LIBYA West watches as Libya burns

LIBYA

West watches as Libya burns

A giant fuel depot is burning in Tripoli. Western countries have evacuated their embassies and are getting their citizens out of the country. The international community seems helpless in the face of a looming civil war.

There is a giant, reeking pillar of smoke above Tripoli. The local fire brigade has been trying to put out the burning fuel depot near the international airport since Sunday (27.07.2014), after one of its tanks was hit by a rocket during fighting between conflicting militias. The fire soon spread to a second tank.

Tripoli's fire brigade cannot cope. The situation is "very dangerous," the government said, warning of a "humanitarian and environmental catastrophe." Further oil tanks - with a capacity of more than 90 million liters (23.7 million US gallons) - and a natural gas store are also in danger of exploding. The authorities have called on the international community to provide firefighting planes, and local residents have been warned to leave the area immediately.

The fuel depot is on the road to the international airport over which hostile militias have been fighting for the past two weeks. According to the Libyan government, around 100 people have been killed in the clashes, which have continued undeterred by the huge fire. Chaos and violence have been reigning in other parts of Libya too. In the eastern metropolis of Benghazi alone, around 28 people were killed last weekend - again according to the government - in fighting between government forces and Islamist militias.

Libyan oil depot blaze out of control

Escape by land

In the face of the heavy fighting and general chaos, more and more countries are getting their citizens in Libya to safety. The German Foreign Ministry said in a statement at the weekend that the situation was "extremely confusing and unsafe." "German citizens are particularly vulnerable to the significantly increased danger of attack and kidnapping."

Similar warnings have come from the governments of the US, Britain, France, and Italy. Since foreigners can't leave via Tripoli's international airport, they are travelling either over land to Tunisia or the military airfield at Mitiga airport, five miles (eight kilometers) to the east.

Several embassies have also been evacuated. On Monday, the Foreign Ministry said that Germany's embassy staff had temporarily been brought to safety, but that the embassy remained open and would continue its work in the region. Meanwhile, a convoy of vehicles from the British embassy came under fire.

The US, for its part, protected its embassy convoy with F-16 fighter jets as it travelled to neighboring Tunisia. US Secretary Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki challenged concerns that the withdrawal would make the stabilization of Libya even more difficult: "Although embassy personnel are no longer in Libya, we continue to engage the Libyan government on a wide range of issues."

Close to collapse

Andreas Dittmann, Libya expert at the University of Giessen, Germany, is skeptical. He thinks the withdrawal of diplomats shows that the West has given up on the country. "Libya is steering towards chaos," he said. The central government is now incapable of fulfilling the essential task of a state - protecting domestic and foreign security. "This new development shows how weak the country is," he told DW. "Libya as a state is on the point of collapse."

The United States and NATO helped the Libyan opposition to topple dictator Moammer Gadhafi in 2011. But since then, argues Robin Wright of the Washington think tank Wilson Center, Libya has "increasingly been left to itself," and the consequences have been fatal. "The central government has now deteriorated to such an extent that it doesn't even control Tripoli airport, never mind large areas of the country," he told DW.

The power of the militias is one of Libya's biggest problems

"The western players have made many mistakes," says Dittmann, having failed to fulfill their own reconstruction goals. "The opportunity to build up a real democracy in Libya was missed." The violence also led to a possible power shift following the recent parliamentary elections on June 25 - fearing that they will lose influence in parliament, the Islamists are hoping to compensate for the looming defeat with weapons.

Peace troops for Libya

The influence of the many armed militias is one of Libya's main problems. They were supposed to disarm after the fall of Gadhafi. "But the disarmament of the population was never carried out," said Dittmann. All sides know that only weapons can secure power and influence in the country.

So what is to be done? Dittmann says there is only one way to calm the situation in Libya. "External help is vital to disarm the militias," he said. Libya's interim president was recently in New York to ask for a blue helmet mission - though that seems unlikely at present. For one thing, it is questionable whether any states would want to send soldiers into the chaos of Libya. And for another thing, in light of the current confrontation with the West over Ukraine, Russia is unlikely to vote for such a mission.  dw de