The prized scion of Muammar Gaddafi is a prisoner of tribesmen in these mountains of scrub and ocher rock of Zintan, Libya.

The rebels who captured him after the 2011 civil war that toppled his father have refused to turn him over to the central government in Tripoli or the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The militiamen patrolling hillsides of winding roads and scattered bunkers want Seif Islam Gaddafi tried in a rural courtroom.

“Seif is a murderer and a liar. We have our own high court so we’ll try him in Zintan,” said Alramah Mohamed Elmerhani, a former rebel commander who was wounded in a tank battle. “It will bring pride to our city, which was forgotten by his father’s regime.”

The militia’s sway over Seif Gaddafi’s legal fate is emblematic of the danger this fractured nation faces as it attempts to unify amid tribal animosities, territorial disputes and economic turmoil.

The political disarray and weakness of the government were evident when the General National Congress abandoned its chamber in February after it was seized by former revolutionaries demanding compensation for wartime injuries.

Signs of progress in Libya have been few but noteworthy. The country has not, as some predicted, broken into autonomous pieces. Oil production has rebounded and Prime Minister Ali Zidan has established a degree of normality.

However, drafting a constitution has been delayed and the government has yet to stem unemployment, rising drug and alcohol abuse and deepening social problems.

Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule was an inscrutable game of playing tribes and regions against one another. That legacy of suspicion now threatens the country’s crucial oil industry and the security of a region where militants are on the rise and neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt are also precariously emerging from decades of autocratic rule.

It seems as if every other man in Libya can show off a bullet scar or a bump of shrapnel beneath the skin, the price of overthrowing a dictator. But the post-revolution has brought allegations of billions of dollars in financial mismanagement and a disturbing security vacuum that has overwhelmed a fledgling national army, which has been forced to integrate with tribal militias — which often have conflicting agendas — to keep order across lawless coasts and deserts.

These crisscrossing interests have ignited clashes between tribes and revenge against Gaddafi supporters. A Human Rights Watch report released in February said that “several thousand” detainees were being held illegally by private militias.

Those armed groups include Ansar Al Sharia, blamed for the attack in September that killed US Ambassador J Christopher Stevens and three other Americans but now policing the city where he died, Benghazi.

The government is paying millions of dollars a month to militias in attempts to appease them. A deadly battle between militias from Zintan and Zuwara last month at an energy complex temporarily suspended oil production and natural gas exports to Italy.

The fight was predictable in its irony: It erupted when Zuwara tribesmen challenged Zintan fighters for the contract to protect the plant.

“We need better security. The militias are still stronger than the army,” said Mohamed Alagile, a soldier who moonlights selling fabric and sequins for wedding dresses in the capital, Tripoli. “We in the army are new volunteers, but the militias have better weapons and more experience from fighting in the revolution.”

Adjusting to a new era has also tested a political culture not accustomed to transparency. Libyans have followed allegations of financial waste by a top official who claimed that the preceding transitional government spent about $3bn last year on furniture, stationery and other supplies.

The charges were denied, but the larger question for many was how to build a credible government after decades of a despot’s rule.

“We are not used to politics, and now the people want more than the national congress can offer,” said Khalifia Shebani, an oil worker and former rebel from Zintan. “It’s difficult to start a new democracy. Tunisia and Egypt went through revolutions too, but they had existing parliaments and militaries. We’re starting from scratch.”

He shook his head and wondered — amid all the national uncertainty — if his own dream would ever be complete: “I’ve been building a house for 15 years and it’s still not finished.”

The road to Zintan snakes from the valley to a blustery mountaintop. Men huddle around shops and women hurry through bullet-pocked alleys in black abayas. Electricity is sporadic and water is delivered by trucks that growl past the photographs of young and old faces peering out from a “martyrs” memorial.

The town’s rebel militias — fighters in these northwestern hills were among the fiercest in the revolution — are joining the army or the Interior Ministry. The Korean and Turkish construction companies have yet to return, and there is little work for young men who cling to tribal allegiances.

“We have to become one people,” said Mohamed Alwakwak, the town’s council chief. “Everyone in the region still is acting in his own interests. This will stop when the central government gets stronger. It’s not a fight of weapons anymore. It’s a battle for a better economy.”

Former rebel commander Elmerhani emerged from a house not far from a slump of clay-coloured buildings that decades ago was the central market. The town expanded but the abandoned market is a symbol of the decline under Gaddafi and why, as far as Elmerhani is concerned, Seif Gaddafi must face a noose tied by Zintan men.

“Our hospitals, schools, water, none of them are any good. Muammar Gaddafi never helped our infrastructure and now it’s worse,” he said.

“Seif’s ‘Libya Tomorrow’ was all lies,” he said, referring to reforms promised by the younger Gaddafi. “We captured him and we’ll hold him until justice is finished.”

Abo Kassem Naker has shrapnel in his knee and feels adrift between war and peace. A mechanical engineer without a job, he wears his rebel fatigues, as if to give him identity in a land that has yet to offer him a future.

“I’m not optimistic,” said Naker, sitting in an outdoor cafe. “They used to tell us a good life was waiting. But there is no work. The only paying job these days is to join the army.”

His Libya moves raggedly onward: The feats of rebel commanders have ballooned into legend and the nation is torn over what to do with former Gaddafi officials even as his son awaits his fate in a secret mountain jail.

So far, though, there’s little hope for a young man who wants to make a life from the intricacies of his trade. “To me,” he said, “Libya is a car that keeps running into a wall.” — Los Angeles Times/MCT

 

 

 

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