Over a thousand Libyans
rallying for the autonomy of the oil-rich east have flocked to central
Benghazi. Calls to divide Libya have met with stiff opposition from the
government who brand them as foreign-inspired plots to weaken national unity.
Libyans calling for the
creation of the semi-autonomous region of Cyrenaica waved banners and chanted
separatist slogans. Cyrenaica stretches from the Mediterranean coast to
southern neighbor Chad and boasts almost three quarters of Libya’s sizeable oil
reserves.
“Ignoring our demands for
federalism has dire consequences on the future of Libya,” read one banner.
The activists would like to see
Libya’s second-largest city become the nation’s economic capital, housing the
central bank and oil and finance ministries.
Earlier in the meeting the
separatist movement released an official declaration, stating their “full
support for the elected government, which won the confidence of the General
National Congress, in order to draft a constitution on the basis of the
legitimate constitution of 1951.”
Under the 1951 constitution,
the country was divided into three administrative zones – Tripolitania, Fezzan
and Cyrenaica. The federalist movement claim that they were neglected under the
Gaddafi regime and want the new constitution to be based around the previous
federal union system.
The pro-federalism movement
materialized in March in Benghazi, the seat of the uprisings that ousted former
dictator Colonel Gaddafi. Libya’s transitional government was quick to condemn
the separatist movement, denouncing it as the product of foreign plots aimed
and inciting instability and attacking national unity.
The fragmentation of Libyan
society remains one of the largest obstacles facing the country’s leaders.
Despite the creation of an interim government Libya is still plagued by tribal
confrontations and clashes between pro-Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi militias which
the government has struggled to bring under control.
Government forces laid siege to
the former regime stronghold of Bani Walid for several weeks as authorities
seek to wheedle out and arrest those who captured and tortured Omran Shaaban,
the 22-year-old who reportedly captured Gaddafi.
Humanitarian organizations
condemned the government’s blockade, saying that it was preventing invaluable
food and medicine supplies from entering the town. Additionally, Libyan
activists in the city told RT that chemical weapons had been used on civilians in
Bani Walid by militia forces.
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