Libya Tribal Appeal to Rebels Falls Flat

MAY 9, 2011
By RICHARD BOUDREAUX

TRIPOLI, Libya—Col. Moammar Gadhafi has turned to Libya's tribal leaders in a new effort to erode a Western-backed insurgency, but the initiative, including the promise of an amnesty, is having no immediate impact on the stalemated conflict.

The rebel leadership dismissed an appeal by hundreds of tribal elders to engage in peace talks. And the tribal chiefs, who held a nationally televised conference in Tripoli, stopped short of pledging armed followers to back up the Libyan leader's military campaign.

Government forces attacked isolated rebel strongholds in western Libya over the weekend, striking a fuel terminal in rebel-held Misrata with ground-to-ground rockets and igniting a fire that threatened the besieged port city's fuel supply.

The rebel-held mountain towns of Zintan and Wazin also came under rocket fire, forcing many inhabitants to flee across the border into Tunisia. About 80 shells fell on Tunisia's soil, prompting a protest by its government Sunday to Libyan authorities, the Tunisian state news agency reported.

Since the uprising began in mid-February, Libyan authorities have enlisted local tribal leaders and offered amnesties in some towns recaptured from the rebels. The latest amnesty plan, announced Saturday by Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi, would cover all of Libya, including the rebels' eastern strongholds.

The Justice Ministry is drafting an amnesty law, Mr. Mahmoudi told a news conference, and a nationwide committee of tribal leaders will be entrusted to present it to counterparts in rebel-controlled areas in an effort at reconciliation.

The tone of the prime minister's remarks was plaintive, reflecting frustration over Libya's division and deadlock. At one point, he addressed defectors from his government who now work for the rebels' Transitional National Council, calling them "my brothers" and urging them to "say no to bloodshed."

"If there were mistakes or wrongs" in governing Libya, he said, "then the mistakes belong to all of us."

Abed Abu Hamada, a leader of the Mergharbah tribe from the eastern city of Ajdabiya, struck a similar note at the tribal conference, appealing to "our brothers in the eastern regions—the armed ones, the misled ones." The two-day conference ended late Friday with a denunciation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's aerial attacks and support for an amnesty and peaceful dialogue.

Mansour el-Kikhia, an adviser to the rebel leadership, said the tribal leaders' message would have no impact in eastern Libya, where rebel forces shielded by NATO airstrikes have a solid hold on Benghazi, seat of their leadership council, and other coastal cities.

"The east is feeling so free, so removed from Gadhafi, that none of this is going to make any difference," he said.

Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman, said about 200 elders from the rebel-held east took part in the conference and would exert their influence back home. But in interviews, two of those elders said they had fled the region weeks ago, after the rebel takeover, and didn't plan to return anytime soon.

Tribal loyalties and influence have diminished in recent decades as Libya's population has become more mobile and urban, social scientists say. Tens of thousands of members of the predominately western tribes that form the core of Col. Gadhafi's support now live in Benghazi and in March staged a demonstration there calling on their western cousins to join the revolt.

The government gave extraordinary publicity to the tribal conference and opened it to foreign journalists. "You can't get more representative than this," said Mr. Ibrahim, who listed 851 tribal groups present. "It sends a powerful message to the country."

George Joffe, a Cambridge University professor who has studied Libya's tribal politics, said the gathering may have been staged more for audiences in the West "in the hope of creating the impression that Col. Gadhafi enjoys widespread support." Even that support was limited. Two weeks after government officials suggested that armed tribal groups might take up the siege of Misrata, there was no mention of such action at the conference.

Instead, the gathering's final declaration called for peaceful marches to rebel-held "hijacked towns" to try to "liberate" them. But no marches were immediately planned. "NATO must stop bombing first," said Mansour Khalaf, leader of the Warfalla tribe. "Then Libyans will stop fighting each other."

In Misrata on Sunday, fires were still blazing from fuel depots a day after being struck by Col. Gadhafi's forces. Rebel spokesman Mohammed Alzawwam said the attack had diminished gasoline supplies for rebel vehicles.

It was the second pinpoint attack on Misrata by government forces in recent days. Rebels were working to clear antitank mines that had been dropped by parachute across the port area late Thursday from rockets that open in midflight.

In Benghazi, Abdul Hafidh Ghoga, spokeman for the rebels' governing council, said it planned to use money from a fund pledged for humanitarian and reconstruction needs to buy weapons from the Italian government. Maurizio Massari, an Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman, denied that Rome planned to supply weapons to the rebels. He said the fund, set up by 22 NATO and Arab countries last week, could not be used for weapons purchases from any source.

—Stacy Meichtry in Rome and Muneef Halawa in Benghazi contributed to this article.

Source: The Wall Street Journal.
Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704681904576311492781200746.html.