By MICHEL COUSINS | ARAB NEWS
BENGHAZI: At the entrance to the supposedly four-star Uzu Hotel in Benghazi, as in other hotels and restaurants in the city, there is a sign indicating guns must not be brought in. Another sign, also plastered around the city, exhorts men not to fire off guns in the air for the very good reason that what goes up must come down. People could be killed by falling bullets. Some have.
Both signs are completely ignored.
It is disconcerting to be in one of the city’s smarter restaurants, as was the case last week, and see a couple of well-dressed young men saunter in, Kalashnikovs in hand, greet friends and then sit down and order a meal. The weapons were casually put on the table as if they were briefcases or mobile phones
That is because men wandering around with sub machine guns are a daily sight in present day Libya, even though it is 10 months since the city rose up and threw out Qaddafi’s forces and two and a half since Tripoli was liberated. The fact that the conflict is well and truly over means nothing. Militiamen have not been disarmed nor militias disbanded — and there are tens of thousands of them. The Union of Revolutionary Forces based in eastern Libya accounts for 25,000 militiamen. In the west, the Misrata Brigade has at least 6,000 men, the Jadu Brigade from the Berber Nafusa mountains reportedly has over 4,000 and the Tripoli Brigade is said to number 10,000.
Children sit on destroyed tank in Tripoli Street. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)