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By Seraj Essul and Tom Westcott.
Tripoli, 13 November 2013:
One of Sebha’s most important brigades has shut the town’s petrol storage tanks . . .[restrict]and blocked a key road in a dispute over unpaid salaries.
Up to 40 members of the 10th Brigade, which works under the 15th Brigade of the country’s Special Forces, closed the fuel storage facility on Monday demanding overdue salary payments dating back to 2011.
“Although we signed contracts with the Ministry of Defence, we haven’t been paid anything since 25 September 2011,” one of protestors, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Libya Herald.
Although the protestors have closed one road, the main one remains accessible, according to an employee from the facility. “The road between Misrata and Sebha is still open so we are still receiving fuel and storing it, but the problem is that they have closed the road between the storage tanks and the area’s main petrol stations.”
The head of Sebha Local Council, Ayoub Al-Zaroug, told the Libya Herald that the brigade members protesting had been tasked by the Special Forces with guarding stores of uranium, stockpiled under the Qaddafi regime. He said that members of the brigade were still keeping guard over the uranium while others were staging their protest.
Zaroug flew to Tripoli last night for talks with Prime Minister Ali Zeidan to try and resolve the situation. The protesting brigade member told the Libya Herald that, if the salary dispute was not resolved, the next step would be for the 10th Brigade to close Sebha airport.
The Sebha storage facility holds at least 2,263 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate (UOC) – also known as yellowcake – imported from various sources between 1978 and 2002, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A conversion facility had been planned at Sebha but this was never built. Although Qaddafi renounced his chemical and nuclear weapons programme in 2003, ten years later the stockpiles remain.
A report by UK newspaper The Times last month said that Bharuddin Midhoun Arifi, the commander of an unnamed group in charge of guarding the stockpiles, said that his men were frightened of the uranium. “My men don’t like guarding the site as they believe it will make their skin fall off, so we guard it from a nearby checkpoint,” he reportedly said, adding: “Maybe someone could steal one or two drums if they wanted, but not more.” [/restrict]
