Tripoli, Libya - Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has warned that he would use force against outlaws, after demonstrators besieged the headquarters of the General National Congress (GNC)
Protesters on Tuesday stormed the headquarters of the country's highest authority to compel them to vote on the controversial law on the exclusion, from political office, of all those who have collaborated with the regime of Col. Muammar Kadhafi, who was overthrew in 2011 by a popular uprising.
'The Libyan government has sufficient strength, has the support of the people and can rely on the law that gives it the right to hold free and fair elections (...) to impose its authority throughout the Libyan territory,' the Libyan Premier told a press conference Wednesday in Tripoli.
Mr. Zeidan, who was accompanied by Achour Chawali and Salah Al-Marghini, interior minister and justice minister respectively, assured that his government had taken all preventive measures to protect members of the GNC.
According to the Prime Minister, instructions were given to all security forces, the police and the Army to protect the GNC headquarters as well as its members while avoiding bloodshed against demonstrators.
This option should not be seen as a weakness from the government, but reflects its desire to manage the situation intelligently, he said.
Prime Minister Zeidan called on Libyan citizens and civil society organisations to cooperate with the government and its services to find definitive solutions to these repetitive breaches of the law, saying that the citizens should express their grievances in a peaceful manner and not by force.
Members of the GNC, who were harassed by the demonstrators, refused to vote on the law and have suspended their work.
Pana 07/03/2013