Protests in Libya End in Attack on National Transitional Council Headquarters
The protests are not finished in Libya. On Saturday, the headquarters of the National Transitional Council in Benghazi was stormed by protestors. The chairman of the NTC was in the building when the attack happened.
Benghazi was where the uprising started that ended with the death of Muammar Gaddafi. For weeks, though, the protestors have continued their demonstrations and they are focused on the NTC. They want answers as to how the assets of the country are being used and how the NTC is running the country.
The NTC is recognized as the legitimate government in Libya in the international community. Many of the rebels that fought against Gaddafi’s regime were promised compensation by the NTC. Now the compensation, according to the rebels, was much less than what was promised and does not even cover their expenses.
The protest began as a rally, with hundreds of the fighters who were injured in the war gathering outside the headquarters. The NTC chairman, Abdul Jalil, came out of the building and tried to speak to the crowd. There were some protestors that started throwing plastic bottles at him. Security forces fired tear gas into the crowd. The crowd then stormed the building and it’s believed that the chairman managed to escape through a back door.
The crowd then threw metal bars and rocks at the building before finally making their way inside. The windows were broken and a Toyota Land Cruiser was also damaged. Some people who witnessed the attack on the headquarters said that the protestors were angry because there were positions in the NTC’s new government that were given to people still loyal to Gaddafi.
The NTC says that there was no way to fire hundreds of the country’s officials simply because they were working when Gaddafi was ruling Libya. However, they did say any of the officials that were found to have been part of human rights abuses or that participated in financial fraud would be sacked.
The NTC is also trying to deal with dozens of militias that all want to control all or part of the country. The defense ministry would like to integrate those militia into the country’s police and military forces; however, there has been little interest from those militias in doing so.
