DTN News - RACE FOR POWER AMONG LIBYAN REBELS: Can The NTC Unite A Divided Libya?
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 4, 2011: Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph from his Tripoli headquarters, the commander of the Misurata Brigade, Suleiman Swelhi, hit out and instructions from the country's new interior minister that his fighters should now return to the western port city from which they take their name.
The brigade, who fought some of the fiercest street battles against government troops when Misurata came under siege, travelled to the Libyan capital to assist with this month's uprising that finally toppled Colonel Gaddafi.
But their motive was not just to lend an experienced hand to the rebellion - they were also concerned at the presence of prominent Islamists within the rest of the movement, and were anxious to ensure that they did not get a stranglehold on the instruments of power once the capital fell.
Now, however, the instructions from the National Transitional Council's interim interior minister, Ahmed Darrad, have left them on a potential collision course with the country's de facto new authorities.
"Mr Darrad's declaration that we should leave touches the dignity of the revolutionaries," he said. "It shouldn't be done like this and it's not the way to talk to us. We still have a job to do here, the battle is not finished yet. There are still threats from pro-Gaddafi forces. It is not right, only five days after the fall of Bab al-Aziziyah (Gaddafi's main compound), to announce something like this."
Mr Darrad had given the Misurata Brigade and other provincial units their marching orders in what was seen as an attempt by the NTC's civilian leadership to exert control over the fissiparous rebel forces.
He said: "Tripoli is free, and everyone should leave this town and go back to their own towns. Starting Saturday, there will be a large number of security personnel and policemen who will go back to work. Now the revolutionaries of Tripoli are able to protect their own city."
That his commands have not yet been obeyed underlines the fact that the despite their efforts to portray a commont front on the international stage, the rebels have never had a unified army.
Their forces are made up of about 40 independent brigades, or katibas, each privately financed, independently commanded and based on a particular town.
Misurata, the only place in western Libya which never fell to the regime and which withstood a two-month siege by Gaddafi's forces, is seen as the toughest and most prestigious brigade.
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