The checkpoint outside Misrata on the Tripoli road is more like an international border than the boundary of a city.
Armed, mostly bearded men regulate who comes in and who does not. They were friendly and even made a few jokes as they held up the BBC team for about half an hour as they checked our credentials. The man who ran the cafe refused to take any money for teas, coffees and a couple of Snickers bars.
In Misrata they argue that the checkpoint is a sensible precaution in a country as unpredictable as Libya.But those Libyans who worry about the future of their country are queasy about the way that some towns, especially those like Misrata which played a prominent role in the revolution, are turning themselves into entities that feel more like city states than regional centres.
The new Libya still does not have an effective central government to replace the dictatorship. If anything, it has gone to the opposite extreme.
For 42 years, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi did not just centralise power, he made himself into the embodiment of the state. The colonel's extensive and vicious security services made sure that rivals, real and imagined, were neutralised or eliminated.
Gaddafi hollowed out institutions that could potentially become a power base for a rival as zealously as he jailed and killed individuals.
That meant that when he fell, he took the strange, quixotic state he had created with him. His huge, sprawling leadership compound in Tripoli has been colonised by the homeless. Lawns that used to be pristine are now rubbish dumps.
Total revolution
The end of the colonel, captured and killed a year ago this weekend, and the downfall of his family, meant that Libya had the most complete Arab revolution.
Unlike the Tunisians or the Egyptians, Libyans did not inherit much from the years of dictatorship that would help them rebuild their country.
Libyans have had to start from the bottom up, and it has not been easy. An election this summer went more smoothly and peacefully than anyone dared to expect.
But since then, Libya's fledgling politicians have struggled to get to grips with the deal-making that is necessary to create a functioning central government. It is not surprising. Col Gaddafi allowed no civil society to function. The politicians are having to learn as they go along.
While they argue, Libyans are dealing with Gaddafi's legacy. One man in Misrata told me that the country was like a bottle of cola that had been shaken for 42 years. As soon as the top came off, a lot of grievances, old and new, came pouring out.
Col Gaddafi used classic tactics of divide-and-rule to play off towns, regions and tribes against each other. His death did not end the bad feeling that he encouraged.
It could have been much worse. A country-wide civil war has not restarted, although there have been armed clashes, and people have died.
The absence of effective central government has left a vacuum. It has been filled by local militias and brigades, some independent, some controlled by self-confident cities like Misrata, and by tribal notables.
A typically excellent recent report from the International Crisis Groupshowed how, between them, they have managed to make local deals to defuse disputes. But the deals are sticking-plasters that do not deal with Libya's fundamental issues.
'Armed peace'
The most serious is security. This last week, fighters from Misrata, in the name of the Libyan government, have been the driving force behind attacks on the neighbouring town of Bani Walid.
It has been sheltering remnants of Gaddafi's faithful. Some of them captured and tortured Misratans. One of those captured was Omran Shabaan, who died of his wounds after a deal to release him.
Shabaan was the revolutionary fighter who found Col Gaddafi hiding in a drainage pipe a year ago. The video of the deposed leader's last, savage hours show Omran Shabaan holding on hard to his bloodstained prisoner as he was beaten. Another young man from Misrata, a journalist called Abdul Aziz al-Harous, showed me the wounds inflicted by his captors in Bani Walid before his release last month. He was whipped with cables, given electric shocks and burnt with charcoal and lighters.
His doctors have told him that the circulation in his legs may have been damaged permanently because his tormentors hung him upside down for hours every day. His ankles were horribly swollen, lacerated and infected when he was released. Abdel Aziz said female nurses had cut his ankles with scalpels, and told him it was the flesh of a rat from Misrata.
Col Gaddafi's arsenals were split open during the civil war. A common estimate is that there are more guns than people here now. In the main, the heavy weapons, Kalashnikov AK-47s and RPG rocket launchers, are gone from the streets. But they are never far away.
In Misrata, a man who was giving me a lift said cheerfully: "Everyone has an AK or an RPG in the boot of the car. But it's not cool to carry them openly these days.
"Everyone knows the weapons are there. It helps keep the peace."
But arming everyone as a form of civil deterrence is not a long-term solution. Libya has too many potential sources of conflict for that.
Plenty of people here still are marvelling at the freedom of a life without the Gaddafis.
But unless Libya's democrats can start governing, the divisions in the country will widen and more fires will start.
A year after Gaddafi's death, it is still easy to find hope in Libya, but time is not elastic.
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Africa must be allowed to nurture its own style democracy,after all democracies are not universal,america democracy is in variance with the british what about that? The champion of african style democracy(qadafi)is no more,and we expect peace in libya,how possible is that? may his soul rest in perfect peace.But those of us left behind may the good Lord give us the needed reasoning capacity to uderstand that the WEST has its interest to always protect and that there is nothing like "good" there is only goodwill.
