BENGHAZI, Libya —Three people were killed and dozens injured when protesters tried to overrun the base of a powerful militia in Benghazi early Saturday morning, according to Libyan state television.
The clashes followed a protest Friday in which thousands of Libyans marched through the city demanding the dissolution of militias that have ruled the country’s streets since a revolution ended the 42-year rule of Moammar Gaddafi.
Many Libyans have blamed extremist groups for the attack on the U.S. consulate here last week that left four Americans dead. The groups have operated with relative impunity in the security vacuum that has prevailed since Gaddafi’s ouster and death last year.
After nightfall Friday, hundreds of protesters stormed the base of Ansar al-Sharia, the extremist militia that many have accused of leading the consulate attack, forcing the retreat of Ansar al-Sharia fighters.
The protesters then turned their rage on other militias, storming the base of Rafallah al-Sahati, an influential Benghazi militia with conservative Islamist leanings, which until recently had controlled the city’s airport. The confrontation sparked a firefight, and Libyan television broadcast footage of injured men being rushed to hospital emergency rooms.
The group’s leader, Ismail Salabi, was lightly injured, according to his brother-in-law.
It was unclear whether Libya’s weak police force had regained control of the militia bases Saturday morning. Rumors circulated that Rafallah al-Sahati had retaken its base.
The government in Tripoli has struggled to deal with the militias, which are composed largely of the young men who fought in last year’s revolution. Its efforts to bring some of the militias under a more unified national force have failed to deliver state-run security to Libya’s streets.
On Friday, as protesters draped in the red, black and green of the Libyan flag carried signs reading “Benghazi deserves better” and “No legitimacy, except to the police or the army,” Ansar al-Sharia held its own protest in nearby Al-Kish Square. The militia’s members gathered to call for the implementation of Islamic law in a demonstration that the anti-militia crowd said marked a provocation.
The dueling protests underscored a broader struggle underway in the country nearly a year after Libyans from across the political spectrum joined hands in an eight-month war to oust Gaddafi. It is a battle to define a new Libya — to answer the crucial question of what the Libyan people, government and culture look like when the shackles of dictatorship are thrown off.
“I think the struggle that’s eating people up right now is the struggle for an identity,” said Alya Barghathy, an English professor at Benghazi University who joined the anti-militia protest Friday. “After all these years of being neglected and living in darkness, they don’t know who they are.”
The collapse of Gaddafi’s regime left a system in a shambles. After decades of repression, the country has lurched forward in recent months to form political parties and elect a General National Congress. The next task will be the drafting of a new constitution.
Opposition to the militias has been building since shortly after Gaddafi’s fall. Late last year, militias not based in Tripoli were asked by the transitional government to withdraw from the streets of the capital after residents complained that their neighborhoods had been overrun by young men with guns. A Gallup poll released this month showed that 95 percent of Libyans want to see the militias dissolved. But Friday’s protest was the biggest public showing of anti-militia sentiment to date.
Not all of the militias are rooted in Islamist extremism. But groups such as Ansar al-Sharia have proved a volatile addition to an already contentious debate over the proper role of religion in the new Libya.
Many Libyans, from the liberal elites who dominate the congress to members of the more conservative Muslim Brotherhood, describe their Islam as a moderate and tolerant one. Few — not even Western-educated secularists — say they want a constitution that doesn’t draw from Islamic law.
But the assault on the U.S. Consulate, which American officials now describe as a terrorist attack, has thrown that characterization into sudden and stark relief: Not everyone agrees on what Islamic law — or a state guided by it — actually means.
“There is no doubt that in our societies, we have liberal Muslims who say, ‘I’m a Muslim and I believe Islam belongs only in the mosque,’ ” said Ramadan Eldarsi, a high-ranking official of the Muslim Brotherhood. “But we think that Islam is a broader way to organize people’s lives, not just what they do within a mosque.”
Eldarsi said the Brotherhood differentiates itself from extremist groups such as Ansar al-Sharia in that it advocates peace and tolerance, and believes in the democratic process.
Extremist groups say they are also ready for a fight for the kind of state they want to see. But it’s the tools of that struggle that the moderates say they’re worried about.
At sunset Friday, the anti-militia marchers slowed as they hit a wall of black flags at the edge of Al-Kish Square in downtown Benghazi. A few hundred of Ansar al-Sharia’s followers stood clustered at the entrance to the square, chanting the declaration of Islam: “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger.”
On the anti-militia side of the crowd, Libyan flags flapped in the wind and someone started blasting pop music from a car.
The mood was tense.
Slowly, some dared to cross the invisible line.
“All of those people are asking for security. But security under what conditions?” said one 19-year-old Ansar al-Sharia member who gave his name only as Mohamed, glancing toward the approaching protest. “There is security under Sharia and there is another kind of security that is created by humans.”
Asked which type Libya is closest to, he responded: “This government is illegitimate.”
Ansar al-Sharia, which formally established itself with a military parade in Benghazi in June, opposes Libya’s transition to democracy, saying the system of elected leadership runs counter to Islamic principles. Ansar al-Sharia acknowledged its members’ involvement in the protest outside the U.S. Consulate but has denied responsibility for the attack.
“It’s a very easy [accusation] to make,” the group’s spokesman, Hany Mansouri, said this week. “People can’t distinguish between the Islamic characters in Benghazi, so it’s easy to use our name.”
To many, Libya’s religious extremists represent a minority, but an increasingly threatening one in the absence of a strong government security force. That is why many said they framed their anti-militia protest Friday as one calling for rule of law and an end to the right of independent groups such as Ansar al-Sharia to bear arms.
“The Gaddafi regime created a sort of factory for extremism,” said Eldarsi, the Muslim Brotherhood official. “Now the youth have unlimited freedom. They have guns. And they have the wrong thoughts. All of these elements are going to create something negative.”
Barghathy, the professor, said the challenge lies in strengthening a national army and police force, while offering opportunities to young people.
“This is a globalized world, and you can’t just put us back in a bottle,” she said. “We need to do a lot of education and enlightenment. You know, the very first word of the Quran is ‘Read.’ ” |
|
