Libya launches weapons collection drive; small arms, RPGs, AA guns and 2 tanks handed over to army
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• Weapons collection ceremonies are being held across Libya, with former rebels encouraged to hand over their weapons to the army.
• The National Army has received thousands of small arms as well as many heavy weapons, and one militia in Tripoli turned up to surrender two tanks.
• The government has said that this is only the beginning, with plans to hold more weapons collections and to expand the programme to more areas of the country.
[url]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/09/201292916631790143.html[/url]
[quote=AJE]Hundreds of Libyans turned over their weapons at collection points in Tripoli, the capital, and the eastern city of Benghazi, following rallies which called for disarmament and the disbanding of militias.
A steady trickle of men surrendered their weapons to national army troops stationed in Tripoli's Martyrs Square and in Benghazi's Freedom Square on Saturday. There were also weapon collections in Zintan and Yefrin.
"We are astonished by the positive turnout," said Colonel Hussein Abdullah Khalifa in Tripoli, adding that the initiative was galvanised by anti-militia rallies pressing for a united army held in Libya's two largest cities this month.
Tripoli campaign organiser Ziad Hadia told AFP news agency that "more than 100 people had turned in light, medium and heavy weapons as well as ammunition ranging from bullets to tank shells" in the first half of the day.
"We also received three heat-seeking missiles," he added, while one person had come forward with a tank which is to be delivered to the army later at an undisclosed location.
In Benghazi, the army tallied more than 200 weapons.
Those numbers represent just a tiny fraction of the arms that spilled out of the arsenals of toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi but it was seen as a step forward in a country where many cling to their weapons citing insecurity.
"To achieve security we must take the first step ourselves," said Mustafa Abu Hmeid, a 23-year-old mechanic clutching a rifle, a treasured spoil of the 2011 conflict which ended in Gaddafi's ouster and death.
Housewife Mariam Abu Swera expressed relief: "As long as there are arms on the streets, I can't move freely or go about my normal life, so we really welcome this step."
The collection drive is a collaboration between the national army and private television station Al-Hurra, which drummed up support through its live broadcasts from Tripoli and Benghazi.
Organisers in both cities will raffle off prizes, including two cars, at the end of the day-long collection. They said the process was not a one-off event and would be repeated to include other cities.
A September 11 attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, including the US ambassador, was followed by mass anti-militia protests in the city, increasing pressure on Libyan authorities to tackle insecurity.
On Friday, hundreds of people rallied in Tripoli in support of a national army and against armed groups.[/quote]
[url]http://www.libyaherald.com/?p=15328[/url]
[quote=Libya Herald]Militiamen and private citizens turned out in their hundreds if not thousands on Tripoli’s Martyr’s Square today to hand over weapons acquired during and after last year’s revolution that drove the Qaddafi regime from power.
Small arms, anti-aircraft guns and RPGs were delivered by the truckload to the sounds of a military marching band, pop music and a running commentary via megaphone of who had delivered what.
For a moment, each man was made to feel like a star as his name and the weapons he had surrendered were announced with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved to declare the arrival of a president. Cheers of “God is Great” went up as the next man stepped forward and the process was repeated again.
One militia, the Triq Asour brigade, even brought along two tanks to be handed over to the waiting National Army. The brigade is located near to Qaddafi’s former compound of Bab Al-Aziziya and is said to have been hitherto independent of either the Army or the Ministry of Interior.
“We came today because Libya is free and we no longer need these weapons”, said Ahmed Abdullah Brishny, a member of the Zawiya brigade who had just handed in two 14.5mm and 12.5mm machine guns, a Kalashnikov and several cases of ammunition.
Bearded and berobed, Brishny declared that he had full confidence in the Army and wanted to remind people that Islam is a religion of peace.
“Islam is for peace, not for killing”, he said. “We felt collectively responsible for the disaster that befell the American ambassador in Benghazi. We have to stop these radical religious people”.
Brishny explained that his brigade had been galvanised to merge with the Army following the events in Benghazi and that the vast majority of weapons in Zawiya had already been handed over.
“The Libyan people have decided to move from fighting a revolution to building a country”, said Brigadier Hussein Abdullah, one of the officers overseeing the weapons collection.
“We are working day and night to build a new Libyan Army and to protect the people”.
Given the Army’s comparative weakness, those in attendance at today’s event had remarkable confidence in its capacity to keep them safe.
The two decorated Hyundai hatchbacks, flat-screen televisions and iPads which are to be given away in a prize draw at the conclusion of the hand-in tomorrow evening do not appear to have offered a comparable incentive.
“As ordinary people, we want to support our Army, and that means trusting them to protect us”, said Abdul Ben Ashour, an engineer waiting to hand over his Kalashnikov. “I trust the Army because it belongs to the Government of the new Libya”.
The Tripoli weapons handover is being accompanied by a parallel event taking place in Benghazi, and the Government has declared its intention to roll out the programme across the country.
The initiative had been due to begin on 16 September, but was postponed when the Government declared that a new annual Martyr’s Day celebration was to be held then instead.
Thousands of small arms and heavier type weapons are still believed to be in the hands of militia and private citizens across Libya, and it remains to be seen how successful the programme will be elsewhere.
