Magharebia

Despite efforts by Libya's new government to restore order and unite armed revolutionaries under one command, bloggers remain fearful about security threats to the nation's aspiring democracy.

At his site "Watani", blogger Abdelsalam Zeigeibi wrote that Libya was now governed by armed groups made up of various competing forces.

According to Zeigeibi, these forces include the Tripoli military council and the 20,000-strong Belhaj militias, the Tripoli revolutionaries led by Abdallah Nakir, the Misrata and Zintan revolutionaries, the February 17th brigade, a union of revolutionaries in Misrata and another in Benghazi.

The blogger warned that the continuation of such armed militias would pose a direct threat to the formation of a Libyan national army and would threaten the government's efforts to establish security and stability in the country.

"We know that there are multiple trends and inclinations, various opinions and opposing visions," he said. "However, they don't have the right to impose their agenda on the ground and enforce it by military force on the other."

Zeigeibi concluded his post by calling on the National Transitional Council (NTC) to dissolve these militias, put an end to these armed revolutionary groups, bring everyone under the rule of law, and to rebuild the security apparatus on a new democratic and humanitarian foundation.

In his turn, blogger Raedh expressed his fear and apprehension about the escalating armed clashes between militias across Libya. "The armed manifestations constitute a source of worry, as besieging civil airports with heavy weaponry by civilians is a source of alarm that would place the public interests of the state under tutelage if things continued in this way," he said.

The blogger blamed the NTC for failing to rein in the gunmen and uniting the former fighters. "The NTC has been weak and feeble in the issue of Gen. Haftar from the very beginning," he said. "It allowed him to move freely, build his network and boost his relations without any control whatsoever until his supporters imposed the status quo policy and elected him as chief of staff based on the revolutionary legitimacy in a society where tribalism and relations are taken into consideration along with legitimacy and law, and in a society where there is sensitivity between the civilian and military."

The blogger also expressed his fears about the Libyan government's inability to successfully navigate the transition in Libya and lead the country to safety.

"I fear that the current transition will exhaust the resources of the state amid these storms of strife and winds of fluctuations, and that responsibility will be lost and then this entire stage will be buried under the pretext that it was a mandatory and transitional stage in which it was difficult to hold anyone to account or evaluate their performance," he added.

At the site "I'm a Libyan immigrant", Salim Elragihe wrote that there were other risks lurking for the Libyan revolution, including the possible return of Kadhafi's sons and their aides. He accused them of "following a malicious strategy based on the enhanced continuation of chaos and instability as long as they can by sabotaging the bridges of trust between the components of Libyan people".

The blogger warned against dealing lightly with the threats that Kadhafi's supporters could pose to the future of democracy in the country, noting that the ideal solution would be to expedite the political process to form an elected and comprehensive national congress that will draft the constitution and achieve stability.