Benghazi, Libya: A member of the Benghazi city council says the Libyan cities under rebel control have appointed an ex-justice minister to lead a provisional government.
Fat'hi Baja says opponents of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi named Mustafa Abdul Jalil to the provisional leadership post. Baja said on Sunday that Abdul Jalil was chosen by the committees running the eastern Libyan cities now in the rebellion's hands.
On Saturday, Libya's top envoy to the US also said Gaddafi opponents were rallying behind efforts to form an alternative government led by Abdul Jalil, who has criticised Gaddafi's brutal crackdown on protesters.
It was not immediately clear how much support the proposed provisional leadership commands.
In Libya's second city of Benghazi, protesters who had braved gunfire to wrest control from government troops now clutch brooms, emulating Egyptians who cleaned central Cairo after mass protests toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
In some Libyan and other Middle Eastern cities, rubbish is dumped from car windows or left to pile up on the roadside, a phenomenon cleaning volunteers said was partly due to the feeling the country they lived in did not belong to them.
"This is a way to be together as a society, to show that this is one country, our country," said Ahmad Boualajaily, 30, who for 14 hours had been sweeping away detritus left by thousands of protesters in Benghazi, now rebel-controlled.
Threat to power
People said fear of Gaddafi crushed any sense of community spirit, with his regime — as in Egypt — seeing popular mobilisation as a threat to their power.
Benghazi's new interim leaders, who had helped organise the protests that on Monday took control of the city from government troops, said people were volunteering for cleaning and other projects to show their fear had gone.
"There was a community feeling before, but only within friends and family. We were too scared to let our feelings be known," said Najla Al Mangoosh, a media worker for the February 17 committee which leads the Benghazi protest movement. "Few people had a feeling they belonged to this country. We felt like aliens," she added.
Tight grip
Gaddafi and his family has for more than 40 years maintained a tight grip on Libya, monopolising government posts and lucrative contracts.
The flamboyant autocrat and one of his sons, Saif Al Islam, have appeared on television several times as anti-government protests rocked the country, with Gaddafi calling protesters "rats", and his son warning of civil war.
Volunteers said cleaning the city showed they were not vermin, and not out to destroy. Some institutions associated with Gaddafi, such as a political office, had been torched, but protesters pointed to untouched buildings nearby, including banks and other sensitive institutions.
"The young people are now working hand-in-hand, cleaning the streets, without anyone telling us to do this.
"Before the revolution, Gaddafi dominated everything, even our thoughts. Now we're free," said student Awad Ajami, 21.
