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By Ashraf Abdul Wahab.
Tripoli, 22 December:
Several civil society groups and rights activists held a small demonstration in Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square yesterday calling for figures linked to the Qaddafi’s regime to be isolated from political life.
Groups gathered in the square set up a tent last night, hung with banners displaying their demands, which also included greater accountability for the government and the General National Congress (GNC).
The demonstration began after the Friday prayer, which was held in Martyrs’ Square for those planning on taking part in the events.
Some of the youths who attended the demonstration were calling for the GNC to pass a law that would isolate officials who had been involved with the previous regime from Libyan politics, while others blamed the deterioration of the security situation in parts of the country on government figures from the Qaddafi era.
Although the event had been advertised on posters in the area around Martyrs’ Square and on Facebook in the lead up to Friday, only around 200 people attended on the day.
A second, smaller demonstration calling for the mobilisation of the police and the army, which only numbered several dozen people, was also organised at the same place and the same time.
While the numbers of attendees were relatively low on Friday, there was a heightened security presence in the area at the time the demonstrations took place to prevent any clashes between the two groups.
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