The statements of the American ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, revealed that the Dbaiba government had frozen the strategy of annexing and integrating fighters and armed groups to the Ministry of Interior, which had been initiated by former Minister Fathi Bashagha.
While Bashagha was already starting this strategy by launching the first round to integrate fighters last January, it seems that the current government has not built on that step until now, according to “Norland” statements.
The government froze Bashagha’s strategy
The US ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, said that there was a strategy developed under the leadership of former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, but it was frozen with the transfer of power to the Dbaiba government.
Norland explained in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the core of the strategy is distinguishing groups that can be included from groups that cannot be part of this process, indicating that the strategy included joining individually, and not as groups, and the necessity for every individual to be examined, to ensure that he did not commit human rights abuses.
The first integration course begins
This strategy mentioned by the ambassador, the Ministry of Interior, led by Bashagha, had already started in its practical steps, as it was launched on the 25th of last January at the Higher Institute for Officers in the Azizia region, the first training course to integrate fighters in the ministry
Bashagha tweeted at the time, “We are proud of the launch of the first course, which will be followed by several others … which is a step in a long road to security reform and the reintegration of the fighters into the security institutions.”
integrating fighters
Bashagha’s decision to integrate fighters has been in place since September 2020. The decision that “Operation Volcano of Anger” published on its Facebook page included the text of the formation of a committee to set up a mechanism for integrating and rehabilitating armed groups and fighters in the Ministry of Interior.
The decision divided the targeted fighters into 3 categories, green, yellow and red, as the two green and yellow were merged, while the red ones were forcibly dismantled.
