Libyan Militia Selling Oil, Defying the Government

Mar 8, 2014 | David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times
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CAIRO — A militia group that has blockaded Libya’s main oil ports for more than six months began on Saturday to sell the oil for its own accounts as the weak transitional government appeared powerless to stop it.The first unauthorized export of the oil — the lifeblood of Libya’s government and economy — may be the most ominous indication yet that the nation is at risk of coming apart at the seams.Until now, officials of the central government had played down the impact of the blockades by arguing that the militia was not stealing or wasting the oil, only holding it back for sale by the government at a later date.The militia leader who closed the ports, Ibrahim Jathran, a charismatic 33-year-old with close ties to Eastern Libyan tribes, has maintained that he was closing the ports not for personal profit, but to press the central government to crack down on oil-sector corruption and provide more resources to the long-neglected east.In the chaos that has followed the overthrow of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi three years ago, control of the country’s oil revenue was always presumed to be the greatest leverage in the hands of the fledgling government in Tripoli. Its leaders hoped to trade shares of oil revenue for the loyalty of fractious tribes and regions, and the shared patrimony of Libya’s oil wealth could bind the country together.