. The building next to the mosque, said to be a library, was totally burned.

Until last week, the shrine was visited by thousands every month with people coming not only from different parts of Libya but from other countries. They used to seek blessings and offered sacrifices to have their prayers heard.

The Salafists had tried to attack the building earlier this year but were repulsed by local fighters and then agreed to have the issue decided upon by the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadek Al-Ghariani.

This time they succeeded because they did not give any time for the authorities to intervene. They also had the support of the local brigades who were present at the time of demolition, a crucial factor they lacked the last time.

The destruction of the Sufi shrine in Zliten was not the first of its kind in free Libya. According to reports it has been going on from early summer last year. The first shrine in Tripoli was demolished days after the fall of Bab-al-Aziziya. The demolition of shrines continued till earlier this year when a fatwa from the Grand Mufti halted it temporarily.

The events of Zliten, as expected, have emboldened Salafists elsewhere and the first blow came in the capital itself where the shrine in front of the Radisson Blu hotel was demolished on Saturday. The Sidi Sha’ab Mosque housing the shrine was very badly damaged and is likely to be leveled. The bodies from the two shrines on the same road as of the Sha’ab Mosque were also exhumed but the structure was left intact.

The destruction of the Sufi shrine in Tripoli is more controversial as it was carried out under the eye of official security agencies. The road was blocked by the police cars with dozens of policemen present. The move was immediately condemned by the head of the National Congress, Muhammed Magarief, who promised said that those responsible will be dealt with.

Surprisingly, the condemnations came almost two days after the shrine was demolished in Zliten. The incidents of Tripoli might have been avoidable, if the authorities had responded more quickly to the Zliten incident.

The deputy Prime Minister, Mustafa Abushagur, also condemned the incident calling it an act of crime and saying that those involved would be held responsible. However, given the state of security in the country and the fact that no criminal has so far been held responsible for any crime since liberation, it is understandable that some people have no fear of being held responsible for their acts or that they can feel nothing is going to stop them doing what they want.

Voices are now being heard belatedly saying that these incidents must serve as a wakeup call and that there needs to be an immediate crackdown on any unsanctioned activity in the country.

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[Quo vadis]

Mörsertreffer in ein Rattennest während der Schlacht um Sirte

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Mir bisher unbekanntes Material vom toten Gaddafi, gut ist der Bauchschuss zu erkennen.

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[Alfred]

Ein Land ganz nach dem Geschmack der Natoratten, der Demokröten und ihrer Geldgeber, Lybien heute, mehr als 1000 Menschen wurden in der größten Massenhinrichtung der neuen Zeit die Kehlen durchgeschnitten...:

Called Funduq Al-Jannah - Arabic for Heaven Hotel - it is an execution ground where up to 1,000 of Gaddafi’s fighters were taken by the victorious rebel army, then slaughtered in cold-blooded vengeance.


The prisoners’ hands were bound with plastic ties. They were ordered to lie on their side, with their heads on piles of sand. All my guides were involved, saying they had held the legs of the prisoners while their throats were cut with bayonets. Every one of them denied killing any captives themselves

Back to bloody anarchy: Andrew Malone revisits Libya and finds a country riven by torture, mass murder and savage vengeance

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[dorbei]

Die Milizen sind weiterhin die de-facto Herrscher in Libyen:

A group of thuwwar, as anti-Gaddafi fighters are commonly known, got angry at what they considered to be a light sentence imposed on an alleged Gadhafi supporter. They barged into the courtroom and insulted and threatened one of the judges.

In a separate incident in late June, a group of armed men abducted a public prosecutor in al-Zawiya. They held him for several hours before dragging him into the prosecution’s office demanding he be punished for ordering the release of a detainee they accused of committing crimes. They only left when other members of the prosecution promised to conduct an investigation.

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Das ganze Demokratie- und Wahltheater ist nur eine Scharade für die "Weltgemeinschaft", denn das 2011 erlassene Waffenembargo gegen Libyen ist immernoch in Kraft.

[dorbei]

Die während des arabischen "Frühlings" eingefrorenen Staatsvermögen (Libyen allein ca. 170 Mrd. $) sind anscheinend immer noch nicht freigegeben:

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — U.S. President Barack Obama is pledging American support for Arab Spring nations seeking to recover assets from their toppled regimes.

Obama says the return of the money — which he estimates could be billions of dollars — is needed to help rebuild and stabilize countries such as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

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Obwohl die "Despoten" ja schon lange weg sind. Ein Schelm, wer dabei Böses denkt.

[Alfred]

Die während des arabischen "Frühlings" eingefrorenen Staatsvermögen (Libyen allein ca. 170 Mrd. $) sind anscheinend immer noch nicht freigegeben:[Links nur für registrierte Nutzer]

Obwohl die "Despoten" ja schon lange weg sind. Ein Schelm, wer dabei Böses denkt.

170 Mrd. $ ohne nennenswerte eigene Verluste, die Drecksarbeit machen die Hilfstruppen, dazu die Ölquellen. Dafür nimmt man doch gern die vielen Toten in Kauf.

[Quo vadis]

Späte Genugtuung für den Oberst

In der libyschen Stadt Bengasi wurde ein amerikanischer Diplomat getötet, als Demonstranten Schüsse abgaben und die US-Vertretung niederbrannten.

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[Bettmaen]

Ob die libyischen Söldner, die den "ungläubigen" und säkularen Assad stürzen wollen, nun heimkehren und zu Hause den "Aktivisten" geben?