Libyan leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil on Wednesday said he would defend national unity “with force” if necessary, after tribal leaders and a political faction declared autonomy for an eastern region. “We are not prepared to divide Libya,” Abdel Jalil said as he called on leaders in the eastern Cyrenaica region to engage in dialogue and warned them against remnants of the regime of slain leader Moamer Kadhafi in their ranks. “They should know that there are infiltrators and remnants of Kadhafi’s regime trying to exploit them now and we are ready to deter them, even with force,” he said in televised remarks during a conference in Misrata held to unveil a draft national charter.
“The national charter contains provisions that protect this nation and it is like a constitution for Libya’s future,” Abdel Jalil said of the draft document, which was later posted online. The charter lays the foundations for a parliamentary democracy with a decentralised system of administration, promising local accountability to citizens through mechanisms decided by the executive branch. A faction of tribal and political leaders in the oil-rich east of the country is trying to carve out a semi-autonomous territory and has called for a federal system of governance. On Tuesday, they unilaterally declared the region of Cyrenaica, or Berqa in Arabic, as autonomous but recognised the ruling National Transitional Council as the country’s legitimate representative in foreign affairs.
Libya was a federal union from 1951 to 1963 during the monarchy of Idris Senussi, which split the country into three states — Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan. Advocates of a return to federalism say it will prevent the east from being marginalised as was the case for decades, while opponents fear the initiative will split the country and stand in the way of reconciliation.
Three-quarters of the north African nation’s oil weath is concentrated in the proposed territory of Cyernaica, according to Arish Sayid of the Benghazi-based Arabian Oil Company.
Senior officials in Tripoli, including interim Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib, have flatly rejected the federalist project as a throwback to the past, promoting a programme of decentralisation instead. On Tuesday, Abdel Jalil charged that some Arab nations were supporting and financing sedition in eastern Libya in a bid to prevent the so-called Arab Spring from reaching their doorsteps. Hundreds of people demonstrated on Wednesday against federalism in southern Libya, including in the desert cities of Sabha and Kufra, according to video footage posted on Facebook.
Several Libyan cities, including Benghazi, have witnessed similar rallies rejecting the federal system of government, with banners emphasising national unity and state-building, and stressing that Tripoli is the only capital. Ahmed Zubair al-Senussi, who was appointed head of Cyrenaica’s governing council on Tuesday, downplayed fears that the federal model, which grants each territorial unit limited executive, legislative and judicial powers, would splinter the country. “This is not sedition,” he said in an interview with AFP, arguing that federalism, which thrived in the United Arab Emirates, is the most suitable form of government for Libya.
Senussi is a relative of the late monarch, a member of Libya’s National Trasitional Council, and was the longest serving political prisoner under Kadhafi’s regime. Meanwhile, Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged Libyans on Wednesday “to preserve national unity and territorial integrity of Libya.” Ihsanoglu in a statement received by AFP also “renewed his call for all Libyans to rally around the (NTC) which is the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people, and to support the transitional government in this important sensitive period.”
