TRIPOLI — Deputy Prime Minister Abdussalam Al-Qadi Monday held talks with local councilors and officials in Sirte on rebuilding the town, massively damaged during the final battle against the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011. Accompanied by Undersecretary at the Ministry of Industry Hassan Al-Droui, Qadi met with the heads of the Sirte's transportation and housing departments and other officials to look at ways of speeding up reconstruction and development and provide better services to local residents. Qadi, who inspected the town's power station, seaport and airport, said that the visit was useful in identifying the problems faced by public institutions in Sirte, in particular what needed to be done by foreign companies to help rebuild the infrastructure and economy. The meeting took place on the sidelines of a peace and national cohesion conference in Sirte. The conference has been organized by a number of civil society institutions in the town and the University of Sirte in collaboration with the Libyan Center for Historical Studies. Involving several deputy ministers, together with a number of members of Congress as well as of the former National Transitional Council, the conference is partly a commemoration of the one in Sirte on Jan.21, 1922, designed to unite Libyan tribes in the fight against Italian colonialism. The descendants of two of those at the 1922 gathering were in Sirte for the conference —Abdul Latif Ahmad Swehli, grandson of Ahmed Swehli who headed of the delegation of Tripolitanian tribes, and Sheikh Saadi Atyosh, grandson of Sheikh Saleh Atyosh, who headed the delegation of tribes from Cyrenaica. Also on the sidelines of the conference, was a meeting of the Council of Libyan Elders. They called for the Transitional Justice Act to be issued. Meanwhile, it has been reported that the bodies of two men believed to have died during the battle for Sirte in 2011 have been found. DNA samples have been taken to help identification. — Libya Herald
