The issue of disarming former rebels who fought Maummar Qadhafi's forces is "more complex" than it appears, but these militias will be demilitarised soon, Prime Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib said on Thursday. "This (disarming of militias) is a much more complex issue than it may sound," Kib told a select group of foreign reporters after talks with visiting Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
His statement comes two days after the capital's city council requested militias from outside Tripoli to leave by December 20. Kib said his two-week-old interim government was holding talks with militias with a view to disarm them and has "solid and detailed programmes" to rehabilitate these tens of thousands of former rebels.
"We are working on demilitarising these groups. We are talking to them and I think we will achieve our goals and objectives any time soon," Kib said, adding a major militia had already agreed to leave the city out of its own accord. "There is a group, a major player in this group of freedom fighters coming from another city" who will leave Tripoli, he said in English, without naming the militia.
They will do this "not because they heard somebody telling them it is two weeks or else... No It is because we have been talking to them," he added. "They understand the situation and they actually expressed themselves interest to leave the city," Kib continued.
Kib clarified that the December 20 deadline given to militias from outside Tripoli to leave was issued by the city council and not by his government. "We did not give any deadline... It's not that we don't want to set deadlines because we are comfortable with the situation. It's just that we feel that things don't happen like this."
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