The Political Bureau of the Barqa province closed oil ports in the oil crescent area (Ras Lanuf, Sidra, Brega and Zueitina). It also accused the prime minister of trying to bribe the chairman of the Energy Commission of the National Conference, Naji Mukhtar, who recently admitted to paying 2.5 million dinars (US $2,000,000) and IOU’s worth of 30 million Libyan dinars for the head of the office and his brother in return for opening the ports.

The Political Bureau of the Barqa province closed oil ports in the oil crescent area (Ras Lanuf, Sidra, Brega and Zueitina). It also accused the prime minister of trying to bribe the chairman of the Energy Commission of the National Conference, Naji Mukhtar, who recently admitted to paying 2.5 million dinars (US $2,000,000) and IOU’s worth of 30 million Libyan dinars for the head of the office and his brother in return for opening the ports.

Osama al-Oraibi, the official spokesperson of the Barqa province political bureau said that an executive council for the province will soon be formed, that corruption will no go unpunished and that separation of Libya into three parts was a solution to many of the transition country’s problems. 

Osama al-Oraibi, you have closed the ports and Libya’s oil production fell to its lowest levels.  What are your demands?

In the beginning, the closure of the ports was because we discovered illegal selling of oil by some parties. Technicians and specialists in oil marketing resorted to the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) to stop this gradual exhaustion process. This started after they resorted to the government and to the National Oil Corporation, but their complaint was met with deaf ears and blind eyes. Ali al-Ahrash, the Former Head PFG, tried to interfere personally to resolve the issue with the government and the national oil corporation but he was removed from his position. After this incident, things rapidly developed. The head of PFG closed the ports in a precautionary measure to stop the thefts. He tried to communicate with the state apparatuses until the famous speech of the prime minister who vowed to bombard the PFG by land, air and sea. At this point, the national forces in the Barqa province, who are demanding the adoption of a federal system, and other nationalists, started to move when they felt that the government and the Congress were incapable of performing their duties and their capacities were restricted by armed militias and gangs trying to undermine their work.

 The ceiling of demands was heightened and we started to demand the adoption of a federal system in order to ease the centralization of power in Libya and fight against the apparatuses that are trying to monopolize power. It is for this reason that we formed a political bureau, which has emerged as a result of the Ras Lanuf Declaration of 18 August. Ever since then, the bureau has been trying to bring the views closer and to inform the public about the size of the plot faced by Libya.

Don’t you believe that the formation of the one-sided Political Bureau, without the holding of elections or a referendum means that the right of Libyans to determine their own destiny has been compromised?

In some cases there are exceptional circumstances. The referendum cannot be held under the existing compelling circumstances of sharp political polarization and when there is only one stream that dominates the state’s institutions. Libya is a country that suffers from centralization and all of its apparatuses are located in the capital city. It is easy to dominate them. This stream was able to infiltrate these institutions and to control them.  Now, there is no healthy environment for the holding of a real and legitimate referendum that can bring real results.

The federalists have demanded more than one time the holding of a referendum within the historic territories of Barqa but their demands were ignored or misinterpreted and they were accused of disloyalty. This has led to the emergence of this entity, which is recognized by everyone: tribes and citizens who do not feel embarrassed to recognize it.  The real legitimacy is the one you acquire because of your performance on the ground.  It is not the legitimacy that one acquires by deceiving the people and attempting to circumvent their will by hiding behind masks until power is reached and then the reality and real faces are revealed. 

What is the role of the Barqa Defence Force tasked with securing the cities of Derna and Benghazi, located within the borders of the region, which you have announced in your Ras Lanuf Declaration and which are witnessing bombings and assassinations?

The force is not a Barqa army because the army is the central state’s jurisdiction. As federalists, we always stress this issue based on a number of experiences such as that of the USA.  Each state has a military force called National Guards and its task is to support and assist the police apparatuses in providing stable security conditions away from the interference of the state’s army, which should exercise its duties in protecting and safeguarding the sovereignty of the nation and the integrity of its borders.

The idea behind this defense force is to create a military force with better arms than those owned by the police apparatus.  The force shall have a general commander who will be chosen from among the militants known for their integrity, experience and competence. He will work to unite the biggest and most reasonable number of rebel forces and the military expertise into one military force that will support and assist the police apparatuses in performing their work. The most important duty of this force is to protect the institutions and citizens in the cities of Benghazi and Derna, because, according to what is going on, these two cities have the biggest share of targeting in terms of assassinations, bombings and direct targeting of citizens.

This force will also be required to monitor the eastern, western and southern entrances to the region. If this force is needed by the federal state, we will be happy to help in any military act.  However, its real jurisdiction is not to practice any military action on the state level. It is a support force that will collect the weapons and will practice its work under the rule of the region, nothing more and nothing less.

When will this force be present on the ground?

Currently, we are trying to find the person who will become the commander in chief of the Barqa defense force.  With regards to the equipment and capabilities, things will not be difficult and we have started to prepare them.  The Political Bureau is taking these issues into consideration and in its near future plans. 

