Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/444527
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 2015 15 News A tale of two Libyas PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MANGION JURGEN BALZAN AS Libya descends into further cha- os, the representative of the Tripoli government – which has so far not been recognised by the international community – believes that by the end of the year, peace will return to the troubled North African country. According to the Tripoli govern- ment's chargé d'affaires Hussin Mus- rati, who has not been recognised by the Maltese government, Malta and the rest of the world will soon come to realise that his government is the legitimate representative of Libya. "We expect the world to respect the Libyan Constitutional Court's decree that the Tripoli government is the legitimate representative of Libya." The Libyan parliament based in Tobruk recently announced it would not issue any visas to Maltese citizens, unless they are security- cleared. This latest step in the com- plication of Maltese-Libyan relations comes on the back of a tug-of-war between the Libya Dawn embassy based in Balzan, and the Tobruk- backed embassy that is now located in Ta' Xbiex, both purporting to rep- resent Libya. On following a war of words be- tween Musrati and the recognised chargé d' affaires representing the Tobruk government – now based in Ta Xbiex – we were greeted at the desolate Balzan embassy by the dip- lomat and two aides. Attempts to interview the Tobruk government's representative Al- Habib Al-Amin proved futile as the chargé d'affaires recognised by the Maltese government is refusing to give interviews. In recent months all reports emerging from Libya have been pointing towards a disintegrating country where reports of kidnap- pings in Tripoli are on the increase, electricity and water shortages have become the norm and not an excep- tion, banks have run out of hard cur- rency, the price of fuel – which has become a scarce commodity in the oil-rich country – is set to increase three-fold and pro-democracy ac- tivists are receiving real and online threats by Islamists who have occu- pied the city of Derna. However, according to Musrati, all reports of violence, unrest and instability are mainly incorrect and reports in the Western media, in- cluding in Malta, are based on lies propagated by the Tobruk govern- ment. "From the northern shores to the desert in the south, almost the whole territory in Libya is under the con- trol of the Salvation Government in Tripoli. At the moment there is some fighting to the east of Tripoli in a former army barracks which is surrounded by government forces." He added that Tripoli and the rest of the country is safe, "the universi- ties and schools are open, banks are open, fuel stations are open and full of fuel and we only have a few en- ergy outages because General Haftar is attacking power plants to create disgruntlement. But the Libyan peo- ple are holding protests all over the country showing their support for the Tripoli government." Khalifa Haftar, a formerly rogue military leader who embarked on a self-styled 'War on Terror' against Islamists in Benghazi in the east and who now leads the recently rebrand- ed 'Libyan National Army' in the at- tempts to retake Tripoli. Musrati also blames the displace- ment of thousands of people on Libya Dawn's siege on Warshefana, an area on the outskirts of Tripoli, which Musrati said was sheltering a number of escaped prisoners and criminals. Last year, the disbanded Libyan General National Congress that was replaced by the House of the Representatives in an election in June nominated an Islamist-backed prime minister, leaving the chaotic country with two rival prime minis- ters, governments and parliaments, each backed by armed militias. On one side is the newly elected parliament that has been exiled to the eastern city of Tobruk – support- ed by what remains of Gaddafi sol- diers who defected during the 2011 revolution, as well as regional pow- ers like Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. On the other side is Libya Dawn, a self-described revolutionary coalition of militiamen and Islamist- leaning politicians that originated in the western city of Misrata, ostensi- bly backed by Turkey and Qatar. The international community, including the EU, recognise the government in exile in the eastern city of Tobruk as Libya's legitimate government and its armed forces are currently engaged in a military operation to retake Tripoli, which is controlled by the self-declared government backed by the Libya Dawn militias, which include Islam- ist extremist groups affiliated to Al Qeada. According to the UN, tribal rival- ries and politically-driven armed conflict in Libya have caused hun- dreds of deaths and forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes in recent months. Insisting that the Tobruk govern- ment was declared "null" by the Lib- yan Constitutional Court on 6 No- vember 2014, Musrati said that the real representatives of the Libyan people was the reinstated GNC led by Omar al-Hasi. But why was Al-Hasi was appoint- ed Prime Minister a month before the Constitutional Court's ruling? "The Tripoli government took an oath on 6 September 2014 in front of the GNC which the legitimate repre- sentative of the Libyan people." Asked by which authority the GNC is the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, he said that following Constitutional changes implemented by the 17 February Committee, the GNC is the only legal representative of the people because the handover between the old and the new parlia- ment was "never affected properly". On the presence of ISIS in Libya and Libya Dawn's coalition with Islamist militia Ansar al-Sharia, Musrati said, "Islam is a religion of peace and the Koran does not tell us to kill non-believers. The Koran does not oblige us to convert people to Islam but we should spread peace and show mercy to people of other faith." He adds that Islamist fighters only amount to a few hundreds and the information which the Maltese me- dia is getting is incorrect. But there isn't much peace and love in Libya, with different factions fighting each other to death. "We believe in dialogue but we refuse to allow Libya to be control- led by Gaddafi loyalists and we will not engage with violent factions." However, the career diplomat who defected from the Gaddafi regime in February 2011 while serving at the Libyan embassy in Beijing com- ments that, "our religion orders us to believe in peace but if anyone refuses to enter dialogue, the Koran orders us to fight them back." Despite an imminent attack on Tripoli by Haftar, Musrati is ada- mant the Libya Dawn backed gov- ernment will prevail and "by the end of the year there will be peace and the Maltese media will be sorry for believing the false propaganda they are propagating". Asked if the country will split in two, Musrati said the Tobruck par- liament has been abandoned by most of its MPs and the isolated government who is pushing for the separation of the country has no support and no control over any ter- ritory in Libya. "Islam is a religion of peace and the Koran does not tell us to kill non- believers" Tripoli government chargé d'affaires Hussin Misrati