Libya’s ousted PM Zeidan flees to Europe, replaced by defense minister
Parliament removed prime minister from office over his failure to stop rogue oil exports by powerful militias
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Former Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan has fled to Europe after parliament voted him out of office on Tuesday over his failure to stop rebels from exporting oil independently. Zeidan was in Malta for two hours late on Tuesday on a short stop before going to “another European country,” Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told state-owned television TVM. Government sources on the Mediterranean island said Zeidan had left via a private plane bound for Germany, but German authorities could not confirm he had arrived. The standoff over control of oil exports runs across dangerous regional and tribal faultlines in Libya, where rival militias with power bases in the east and west back competing political factions in the transitional government. Western powers, which supported the NATO campaign that came to the aid of the anti-Gaddafi rebellion, fear the OPEC-member state could slide into greater instability or even break apart, with rival groups laying claim to power and vast oil reserves. Parliament acted after rebels holding three key ports in the east disobeyed government orders and loaded a North Korean-flagged tanker with oil at the Es Sider port as part of their drive for a federal state in the eastern region. Although Zeidan had threatened to use force to stop the vessel, the tanker managed to reach international waters and flee, undermining his credibility. Muscat said he spoke briefly to Zeidan, who lived for many years in Europe before the 2011 uprising encouraged exiles like him to return to a North African country still struggling to shake off four decades of Gaddafi’s one-man rule. Libyan state prosecutor Abdel-Qader Radwan had issued a travel ban on Zeidan because he faced an investigation over alleged irregularities involving misuse of state funds. The General National Congress, Libya’s transitional assembly, named Defense Minister Abdallah al-Thinni acting prime minister for two weeks. Deputies plan to pick another replacement in the interim ahead of a parliamentary vote expected later this year. Whomever is chosen will face a mammoth task trying to unite and cajole a country deeply divided along tribal, regional and political lines, where hard-line Islamists oppose more liberal leaders such as Zeidan. “We are new to this political game. We are still learning,” said Salah Elbakhoush, a Tripoli-based political analyst. “But we hope that there will be an improvement after Zeidan left.” Libya has lurched from crisis to crisis since the fall of Gaddafi nearly three years ago, and many Libyans are frustrated by the slow progress in their transition to democracy. The country still has no effective army or police, and the government is in danger of running out of money because the rebel activity at oilfields and ports has dried up vital revenues. Oil output has fallen to a trickle. This has left powerful groups of former rebels and militiamen to often step into the vacuum in a country still awash with arms from Gaddafi’s days and the revolt that ended his rule. The Misratan militia, based in the port town of Misrata and loosely allied with Islamist parties in the General National Congress, has already been gathering forces to support the government and face off with fighters loyal to the eastern federalists who seized the ports. But analysts said their main rivals, the Zintanis in the mountain town of Zintan near the northwest border with Tunisia, are unlikely to want the Misratans take a larger role in the country’s security without reacting themselves. There was no still word on the whereabouts of the tanker that sparked the crisis leading to Zeidan’s ouster. A military spokesman said on Tuesday that Libyan gunboats had chased the tanker along the country’s eastern Mediterranean coast and opened fire, damaging it, adding that Italian naval ships were helping move it to a Libyan government-controlled port. But Italy denied that any of its vessels were in the area at the time, and reports of a naval ship opening fire could not be confirmed. The navy and Defense Ministry have not been available for comment since.