Seraj Essul and Jamal Adel TRIPOLI – Kidnapping and counter kidnappings of members of the Zwai and Tebu communities in the east of the country following the attack on a farm project near the Sarir oilfield on 21 December continue to rise despite attempts to broker a peace deal. It is reported that as many as 9 Zwais and 16 Tebus have now been abducted. Less than a week ago, the figure was six Zawis and nine Tebus. The latter were seized during attacks against Tebus in Ajdabiya hours after the farm attack. Also held is Adem Waheed, the head of animal production department at the farm who was taken during the raid. More Tebus were kidnapped on Friday at a checkpoint 60 kilometres south of Ajdabiya on the road to Kufra. Three members of the Zwai tribe were then kidnapped by Tebu on Saturday while travelling on the same road. There have been extensive efforts being made by elders from the oasis town of Jalu, which is on the Ajdabiya-Kufra road. The Tebus agreed to release their Zwai hostages and the Zwais the Tebus they are holding but the agreement was then put in jeopardy when the commander of the mainly Tebu army Brigade No. 25, which arrested two Zwai militiaman during the attack on the farm, refused to hand them over. Zwai negotiators insist that the two must be included in any deal. “We had no connection whatsoever with any kidnappings”, Saleh Mohammed, a member of Brigade No. 25 told the Libya Herald – although four of the Zwai abductees, all students, were reportedly arrested by the brigade while traveling to Jalu on 23 December. “We and Jalu's Council of Elders negotiated with the Tebu group who have detained the Zwais”, Mohammed said, adding that they had seen the kidnapped Zwais who were in good health. The Tebu kidnappers were ready to exchange the Zwais on two conditions, he stated. The first was the release of Adem Waheed, the farm staff member, and that the Zwai explain why they raided the farm and accept that the two Zwai militiamen captured there not be part of any deal. If the conditions were not met, the abductions threatened to continue, he said. Meanwhile, it has emerged that the government has edged towards meeting the Tebu protestors' demands that were behind the closure of the Ajdabiya-Kufra road and the blockade of the Sarir oilfield and power station in the first place. The demands are that the desert town of Rebyana, some 150 kilometres west of Kufra, be linked to the national electrical grid, it be allowed to have a municipal council of its own, and a sub-municipal council be set up for the Tebu areas in Kufra where at present council members are wholly Arab. According to Husain Aya, the former school teacher who coordinated the Sarir blockade and who headed negotiations with the Prime Minister on 16 December, Ali Zeidan accepted “some of our demands” on January 1. He told this newspaper that although the issue of a sub-council for the Tebu-areas of Kufra remained unsettled, the government had agreed to separate Rebyana from Kufra, putting it for the moment under direct government administration, and to connect the town to the electricity network. While work on the latter is carried out – the nearest lines are 90 kilomtres east of the town – Rebyana has agreed to the installation of a 1.5-MW portable generator. In November, the Tebu protestors refused the offer. – Libya Herald
