Tripoli: Libya’s de facto head of state Mohammad Megaryef said on Saturday that not all areas of the country have been liberated, in remarks on the first anniversary of Muammar Gaddafi’s death.
“The campaign to liberate the country has not been fully completed,” Megaryef, the head of Libya’s powerful national assembly, said on state television.
He singled out the town of Bani Walid, scene of deadly clashes in recent days, and one of the final strongholds of Gaddafi’s dictatorial regime during the 2011 revolution that ousted and killed him.
Megaryef, the president of the democratically elected General National Congress, gave a sombre assessment of the post-Gaddafi period.
He noted in particular “delays and negligence” in the formation of a professional army and police force, and the failure to disarm and integrate former rebels.
He also noted that delays in reactivating and reforming the judiciary had hampered national reconciliation.
“This situation has created a state of discontent and tension among different segments of society and contributed to the spread of chaos, disorder, corruption and weakness in the performance of various government agencies,” said Megaryef.
The assessment comes one year after rebel fighters captured Gaddafi in his hometown Sirte. Exactly how Gaddafi was killed on October 20, 2011 remains a point of contention.
Army units backed by militias from towns such as Misrata and Zlitan have been blockading Bani Walid since September 25, when Libya’s parliament issued a decree authorizing security forces to enter the town and arrest individuals accused of a series of kidnappings.
Thick black smoke was visible Friday rising from the town as fighting continued despite a 48-hour-truce declared in the morning by Army Chief of Staff Yousuf Mangoush. The truce declaration was reported by Al Jazeera television, with army spokesman Mohammad Al Gandus saying it was being organised to allow civilians to flee the town, 145km southeast of Tripoli.
“All the families are still here, nobody decided to leave,” a town official, Abdul Salem Al Fukahi, said in a telephone interview. “They will stay in their homes and live or die.”
Army and militia forces have set up camps along a highway south of the town, and are moving into position Soviet-era tanks and 155 mm howitzers.
Al Gandus has said that several hundred Gaddafi loyalists are in the town, and they face jail if captured.
