LONDON: Libya’s descent into chaos has reached a new nadir with the abduction of the interim prime minister, Ali Zaidan. Rival armed militias, a desperately weak central government and an alarming rise in Islamic extremism are a volatile and dangerous mixture that makes many yearn for a new strongman to replace Muammar Gaddafi.
Conflicting regional and tribal demands have been a regular feature of the country’s political scene since the dictator’s overthrow by Nato-backed rebels in August 2011, one of the most dramatic moments of the Arab spring. Few Libyans would want to see Gaddafi back, but a chronic lack of security and a worsening economic climate in recent months are casting dark clouds.
Last week’s US special forces raid to capture a fugitive Libyan Al Qaida leader, the likely trigger for the move against Zaidan, was a humiliating reminder both of the weakness of the government and of how the country has become a safe haven for terrorists. No one has yet been charged over the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in September 2012. The Russian and French embassies in Tripoli have both been attacked this year.
But Zaidan’s kidnapping is only an extreme form of what has become normal in Libya’s wild post-Gaddafi political culture. Power comes not from debate in a divided parliament or the interim executive, but from the barrel of a gun. Opponents of government policy will routinely take over a ministry or surround the Congress to force submission to their demands. Protests by state employees began even before Gaddafi was brutally killed by rebels in his home town of Sirte two months after the fall of Tripoli.
On the surface, the capital now feels more normal than it did in the first year after the revolution. New restaurants and coffee shops are opening, and there is even a branch of Debenhams. Fewer armed men and truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns are on the streets. But the gunmen are still in their barracks and efforts to integrate them into a national army and police force are moving painfully slowly. Saif Al Islam, Gaddafi’s son, remains in custody in the western town of Zintan, where local fighters refuse to hand him over for trial in Tripoli.
Economic problems are compounding the general sense of open-ended crisis. Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa — the source of enormous potential wealth for a country of just six million people. But oil terminals have been blockaded by militiamen demanding a greater share of the revenues for their own regions. Foreign investment has been sluggish because of insecurity, red tape and corruption.
Britain and other western governments were quick to condemn the prime minister’s abduction and express support for the continuing “political transition”. In September 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, were hailed as heroes for their role in overthrowing Gaddafi when they appeared at Tripoli’s luxurious Corinthia hotel — the same place where Zaidan was hustled into the custody of gunmen on another very bad day for the new Libya.
