• Libya training programs overwhelmed, as thousands leave militias to join official police force
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[img]http://imgkk.com/i/mkim.jpg[/img] Libya's new police car design :~) [url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/06/us-libya-interior-police-idUSBRE90509F20130106[/url] [quote=Reuters][B]Almost 6,000 gunmen have begun training to be policemen under a drive to disarm militias hindering Libya's democratic transition although many others cling to street powers won in toppling Muammar Gaddafi, the new interior minister said in an interview.[/B] Dr Ashour Shuail, a soft-spoken former professor of law, took charge of Libya's most formidable domestic policy challenge - establishing a legitimate, effective national police - late last year after his appointment by new Prime Minister Ali Zeidan. After Gaddafi's overthrow in 2011, transitional authorities set up a Supreme Security Committee (SSC) composed of militiamen who would try to curb others defying law enforcement in the belief it remained under the thumb of Gaddafi loyalists. But the SSC, funded by the Interior Ministry, wound up better armed and powerful than the official police and a number of members have been accused of kidnappings and intimidation, complicating the lawlessness plaguing the oil-producing state. In an interview with Reuters, Shuail said that close to 6,000 militiamen - roughly 10 percent of those in the SSC - had signed up to join the regular police since an admissions programme was launched at the end of last year. He said 37 police training committees under the interior ministry's authority had been set up to handle the new recruits. Shuail said he was prepared to tweak the admission rules, accepting recruits as old as 40 or 45, or those lacking a high school diploma, to expedite the SSC merger with national police and make room for everyone keen to serve. "Those looking for safety, security, legitimacy, employment, and to participate in building his nation in a civilized way will turn to the admissions committees. Loyalty is to God and country," he said. A slew of previous attempts to integrate militiamen into police forces failed, but Shuail insisted the new plan was more viable because Libyans were fed up with gun rule in the streets. "This time will be different because the street is ready. Libyans are ready for the return of a nation and for stability. We all have sons and daughters and personal and international interests, but this only (can be realised) in stability and with institutions of the nation," he said. Shuail said he was confident that more and more SSC members would opt to join police because the incentives included steady salaries and paid health care, which would help them buy homes and start families. The minister's spokesman said new applications were arriving from militiamen every day, without giving numbers. Shuail was coy on the magnitude of the matter of gunmen who still reject law enforcement, saying only that the solution lay in brainstorming ideas to overcome such recalcitrance "while avoiding confrontation". MILITIA CULTURE He conceded that many militiamen still view the police as a discredited pillar of Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorship. Some of these militiamen prefer the power, liberties and brotherhood of an armed brigade, while others are radical Muslims who see the Tripoli government as straying off God's path, or essentially members of organized crime gangs. "There are some who follow a personal agenda - be it from inside Libya or outside - and they have some of their own personal problems," Shuail said. "Some know that if a nation is eventually built, they may find themselves facing jail time." He said various ideas were being discussed in a special government committee to deal with holdouts. "We will communicate with them and see what their needs are and then try to provide it for them. Some of them see us in the government as their enemies, but on what basis? We are all the same people, we follow the same religion." Born in the eastern city of Benghazi in 1954, Shuail trained as a police officer in Egypt in the 1970s and worked in the Benghazi police department. In 2000 he earned a PhD from Ain Shams University in Cairo and returned to teach law at Benghazi University, until he was tapped on the shoulder by Zeidan. But his journey to government was a bumpy one. Shuail was accused being a vestige of the Gaddafi regime, along with a number of other ministers, and demonstrations broke out in front of the General National Council in protest. And so, along with 27 other ministers, Shuail was referred to the Integrity Commission, a body comprised of legal experts appointed by the previous ruling assembly to study the backgrounds of public officials. Last month Shuail won an appeal clearing him of close ties to Gaddafi's regime.[/quote] They originally had 25 committees reviewing police force applications, but they had to [url=http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/01/02/interior-ministry-boosts-efforts-to-integrate-ssc-into-police/]increase it[/url] to 37 to keep up. Today they [url=http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/01/06/new-body-to-be-in-charge-of-police/]announced the Supreme Police Council[/url], which will oversee the training program, investigate any reports of corruption and stuff The rebuilding of the armed forces is also progressing, with the first new batch of navy recruits having [url=http://www.libyaherald.com/2012/12/31/first-class-of-derna-navy-recruits-graduates/]just graduated[/url] from training. Let's stick some bad news in here to balance things out a bit though. A couple of guys who were up to no good [url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/06/uk-libya-parliament-attack-idUKBRE90508Z20130106]shot at[/url] Congress Speaker Mohammed al-Magarief but he escaped uninjured.