Dear Mr Bowen:
What happened to you in these cryptic messages that you were not expressing the right thoughts "spending too much time abroad?" please email me or tell me how to contact you. My email is alex@microtopia.org my youtube channel is www.youtube.com/user/aligzanduh
It looks like you have followed your bosses request to tone it down. Bani Walid is being attacked in accordance with GNC order 7 - an order sending its worst enemies - people whose hearts are filled with hate to attack it. Read this and then reply if you care to. Save Bani Walid to Save Libya
While mediation efforts are still going on, it’s the last chance for the GNC to act wisely and correct itself by first annual its notorious decision and immediately activate the long overdue national reconciliation process, insists Mustafa Fetouri.
Middle East Online
The siege of Bani Walid, 180 km, south west of Tripoli has been in place for nearly two weeks now. It was publically authorized, encouraged and approved by Libya’s newly elected General National Conference GNC. Reports from inside the city speak of increasingly depleted supplies of food, water, and other necessities. Sporadic indiscriminate rocket bombardments are daily routine especially round the east of the city. Al-Mardoum valley, the closest to the front line have so been under daily fire killing five civilians and injuring a dozen so far. Libyan rights groups joined hands their international counterparts in condemning the siege calling on the Libyan authority to lift it immediately. Amnesty International in particular has been at the forefront of calls to lift the siege and allow supplies to enter the city as well as free movement of people into and out of the Bani Walid.
Home to Libya’s largest tribe Bani Walid has been the safest cities in Libya since the war ended last October. The local population attribute this to the fact that no militias are able to enter the city from outside and only its own people volunteered to protect it. They are organized in local defense committees in charge of daily security, checkpoints on the outskirts of the city. Having seen what the revolutionary brigades have done to their houses, farm land, and other personal properties when then entered the city last October local were determined not to let any armed individuals to enter their city again.
The rocky mountainous city is long accused of harboring remnants of the previous regime fighters and protecting its supporters. however, the fact is that the majority of people in Bani Walid do not want any militias amongst them at the same time they are welcoming any security forces under the control of the government. They weeks ago they were called upon by the GNC to hand over couple of suspects which the local social council of the city refused to do unless there is proper judiciary system and proper government procedures. It cited the kidnapping of over a hundred Warffalis civilians currently in jail center in Misrata and Tripoli controlled by rogue militias. They challenged the government to bring those back home if it really can. Of course nothing has happened over the last year or so meaning that the interim government lacks the means and the authority to control the country let alone disarm the militias still operating freely. The prompted GNC to issue its legally disputed decree number 7 authorizing the novice Libyan army to use all necessary means to control the city. By doing so GNC not only over stepped its mandate but also committed the hideous crime of publically calling for war against part of the Libyan population in what could well be “officially” authorized tribal cleansing.
The bulk of the besieging forces came from Misrata with its long and deeply rooted hatred of Bani Walid. At the same time almost all other revolutionary brigades except the parts of the Islamist have either withdrawn their fighters or refused to take part in the siege considering it as illegal and unnecessary bloodshed against he entire population of Bani Walid.
While mediation efforts are still going on it’s the last chance for the GNC to act wisely and correct itself by first annual its notorious decision and immediately activate the long overdue national reconciliation process. By doing so it will not only save Bani Walid but kick start the process of saving Libya as whole. Bani Walid now represents the last ditch Libyans must peacefully bridge if they are ever to see peaceful and democratic Libya emerge after the long bloodshed and chaos that has been the order of the day for nearly two years now.
Bani Walid today represents hope for the rest of Libya. It provided a good example in terms of self governance, security and self management of the daily lives of its inhabitants some of whom came to the city seeking security they lacked elsewhere in Libya. It also symbolizes refusal of one tribe dominance of the country under any circumstances. Those who are leading the war efforts against Bani Walid are motivated by vengeance and hatred but managed to portrait the situation as a national cause for while tricking GNC to intervene in legally and tribally complicated situation with dire consequences for the rest of the country.
The siege must be lifted immediately and national effective government should be approved as soon as possible. All jail centers must banded over to the government and GNC should quickly start drafting the constitution which is its only task in the first place. Yet Bani Walid will not be subdued by force unless at a very heavy price of destruction and bloodshed that could further push Libya into more of the same: chaos and sufferings.
Mustafa Fetouri is an independent Libyan Academic and journalist. Winner of EU’s Samir Kassir award for the freedom of the press in 2010.
Here is the article url i'd like Mr Bowen to read: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=54870