In the Libyan oasis town of Bani Walid, 170km south-east of Tripoli, a sombre collective decision has been taken. No household head will sacrifice a sheep (as is customary) for Id al-Adha, the greatest Islamic feast, due in a week’s time. One animal will be sacrificed on behalf of the whole town. The money saved will go into a fund for buying food, medical supplies and arms.
The standoff is not between Libya’s national forces and Bani Walid nor is it between anti- and pro-Gaddafi forces- Ranier Fsadni
For the past two weeks the town has been under siege. Forces from Misurata have been firing Grad rockets, from morning till evening, sometimes 30 in a day, into Wadi Mardum, some 20km east of Bani Walid proper. Since the Misurati forces have been firing from a 40km distance, the death toll has been low, perhaps not much more than a dozen.
But at least one child has been killed and overshot rockets have fallen on neighbourhoods close to Mardum. Last week, a doctor at Bani Walid’s hospital said that he was seeing about 30-40 wounded per day. There is a suspicion among the Warfalla, Bani Walid’s tribe, that chemical weapons were used on the first day (only) of bombing: people were taken to hospital suffering from breathing difficulties, spasms and vomiting and I’m told all life has dried up in that part of Mardum.
The Misurati fighters have also intermittently blocked supplies of food, medicines and fuel. Amnesty International, the Red Cross and the UN have all become involved.
The conflict has been on and off the international media’s radar screen. Russia Today has perhaps given it the most consistent coverage, using the conflict to criticise Nato and support Russia’s position on Syria.
Western media often misrepresent the conflict in one or two ways. They rightly report the blockade concerns the many Misuratis (and others) being detained in Bani Walid and whom the Warfalla have refused to release unilaterally. One of the few Misuratis to have been released was the young fighter credited with having captured Muammar Gaddafi last year: he had clearly been tortured and died a short while later in a French hospital.
However, contrary to many reports, the standoff is not between Libya’s national forces and Bani Walid (although initially the blockade was authorised by the national congress) nor is it between anti- and pro-Gaddafi forces. In Libya, the conflict is perceived to be a matter between Misurata and Bani Walid and prime time national news bulletins have portrayed it this way.
Misurata’s TV stations are another matter. There is a Misurati account of events that would consider what I am reporting as fundamentally flawed by omissions and outright Warfalli lies – as a Misurati young man I recently met exclaimed.
He was particularly indignant at the claim that the current dominant militia in Bani Walid is not pro-Gaddafi. This militia, the “1993 Brigade”, has recycled many former pro-Gaddafi fighters. The town continues to give safe harbour to men known to have committed horrendous crimes of repression last year.
However, the militia is led by a former leader of the attempted coup of 1993; a cousin of his, who served 17 years in Gaddafi’s gaols is also active. The entrance to Bani Walid has “1993” emblazoned on it – a gesture of defiance (“then, like today, we stood alone”) and a declaration of precedence in self-sacrificing rebellion.
The Warfalla claim that they are ready to give up suspected war criminals to the law – but only when there indeed is rule of law – not to lawless militias. And they claim they are ready to release all detainees – in return for the release of all Warfalla detained in Misurata.
Pending that, the Warfalla have vowed that they will fight to the last. Every able-bodied man in Bani Walid is on call. The many Warfalla spread around Libya wait to see if they are needed, some suspending plans to travel abroad on business. They have included, among my acquaintances, a man who has scoffed at tribal confrontations as long as I’ve known him and another who, last year, when Saif al-Islam Gaddafi found refuge in Bani Walid, had been literally in open warfare against pro-Gaddafi sections of the Warfalla.
Such readiness gives credence to the fear that this conflict may spread to the rest of the country. Both the Warfalla and Misuratis are widely dispersed. There have already been incidents of Warfalla youth torching Misurati shops in Sirte and Sabha.
It might seem that this is a picture of self-destructive tribalism, into which the country may descend. A look at the detail suggests a more complex picture, where tribes, used to making peace agreements, may be part of the solution (as they have already shown they can be in combating Islamist extremists).
Tribes from the whole of Libya, the east as well as the west, have intervened to mediate. Even Zawiya, previously hostile to Bani Walid, has sought to find a solution.
Last Sunday, the Warfalla told a visiting pan-Libyan tribal delegation they were ready to give up their detainees if they were held in (eastern) Ajdabiya. Misurata has rejected the offer but is also drawing increasingly vocal opprobrium from the rest of the country.
We have to see whether that pressure will be enough to stop the fighting. On that depends the future of the country: a society whose formal state emerges thanks to the informal authority of tribes, or, a society with a new tribalism shaking off the last vestiges of a formal state.
ranierfsadni@europe.com