Fantastic, I hope Libya can finally settle to normality
Woo progress!
Well, let's hope that they focus more on actual Police than having to rely on the military to do police work. I hope they really make an impact on their future in the coming year.
I smell a Coup d'état in the distant future.
While I like the new police car design, the toyota pickup trucks with anti-aircraft guns mounted on them were somewhat endearing.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;39120476]I smell a Coup d'état in the distant future.[/QUOTE] Okay
[QUOTE=Bradyns;39120476]I smell a Coup d'état in the distant future.[/QUOTE] I believe Libya will invade the Falkland empire some time within the next billion trillion years.
I've said it once and I'm saying it again Libya is the only middle eastern country that know how to un-fuck things.
[QUOTE=cat man;39120522]While I like the new police car design, the toyota pickup trucks with anti-aircraft guns mounted on them were somewhat endearing.[/QUOTE] Now they've got Toyota police cruisers. The fuck? "... And now we return to: The Arab Spring; Sponsored in Part by: Toyota" Also نكح الشرطة
This could be progress, but there's still reason to be wary. Consider, for instance, if members of a specific militia joined the police force en masse, and were then assigned to patrol the same area. You'd effectively have a militia acting as the force of law. It'll all depend on what checks and balances are instituted and how careful they are about breaking up the old groups.
[QUOTE=cat man;39120522]While I like the new police car design, the toyota pickup trucks with anti-aircraft guns mounted on them were somewhat endearing.[/QUOTE] The use of civilian law enforcement is a sign that things are returning to normalcy again.
The Arab springs successful, truly secular and free revolution.
The news coming out of libya these days warms my heart. First the ice cream fad, now news that militias are disarming. Between Egypt and Libya, Libya's resolution has definitely had a more positive effect.
I wish people had such heart for their police forces here europe. But no, "fuck the police" attitude everywhere amongst the young folk.
[QUOTE=Irkalla;39123503]Now they've got Toyota police cruisers. The fuck? "... And now we return to: The Arab Spring; Sponsored in Part by: Toyota" Also نكح الشرطة[/QUOTE] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War[/url]
Yay! A bloodthirsty, savage authority we didn't like is getting replaced by a bloodthirsty, savage authority that we like! [url]http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/libya-militia-stranglehold-corrosive-rule-law-2012-07-04[/url] [url]http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/libya-out-control-militias-commit-widespread-abuses-year-uprising-2012-02-15[/url] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17053836[/url] [url]http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_22860.pdf[/url] [url]http://gulfnews.com/news/region/libya/libyan-militias-commit-war-crimes-amnesty-says-1.981803[/url] [url]http://rt.com/news/libya-war-crimes-racism-827/[/url]
The more extreme out of those articles are from almost a year ago. Much change can happen within that amount of time.
[QUOTE=Cathedral;39124430]Yay! A bloodthirsty, savage authority we didn't like is getting replaced by a bloodthirsty, savage authority that we like! [url]http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/libya-militia-stranglehold-corrosive-rule-law-2012-07-04[/url] [url]http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/libya-out-control-militias-commit-widespread-abuses-year-uprising-2012-02-15[/url] [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17053836[/url] [url]http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_22860.pdf[/url] [url]http://gulfnews.com/news/region/libya/libyan-militias-commit-war-crimes-amnesty-says-1.981803[/url] [url]http://rt.com/news/libya-war-crimes-racism-827/[/url][/QUOTE] What? All those articles are about militias doing bad things. This news is about the militias losing power and being replaced by an official police force I guess you misunderstood something, but it's like you provided pages and pages of evidence against your own point :v:
[QUOTE=smurfy;39124534] I guess you misunderstood something, but it's like you provided pages and pages of evidence against your own point :v:[/QUOTE] I am a horrible idiot.
Could be good or bad. As was the case in Tunisia, an over-bloated police force is prone to institutional corruption, a "kleptocracy" of bureaucracy. On the other hand, Libya has very little police/civil society as is, since most of the country is still de facto common law and tribal control, with most of the population self governing and simply not revolting from Ghaddafi's constant state-bribery through excessive welfare.
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