Libya interior minister calls time on rogue militias
Misrata, Libya, 11 Mar – (ANA) - Libya's Interior Minister has warned militias outside the control of the central government to put down their arms or face confrontation with the new national security forces.
The militias spearheaded the rebellion which last year forced out Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Months later, some of them still occupy government buildings and man checkpoints while answering to their own commanders, not the government.
International rights groups and the United Nations have identified the militias as one of the biggest challenges to stability as the country tries to build new institutions after 42 years of Gaddafi's rule.
Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) has called on the militias to disband before, and been ignored, but it has been slowly building up a police force and army with the capacity to take on the militias.
At a graduation ceremony for police recruits, Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel A'al said the police now had 25,000 men and was ready to step into the security vacuum that the militias had filled since Gaddafi's overthrow. (ANA)
FA/ANA/11 March 2012-------