The only thing that is still stopping us is the absence of a law that regulates the work of the force and that regulates the weapons carried by the people. We are suffering from the increase in the number of weapons carried by the people in the streets. For this reason, I believe that the most important thing to do now, before the force starts its work on the ground, is to issue a basic law which will regulate the coming phase, define the powers of force and specify the name of the person – after reaching consensus – who will lead the force.  When all these issues are ready and resolved – and I personally do not think that they will take long – maybe some few weeks at the latest, the force will directly start its work on the ground.

Is there a government looming on the horizon to administrate this region?

The word “government” carries more meanings than the real meaning of the apparatus that is going to be created.  Until this minute, the consultations have reached a point where everybody has agreed on the formation of an executive council similar to that which exists in the United Arab Emirates.  As we all know, the UAE is a federal state with a tribal nature similar to that of Libya. In each emirate there is an executive council formed of the heads of the local administrations in the regions. They gather to form an executive council. The entity, which will emerge in Libya will not be exactly the same as the one in the UAE but it will benefit from its experience. 

There will be an entity called the Executive Council of the Barqa Region. It will be composed of a number of figures and not only one person. It is not a government in the real sense of the word.  It will only supervise the investment of the region’s funds and distribute them in an appropriate and correct way, which ensures real development and maximum utilization of these funds. The term “government” is not what we are seeking at this time.  We want to create an executive council for the Barq Region. 

What happened to the IOU’s you talked about?

Until this moment, the case is frozen. We have shown the IOU’s in a press conference. We have also formally notified the Attorney General through media channels. There is a legal team ready to go to the Office of the Attorney-General when the investigations begin. We cannot confirm or deny the news that we have received and which says that the Attorney General did not proceed with the investigations in the case. The play that the concerned person paid the money from his own pocket driven by his national feelings, which the National Congress and the central government are trying to promote, is a comic play which we will not take part in.  If the investigations insist on this principle, we will consider this as a kind of humor, political lies and hypocrisy, which we will not participate in and therefore we will not submit any documents to the Investigation Commission.

The investigation should be transparent and independent and facts should be given on time.  The source of the money should be revealed and the person who promised to give Naji Mukhtar (the head of the General National Congress’s Energy Committee) the thirty million dinars should also be revealed as well as from where did this money come from.

These are facts and they should be clear and explicit. There are account numbers, and there are people who are still alive. To underplay the whole issue by the current status does not bode well and does not allow the political bureau to take serious steps regarding this issue. The bureau will now only tell the realities to the people and then it will take steps on the ground.

In case the Attorney General takes no action regarding this case, are you intending to internationalize it?

I think that the internationalization will not bring any benefits. We are not seeking to internationalize this issue. We are striving to become a region or an independent entity within the Libyan state.  We are certainly seeking Libya’s unity and we do not want to open doors that will allow separationists and those who have intentions to divide Libya to enter from them. We know very well that there is a Western US plan, which seeks to divide Libya into three states, even if this plan does not serve the interest of Libya, but they are pushing things towards this end.

We are taking serious steps in order to confront this option by building a federal system that guarantees rights and deals with everyone who tries to promote the idea of dividing Libya.  I believe that the news transmitted by the CNN of a new map for Libya, dividing it into three states, confirms what we are saying and that we are taking the right path.  We should not allow this to happen by building a federal state. 

The Attorney General has issued an arrest warrant against Ibrahim al-Jadran, the head of the Political Bureau. Is he going to hand himself in?

Until this moment, the Political Bureau did not receive any request for the arrest of Ibrahim al-Jadran or any of the political bureau’s members.  When we receive such a notification, the legal team will demand justification in order to arrest him.

Ibrahim is currently dismissed from the PFG. He is not practicing his powers within the borders of the Libyan state, which does not have the right to arrest him without having documents and evidence.  This issue has been stressed in the Constitutional Declaration. Moreover, his arrest should be made in the framework of the law.  He should be notified three times to show up at the General Attorney’s office. If this is done in a proper way, I believe that Ibrahim has a lawyer in Benghazi, and he has the right to authorize any judge to investigate with Ibrahim. The legal team of the office will deal with this issue within the legal framework.

If this is done according to the currently adopted method of double standards and pressure attempts – the same way that the General Attorney dealt with MPs Hajr Alqyd, al-Touati al-Aydah, and Jumaa al-Sayeh, who unlike others, were clearly blackmailed and pressured by the General Attorney (they were deprived of their immunity mid-September in response to a request from the Attorney General because of a defamation suit filed against them by 20 deputies from the ruling Justice and Construction Part). Other MPs were not pressured and nobody investigated with them. The legal process in Libya is marred with lots of confusion.  The judiciary is not functioning and there are no institutions that one can go to.  The Attorney General has become trapped in the same vicious cycle, which has also trapped the government and the Congress: usurpation of power, the practice pressure and using power to pressure political opponents.

Is there a shadow government running Libya’s affairs?

There is no shadow government. There is a suspicious group with foreign affiliation, and this group has gathered around it some of the extremist parties and streams as well as interest groups. This group is known to everybody. It has tried to practice these issues in Egypt, and is now trying to practice them in Tunisia and Libya. The least one can say about this group is that it is practicing political terrorism. We as a group of the Libyan people have documents, proof and evidence that this group is trying to take over power in Libya, and is trying to dominate it again. It is trying to repeat the scenario from the last 42 years. It is for this reason that we are seeking to liberate the country again, the same way we did during the 17^th of February revolution.