Ban Ki-moon in surprise visit to Libya
Tripoli, 12 Oct - (ANA) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew to Tripoli yesterday to urge the warring factions fighting for control of Libya to make peace.
Oil producer Libya is struggling with two governments and two parliaments since an armed group from the western city of Misrata seized Tripoli, setting up its own cabinet and assembly while forcing the internationally recognized government to move to the east. Western powers and Libya's neighbours worry that the North African country will become a failed state as former rebels who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 now fight for control and a share of the vast oil reserves. "There is no alternative to dialogue," said the U.N. secretary general after arrival. "It is my conviction that all problems in Libya can be solved through dialogue. Nevertheless, we understand that the path will be long and difficult. Peace building always is." Ban met a deputy speaker and other lawmakers from the elected parliament, the House of Representatives, which has moved to the eastern city of Tobruk, as well as Misrata members of the assembly who have boycotted the sessions. He said he had come to support a U.N.-sponsored dialogue to try to end militia fighting. The talks, started in the southern city of Ghadames two weeks ago, have not taken in armed factions from Misrata or a rival militia allied to the western city of Zintan who battled Misrata forces in Tripoli for more than a month over the summer. But diplomats hope that since Misrata members from the house are indirectly linked to the rival parliament in Tripoli, the talks will start a broader political dialogue, not just about the House of Representatives. "We call for a political dialogue ...and welcome the mediating role the U.N. is playing," Fathi Bashagha, a lawmaker, from the group which has boycotted the sessions of the assembly in Tobruk, told Reuters. (ANA)

FA/ANA/12 October 2014------------