With fears of a confrontation mounting between the government and revolutionary groups represented in the Supreme Security Council (SSC)—a security arm formed early in transition—  The Minister of Interior Ashour Shwayl called to dissolve the SSC and suspend payment to members who did not apply for integration into the police force.

With fears of a confrontation mounting between the government and revolutionary groups represented in the Supreme Security Council (SSC)—a security arm formed early in transition—  The Minister of Interior Ashour Shwayl called to dissolve the SSC and suspend payment to members who did not apply for integration into the police force.

SSC, however, ignored the Minister’s decision and not only continued payment of salaries it organized protests in front of the General National Congress (GNC) earlier this month, where GNC members were beaten.  A media war had been waged between the SSC and the MoI soon after Minister Shwayl discussed integrating the rebel groups into the police force.

On the road to integration

MoI spokesperson, Lieutenant Majdi Al-Arfi, said that 5,000 members of SSC submitted integration applications and the number of admissions committees rose from 10 to 37 due to the large number of applicants.

Al-Arfi added that the integration would be carried out in accordance with an informed plan. University graduates will be granted a rank of lieutenant after one year of study, high school graduates after two years, and those below will be granted a rank of NCO. MoI will hold a six-week course to study security, legal, and humanitarian science and rules of discipline. He also stressed that this integration would ensure different benefits, such as health insurance and social security.

Last warning

Commander of the fourth enforcement battalion in Tripoli SSC, Salah Barki, objected to the integration, stressing that the police did not change their behavior following  Gaddafi’s reign. Patronage, bribery and passivity, he claims, still exist. The police, said Barki, “will not accept us because the mentality of civilian rebels is different from the known police system.”

Barki noted that nothing prevented the existence of more than one security body of different affiliation, citing the Central Support Apparatus under the former regime and the US Republican Guard, provided that the SSC role “is supportive of the police in the event they fail to handle exceptional circumstances.”

He considered integration “as the last warning to the government if it insists on the integration decision,” and accused the government of seeking to put the SSC in confrontation with the people, while “Zintan Brigades, especially Qaqaa brigade, is supported by UAE and France to confront moderate Islamic current in Libya.”

Barki expressed surprise of Shwayl’s insistence on dissolving the SSC at a time when Qaqaa Brigade graduated 450 new members, and the government’s attempt to dissolve Libya Shield Forces, the dismissal of the Chief of Staff Yousef Mangoush and the assignment of persons previously associated with the former regime.

Fragmentation

Vice President of Benghazi SSC, Fawzi Wanees Gaddafi, admits that there is disagreement within the SSC regarding its integration into the police, explaining that some SSC members refuse to join the police because of its repressive history and corrupted leaders, and they demand an independent body affiliated with MoI, the prime ministry or GNC.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the GNC Internal Affairs Committee (IAC), Abduljalil Ghaith Seif Nasr, suggests that IAC leave the government free to make appropriate decisions about SSC and monitors the MoI performance in case of violation of legislations or taking actions threatening peace and social security.

Seif Nasr underlines that the equation is difficult.  On the one hand the revolutionary groups should be absorbed in line with the interests of the state, and on the other hand, their legitimate demands to exclude the corrupt elements of the police and army should be achieved.

He says that during a recent IAC meeting with the Minister of Interior, the latter assured that a new body called “State Investigation” would be created so as to be led by former political activists and comprising revolutionary groups.

Seif Nasr demands that other ministries absorb part of the revolutionaries, since the ministries of interior and defense could not integrate such a large number of rebels. And besides, many of them do not want to work in the police or military.