Haitham, 23, regularly visits the Compensation Office in Misrata, to check the lists in hopes of finding his name.

Although two and a half years have passed since the revolution that toppled Gaddafi’s regime, Haitham is still living with his eight-member family in a rented apartment since he has not received any compensation to restore his apartment in Tripoli Street.

Haitham, 23, regularly visits the Compensation Office in Misrata, to check the lists in hopes of finding his name.

Although two and a half years have passed since the revolution that toppled Gaddafi’s regime, Haitham is still living with his eight-member family in a rented apartment since he has not received any compensation to restore his apartment in Tripoli Street.

Haitham says the lists he regularly checks contain names that he knows very well do not deserve compensation because they fled during the revolution and only returned afterwards, without engaging in any battle.

Merchant’s woes

The affected buildings in the crowded Tripoli Street, which was completely destroyed during liberation included not only houses, but also stores that were either destroyed by tanks or looted by Gaddafi’s brigades—who intentionally destroyed everything. Many merchants cannot resume their activities.

With a destroyed green grocery, Ahmad Abdulhadi, 45, is now working hard as a truck driver to provide for his wife and four children. He is eagerly awaiting his compensation, which would enable him to reopen his store. Some merchants have managed to resume their activities, but they have incurred serious debts, which they hope to pay off once they receive their compensation.

Damage estimation

After the liberation of Misrata, two committees were established: the first was formed on May 14, 2011 and chaired by Ali Abu Sittah to estimate damages, while the second was formed on December 13, 2012 by Misrata’s Local Council under the chairmanship of Nasser Arfidah in order to supervise and follow-up compensation disbursement.

The two committees compiled lists of victims and referred them to the General National Council (GNC), which issued a relevant decision, says Mohammed Darrat, a GNC member from Misurata. “Half the compensations for property damages have been disbursed, while the remaining amount will be paid next year.”

Conflicting decisions

The aforesaid decision however reads: “Damages shall be estimated by the Administrative Centers Development Authority – (ACDA),” something that the damage estimation committee rejected because it meant going back to square one. “When the decision was issued, we had already processed 6,000 files,” says Arfidah. “We refused to do that because we presented the values early May, while the decision was issued on June 18, 2012, and we obligated the ministry to pay half the compensation, while the remaining amount will be subjected to further review.”

The number of files submitted to the committee by affected people, says Arfidah, was 9,552 and compensations were approved for all files, with the exception of those who had problems with heirs or those who contested the amount of compensation.

Letter-book

According to correspondence exchanged between Misrata Local Council and MoHU, 4,849 files have been approved to receive half the compensations, while only 1,656 files have been approved to receive the second payment, which is less than the number compiled by the committee. With regards to property, compensation has been approved for damages of less than LYD 30,000, which amounted to 4,333 files, while the remaining files have been referred to specialized engineering offices for review.

In correspondence, the MoHU instructs not to pay half the compensation approved by the GNC in cases where damages exceed LYD 500,000 (US $407,000), and refers such cases to the ACDA for review and verification. The MoHU also instructs not to pay compensation for non-concrete buildings without a review conducted by authorized consultation offices.

Other correspondence also mentions that the compensation for damaged property in Misurata, which amounts to LYD 336 million (US $273,000), has been already allocated and that negotiations are ongoing with the Wihda Bank, in order to deposit half this amount to be paid later to victims.

The MoHU has also been paying LYD 400 monthly (US $326) rent subsidies to every victim who submits a lease to the Ministry of Social Affairs, pending the resolution of the compensation issue. However, this amount is insufficient given the current high rents.

Time-element

The problems facing damage estimation is related to the lapse of considerable time. The damage estimation committees formed after liberation were mostly voluntary and they worked in several locations. Their findings were not stored in a database to ensure non-repetition of files. This prompted some victims, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to register their files more than once, while others did renovation work by themselves, which caused problems for the committees, given that they based their work on photos taken after liberation.

Movables committee

The Movables Committee is facing bigger problems related to merchants, given that the number of movables files in Misrata amounts to 10,749, says Ali Abu Sittah, the Movables Committee Chairman.

Movables Committee member Ahmad Assfour says damage estimation began with the interim local council after liberation. “We agreed to delay the payment of our compensations because of injured people and other considerations. But after two and a half years of waiting, we decided to act and we held our first meeting at the Sumoud Hall in Misrata in May 2013. This meeting resulted in forming a committee on May 26, 2013, chaired by Local Council member Ali Nadouri and assigned to follow up the movables files.”

Ministerial committee

In the second meeting attended by the economy minister, the Local Council chairman and Abu Sittah, were instructed to form an administrative committee.

“The prime ministry formed a technical committee under the chairmanship of a representative of the Ministry of Local Government– (MoLG),” says Abdunnaser Abu Zaqia, representative of the Ministry of Economy (MoE). “Other members include representatives of the MoE, MoLG and Ministry of Planning. So now we have a technical committee and an administrative committee working together.”  

Compensation as a principle, says Abu Zaqia, was approved by the government and the GNC, while the ministerial committee will discuss the implementation mechanism in addition to “the mechanism adopted for damage estimation in order to safeguard public money and protect the rights of citizens. Subcommittees will be formed in cities across the country.”

Merchants are waiting

“Most people who applied for movables compensations are merchants and they can afford to wait to allow the families living in rented dwellings to be compensated first – a legitimate reason to delay work on this subject,” argues Abu Zaqia.

The value of damaged movables according to the market values priced at the time is estimated at around LYD 960 million in Misurata and nearly LYD 3 billion in Libya en masse, according to Abu Zaqia.

With regards to property, says Abu Zaqia, the value is estimated according to the price of one roofed square meter. If the building in question is extensively damaged so that the number of square meters is not ascertained, “the second payment will be delayed pending the ascertainment of price and area.”

A commercial city

The damage file contains different items, most notably farms, livestock, furniture, spare parts, precious metals and others.

Assfour acknowledges the size of the problem facing the merchants and importers who have external obligations and that up until this moment little has been done. “Misurata is a commercial city that deals with many countries. Merchants have external obligations worth a lot of money, which have forced many of them to change activity, while others have suffered considerable loses.”