Now that Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade rule appears to be over, the disparate groups of rebels who drove him from power could face a grave danger: each other!
NALUT – Without the cause of fighting Gaddafi to unite them, the fighters from all walks of life must come up with an effective leadership to run a country suffering from factionalism, tribal rivalries and ethnic divisions.
Signs of trouble emerged long before the rebels made their dramatic sweep from the Western Mountain region to Tripoli, cheered by Libyans who will soon want a smooth-running government, jobs, better schools and the oil wealth that rarely trickled down to them during Gaddafi’s reign.
Rebels who complained about Gaddafi’s alleged human rights abuses as they prepared for battle at the frontlines also spent a great deal of time criticising their comrades, mainly because they were from a different village, or ethnic group or seemed to have more resources.
Libyan rebel Husam Najjair, an Irish citizen, seemed disillusioned with the rebel movement he joined, leaving everything behind in Dublin. “There could be some very big problems. Everyone wants to run the show. That’s when it will get messy,” he told Reuters. “Everyone must be disarmed.”
Is there one unifying figure who can lead Libya and prevent the rebels from turning on each other? Right now the resounding answer seems to be no. “There isn’t one rebel leader who is respected by everyone. That’s the problem,” said Kamran Bokhari, Middle East Director at Stratfor global intelligence firm.
Gaddafi ran the North African oil producing-country like a personal cult, without state institutions that would make any transition easier for the rebels, who have plenty of spirit but lack a proper chain of command.
The most prominent rebel leader is Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), a diverse group of Gaddafi opponents based in the eastern city of Benghazi.
It consists of former government ministers and longstanding opposition members who represent wide-ranging views including Arab nationalism, Islamists, secularists, socialists and businessmen.
A former justice minister, soft-spoken Abdel Jalil was described as a “fair-minded technocrat” in a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
A mild-mannered consensus builder in his late 50s, he was praised by Human Rights Watch for his work on Libya’s criminal code reform.