Yesterday evening saw Islamist demonstrators in Benghazi set two cars ablaze and lob hand grenades at an Interior Ministry building in protest at the disbanding of the Ansar Al-Sharia brigade, believed to have been involved in the fatal attack on the US Consulate on 11 September.
The Government has said that all militias in Libya must now submit to the authority of the Army or be disbanded.
Questions remain, however, as to whether these brigades will be broken up with members joining the security services as individuals, which many in Congress and on the street have called for, or else merge as complete units.
There is also considerable uncertainty as to how quickly the Government will be able to impose its will on parts of the country where the state’s authority remains comparatively weak, such as Zintan, large swathes of the south and the former Qaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid.[/quote]
-snip- misread
A revolution that actually has no reign of terror following it?
Unheard of.
It's good to know the people trust the new government enough to give them their weapons.
[quote]Questions remain, however, as to whether these brigades will be broken up with members joining the security services as individuals, which many in Congress and on the street have called for, or else merge as complete units.[/quote]
To be quite honest I'd rather see these brigades/militias/whatever get broken apart and members should not be allowed to join security services (except if they already were in before which isn't very likely). Something in letting people whose only combat and security experience was in a complete state of anarchy doesn't sound very right to me.
[editline]29th September 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;37845916]A revolution that actually has no reign of terror following it?
Unheard of.[/QUOTE]
Yeah nevermind the British and American revolutions.
I misread Libya as Syria.
Holy shit the libyans are really bucking the trend for revolutions.
If I lived there, I personally would have kept an old AK in a closet or something just due to how instable it could get, but I definitely wouldn't have been stockpiling RPGs and shit in my backyard. It's good to see they trust the new government enough to hand over their weapons, I'm just hoping it doesn't backfire on them, somehow.
Weapons drive just sounds funny, even though this is a serious issue.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;37845933]
Yeah nevermind the British and American revolutions.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, tarring and feathering tax collectors and having veterans threaten another rebellion because of high taxes.
Oh and lets not forget about the three English Civil wars with beheadings and family feuds galore.
[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;37846016]Yeah, tarring and feathering tax collectors and having veterans threaten another rebellion because of high taxes.
Oh and lets not forget about the three English Civil wars with beheadings and family feuds galore.[/QUOTE]
There is always fallout from revolutions. I think the killing of a US ambassador and the murder of Gadhafi and government supporters after the war counts as that.
I think one of the reasons Libya seems to have gotten off lightly from the revolution is that pretty much all Libyans are Sunni Muslims, so there is little room for sectarian violence, unlike in Egypt where there is a sizeable Christian population, and Syria where there are a lot of Sunnis, Shias and Christians.
At least that is the reason a lot of Libyans gave for the Muslim Brotherhood losing the elections - we are already Muslim, we don't need the government to tell us how to be Muslim
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;37845933]
Yeah nevermind the British and American revolutions.[/QUOTE]
To be fair, rebelling against a country that's months of travel away is a lot different than fighting for control of the same country.
I really really love this.
So when can I fly over to Libya and buy myself some firepower? :v:
[QUOTE=evilweazel;37845954]If I lived there, I personally would have kept an old AK in a closet or something just due to how instable it could get, but I definitely wouldn't have been stockpiling RPGs and shit in my backyard. It's good to see they trust the new government enough to hand over their weapons, I'm just hoping it doesn't backfire on them, somehow.[/QUOTE]
I'm sure individuals will stay armed, this is more meant for the private arsenals the militias had formed over the course of the revolution
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;37845933]Yeah nevermind the British and [B]American revolutions.[/B][/QUOTE]
the american revolution had plenty of mob violence and led to a genocide
Finland has small scale events like this every now and then when people can give away their unregistered guns and ammo also explosives. It's a remnant from post-war period when people coming back from the frontlines carried tons of rifles and explosives which they hid around the country in case of another Soviet attack.
So very nice to see Libya is taking away all those guns from the streets and back to the army where they belong.
I would have to admit that If I had an AK I probably wouldn't hand it over just because it might become useful again in the future.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;37845933]To be quite honest I'd rather see these brigades/militias/whatever get broken apart and members should not be allowed to join security services (except if they already were in before which isn't very likely). Something in letting people whose only combat and security experience was in a complete state of anarchy doesn't sound very right to me.
[editline]29th September 2012[/editline]
Yeah nevermind the British and American revolutions.[/QUOTE]
The British civil war (assuming that's what you're talking about) did have a reign of terror after it.
In the first picture I keep thinking there is a Santa Claus handing out ammo belts because of my small phone resolution
[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;37845916]A revolution that actually has no reign of terror following it?
Unheard of.[/QUOTE]
The Velvet Revolution?
[QUOTE=evilweazel;37845954]If I lived there, I personally would have kept an old AK in a closet or something just due to how instable it could get, but I definitely wouldn't have been stockpiling RPGs and shit in my backyard. It's good to see they trust the new government enough to hand over their weapons, I'm just hoping it doesn't backfire on them, somehow.[/QUOTE]
It will be like every other weapon collection scheme thats ever been done: majority of people that have weapons will hand over excess shit they don't need while keeping a rifle or two in the closet.
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