Libya's NTC begins announcing new government roles

Prime minister designate Abdel Rahim El-Keeb Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) is expected to officially announce a new cabinet line-up later on Tuesday, but a few roles have already been announced.Prime minister designate Abdel Rahim El-Keeb said on Monday that ministers have already been appointed for the defense, finance and foreign ministries.
Osama Al-Juwali, commander of the Zintan Brigade was appointed defence minister as part of the cabinet line-up. In other appointments, Libya's deputy envoy to the United Nations Ibrahim Dabbashi was named as foreign minister, an oil company executive was made oil minister and the finance minister in the outgoing government Ali Tarhouni was re-appointed, Reuters news agency reported.
A new cabinet is faced with the tough task of rebuilding the oil producing country after an armed revolt which managed to topple former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Challenges include the task of balancing rival regional factions and ideological camps all battling for influence in the new Libya.
So far, the appointments have shown no key roles for Islamists who had been making a bid for power, and more specifically defence ministerial roles, since the former regime’s fall. Instead, secularist liberals have been chosen.
El-Keeb announced the new roles just hours after meeting the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The NTC prime minister said he would pick the best people to steer the country towards democracy rather than those with the most political clout, according to Reuters reports.
“We will use competence as a basic measure and this way we will be able to include all of Libya's regions. You will see,” he told a news conference with the visiting Susan Rice.
“We're working hard to ensure that what we have is something solid, cohesive, capable of doing the job,” he said.
However, tensions could flare over the cabinet composition, an NTC source told Reuters, as some council members had re-opened the discussions after initially agreeing the appointments.
“There are some people who do not accept some of the names,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not clear which posts were the subject of debate.
Those tensions were illustrated by the capture of Seif Al-Islam deep in the Libyan desert.
The fighters from Zintan who seized him on Saturday flew him in a Soviet-built cargo plane to their hometown in Libya's Western mountains and are holding him there until the central government is formed.
They say it is to ensure his safety; his father was killed after he was caught by another militia in his hometown of Sirte last month.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrived Tuesday in Tripoli, Libya. Moreno-Ocampo and Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda lead a delegation which will meet with Libyan authorities as part of coordination efforts following the arrest of Seif Al-Islam Gaddafi and yet unconfirmed reports regarding the arrest of former spy chief Abdullah Al-Senussi.
"Seif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi must face justice. In resolution 1970, the UN Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC and required the Libyan authorities to cooperate with the Court. I will talk to the national authorities and seek information about proposed national proceedings in order to assist us in analysing the admissibility of the case against Seif Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi and to understand their plans moving ahead. Their arrest is a crucial step in bringing to justice those most responsible for crimes committed in Libya. This is not a military or political issue, it is a legal requirement,” said Moreno-Ocampo.
Arrest warrants for Seif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi were issued by ICC judges on 27 June 2011.
"The issue of where the trials will be held has to be resolved through consultations with the Court. In the end, the ICC judges will decide, there are legal standards which will have to be adhered to," said the Prosecutor.
In an interesting development, France said on Monday it wanted to try Al-Senussi over a 1989 airliner bombing in Niger that killed 170 people including 54 French nationals.
In 1999 a Paris court convicted six Libyans, including Senussi, and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment for the UTA bombing.
"A trial in the presence of the accused should be held in France," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
"Senussi must be judged for the crimes he has committed," Valero said, adding that Paris would consult the various legal entities to ensure he is held accountable for the UTA bombing.
Libya is standing firm over the trial of the younger Gaddafi, saying its courts can judge him fairly, and defying the ICC, which says it wants to try him at The Hague for crimes against humanity.