Operation Oil Theft: Month 15, Week 3, Day 3.

Originally titled; "Operation Oil Theft: Month 15, Week 3, Day 3." on 26/4/12.

Since my last post on the subject there has thankfully been very little violence in Libya. On April 10th (10/4/12) a home made bomb was thrown at a convoy of United Nations Support Mission In Libya (UNSMIL) vehicles but no injuries were reported. Kidnappings continue in the east of the country close the border with Tunisia. These include two Tunisians who were kidnapped inside Tunisia on April 8th (8/4/12) and the kidnapping of the head of the Darj town council on April 21st (21/4/12). That kidnapping is believed to have been carried out by the Zintan Brigade militia in retaliation for Darj's desire to be included in the Ghadames electoral district rather then the Zintan electoral district.

The Zintan Brigade's unconventional approach to political debate aside the rest of Libya has been preparing for June's election. On April 24th (24/4/12) the National Transitional Council (NTC) announced that it's meetings will be open to to the press and public bringing it in line with Parliaments and Senates in democratic, first world nations. The Higher National Electoral Commission (HNEC) is in the process of drawing up a national register of voters. Due to differences in methodologies the HNEC will disregarded local lists and start again from scratch meaning that everyone will have to re-register to vote using only the family book as proof of identity. Also the HNEC will not be allowing Libyans living abroad to take part in the June 19th (19/6/12) vote. This is simply because it will take far too long to register all the Libyan exiles and their children and provide them with ballot papers and polling stations in their country of residence. The HNEC has also announced that political parties who receive foreign funding or represent a regional, tribal or religious ideology will be banned from taking part. Although the bar on foreign funding is perfectly reasonable and in line with most democratic nations the ban on regional, tribal or religious ideology is likely to be controversial. It could prevent the Muslim Brotherhood linked Justice and Construction Party from taking part and will definitely prevent the National Federal Bloc (NFB) who want autonomy for the Cyrenaica region. Depending on how much support the NFB have this could lead to a boycott of the election fuelling accusations that the elected government does not represent the east of the country increasing calls for regional autonomy.

Apart from election preparations the other big aspect of Libyan life is post-war reconstruction. Between April 17th (17/4/12) and April 19th (19/4/12) British Lord Trefgarne led a trade delegation of British construction, engineering and telecommunications companies under the banner of the Libyan British Business Council (LBBC) and on May 20th (20/5/12) Tripoli will host the Libya Building and Construction Conference which is expected to host trade delegations from across the globe. This level of international involvement has led to various Libyan groups including the Architectural Company for Aluminium And Glass Works (ACAGW) complaining that all the business is going to foreign companies which operate illegally and pay bribes and this is causing unemployment. Normally I'm opposed to this sort of protectionism especially when it's practised by developed nations. However due to the war and the transition towards democracy it is clear that Libya is an exceptional case. Therefore they should avoid - as far as possible - awarding any long term contracts until they've elected a transparent and accountable government to award those contracts fairly. They should also introduce a "Buy Libyan" policy that - provided they're up to the job - would see priority given to Libyan companies over foreign competitors.

The issue of what happens to Libya's most famous prisoner - Saif al-Islam Qaddafi - is still outstanding. On April 10th (10/4/12) the NTC unveiled the court in a former military academy in Tripoli in which they intend to try Saif al-Islam once the Zintan Brigade militia surrender him to the NTC's custody. That the trial is to be held in Libya appears to be a condition of the Zintan Brigade handing control of Tripoli's international airport to the NTC. That handover was completed on April 20th (20/4/12) but Saif al-Islam remains a prisoner of the Zintan Brigade. On April 18th the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo visited Libya to discuss the case. He said that the ICC has requested written submissions from the NTC and will consider them before deciding whether or not to give Libya permission to try Saif al-Islam. Two things that are not helping Libya's claim that they are in a position to give Saif al-Islam a fair trial is that the judicial authority (the NTC) have yet to take custody of the prisoner some five months after his arrest. Also the NTC say they expect to reach a final verdict in the case before the June 19th (19/6/12) election which is some seven weeks away. To put that in perspective the much simpler trial of Anders Behring Breivik in Norway is expected to last for ten weeks. The fact the NTC seem to think they can reach a verdict in such a short time suggests that they've already decided what that verdict is going to be meaning that it most certainly won't be a fair trial.