Delays in unfreezing Libya’s assets abroad also were creating shortages of cash for the government, causing payments to the poor to be suspended and impeding a program for those wounded in the eight months of fighting to be treated overseas, Meghrabi said.
Last week, a group of rebel fighters carrying banners complaining about the treatment of the wounded blocked the main highway in Benghazi with trucks. They rattled off rounds of gunfire into the air and detonated sound bombs.
Calls for ‘correction’
The example of Benghazi’s protests have been followed, although with fewer participants and less violence, in Tripoli and the city of Misurata, where protesters have pitched tents and staged marches, largely peaceful but sometimes violent, calling for the “correction of the revolution.” As in Benghazi, they draw support from a broad base: nascent civil society organizations, political activists and former rebel fighters.
Among the shattered buildings and posters hailing fallen rebels in Misurata, which saw some of the war’s fiercest fighting, a few tents are pitched in an intersection known as Freedom Square.
Protests and sit-ins have called mainly for elections for the local council, which was appointed by consensus after Gaddafi’s forces were largely defeated in May. About 200 people participated in marches and camped out, with success: An electoral committee has been set up and a local vote is set to be held in a month.
Thus far in Misurata and in a small encampment in Tripoli’s central Algeria square, protesters’ demands have not been as strident as their counterparts’ in Benghazi. Most people still support the interim government, but they want to ensure it stays on the right track, said Mohammed Benrasali, formerly of the Misurata city council.
“We made Gaddafi what he was by not standing up to him,” he said. “We need to make Abdel Jalil realize that he cannot take the country by any road but democracy.”
In Benghazi, the situation remained explosive after the weekend’s events, said Haddar, the protester in Tree Square. “I am hoping that the council will listen to the people and be transparent,” he said, accusing leaders of “not taking the street seriously.”
“We are hoping that it will settle down,” he added. “But Benghazi is always the place where everything starts.”
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