by Musa Keilani | Mar 10,2012 | 22:43 JORDAN TIMES
Is there a new civil war in the making in Libya? It does appear so, with local leaders announcing that they plan to make Benghazi and the surrounding areas a “semi-autonomous region” and the new regime in Tripoli pledging to unite the country even “with force”.
The move by Benghazi leaders underlines their frustration on several counts. They believe that they have not been given the recognition they deserve after they initiated the revolt that overthrew the regime of Muammar Qadhafi. They say that they are not represented in the new government led by the National Transitional Council (NTC), headed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil. They are also upset that the NTC absorbed a large number of Qadhafi loyalists who, they think, should even be tried for their role in the oppressive regime that was toppled.
The rift in post-Qadhafi Libya owes its roots to the very creation of modern Libya. The situation could be considered largely similar to the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
Libya achieved independence from Italy in December 1951. It had been held under British (for Tripolitania and Cyrenaica) and French (Fezzan) administration since 1943. At that time, the colonial powers united the three regions and installed King Idris in power. However, the monarch was uneasy about the three areas being patched together because of the marked differences among the ethnicities of their people and the various tribes that lived there.
Qadhafi took advantage of the differences to overthrow Idris and assume power in 1969. He kept the country together using coercion, favours and sheer oppression against dissent.
The people of the eastern part of the country, including Benghazi, always felt that they were denied their share of national wealth and development (not to mention a role in Qadhafi’s government). There was not much love lost among the residents of the three major parts of the country — the western Tripolitania, the eastern Cyrenaica and the central Fezzan. Those differences came to the fore in post-revolt Libya.
The Benghazi leaders’ move for semi-autonomy and a region called Barqa (Arabic name for Cyrenaica) is a serious threat to the central government since the area contains most of the country’s oil riches.
They named Ahmed Al Zubair Al Sanussi, a relative of the monarch overthrown in 1969, as head of the Cyrenaica Transitional Council. They said that they will leave defence, foreign affairs and hydrocarbon resources under the control of the central government.
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