The heroes of the revolt that toppled Gaddafi have been urged to serve in the nascent security forces, but armed groups continue to fight a year after his death

The citizen soldiers who became heroes for toppling Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year are now being widely blamed for the country’s woes, refusing to disarm and snubbing the new authorities.

Libya’s new rulers have struggled to stamp their authority on brigades made up of former rebels, some of whom believe their legitimacy, forged on the front line, trumps that of the country’s elected representatives.

On their part, the former rebels complain of neglect by the authorities, whom they accuse of doing too little to care for wounded veterans, and insist that there would be a security vacuum if they disarmed and went home.

“We risked our lives for God and the nation, so it is up to the new authorities to prove themselves worthy of the blood of our revolutionary martyrs and wounded,” said veteran fighter Osama al-Daly.

“If not, there will be another revolution to reset the course, meet these demands and clean up state institutions,” he added.

That warning resonates loudly in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the revolt that ousted Gaddafi. The Mediterranean port has a long history of opposition to central authorities, and a movement calling for autonomy in the east has blossomed there this year.

Both Libya’s chief of staff and the veterans committee are based in Benghazi, where former fighters man checkpoints, direct traffic, escort visiting officials and guard the port and the airport.

Some of the former rebels proudly wear the uniform of newly-created security forces.

But many reject the idea of joining the regular army or police forces because they see them as institutions needing to be purged of officers who were once pillars of Gaddafi’s old oppress-ive regime.

Benghazi security chief Ibrahim al-Burghati said former rebels “closed the gap after the state’s security apparatus collapsed ”.

“The current crisis is a problem of trust because remnants of the former regime are still part of state security organs,” he said.

Regular members of the army and police, meanwhile, find themselves powerless in the face of better armed militias and criminal gangs, who plundered weapon depots during the war.

They have reason to be cautious.

High-ranking officials have been targeted in a wave of assassinations blamed on Islamist extremists who were released from Gaddafi’s jails. The bulk of the Libyan jihadists who actually fought in Afghanistan and Iraq hail from the east.

And experts warn that al-Qaeda-linked groups are gaining influence.

On this year’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the US, militants laid siege to the US consulate in Benghazi. They killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens who had backed the uprising.

Residents reacted by staging mass rallies against armed groups and in favour of forming a new professional army and police force.

They focused their wrath on hardline Islamist groups.

Since the war, a weak central government has had no choice but to rely on a patchwork of militias, including shadowy Islamist brigades, to secure the country and its borders.

Many former rebel brigades were absorbed into military units such as Libya Shield, which has become the nascent army ’s striking force. Former fighters have also joined the Supreme Security Committee, a parallel police force.

But the blending of old and new forces is not going smoothly.

SSC spokesman Abdelmenam al-Hurr blamed the escape of 120 common prisoners from a jail in Tripoli on the handover of the facility, formerly supervised by ex-rebels.

“Regular security forces are responsible for this catastrophe,” he said.

In recent months, the authorities have retaken control of several prisons, including Tripoli’s Al-Jadaida facility, previously in the hands of former combatants.

Meanwhile, rights groups have regularly denounced torture and arbitrary detentions by militias, as well as the violation of the rights of leaders from the previous regime who are being held in prisons controlled by ex-rebels.

Thousands are still awaiting trial in such detention centres.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch decried the authorities’ failure to bring to account former rebels who participated in dozens of extra-judicial executions in Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, where he was captured and killed on October 20, 2011.

The watchdog questioned the assertion by Libyan authorities that Gaddafi and his son Motassim were killed in crossfire, and not after rebels captured them.

In the end, “one of Libya’s greatest challenges is to bring its well-armed militias under control and end their abuses,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.

Ammunition hangs from a vehicle belonging to citizen soldiers in Benghazi.

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