Officials, friends, and supporters of the Libyan
Transitional National Council (TNC) convened on the sidewalk outside the
Watergate complex this afternoon to sing and celebrate the formal reopening of
the Libyan embassy in Washington, DC, which is now officially under the TNC's
control.
The new charge d'affaires Ali Aujali presided over the event,
giving a speech to the assembled crowd, unlocking the doors, and inviting guests
inside for an impromptu press conference. Aujali was quite familiar with the
surroundings. He served Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi
as the Libyan regime's top representative in Washington for years before defecting
to the rebel side in February.
When your humble Cable
guy snuck
into the Libyan embassy in March, there were still huge posters of Qaddafi
on the wall and stacks of his famous "Green Book" manifesto piled high in the
lobby. But today, all signs of the regime had been removed. The space where
Qaddafi's portrait once hung is now filled with a poster of Omar Muktar, the
leader of the Libyan anti-colonial uprising who was hanged by the Italians
in 1931. All of the green regime flags have been replaced by the tricolor pre-Qaddafi
monarchial flag that has become a symbol of the revolution.
"For the first time in 50 years, this embassy represents a
free Libya," Aujali said to the assembled crowd outside. "This new embassy,
under the control of the Transitional National Council, is committed to serving
the Libyan people and advancing the call for freedom and democracy in Libya.
The Libyan people are not in this struggle alone. They will be forever grateful
to the United States for coming to their aid in their greatest time of need."
But the event was also peppered with constant reminders that
the TNC, despite
being recognized by the Obama administration as the official government of
Libya last month, is still in the midst of battle and struggling with the U.S. government to get
control of the billions of dollars of Qaddafi assets that have been frozen by
U.S. and U.N. sanctions.
"Diplomatic recognition is not an end in itself, but rather
an important step toward bringing greater cooperation between the TNC and the
United States. I am hopeful that the United States government will soon move
forward with releasing the frozen assets in the U.S. that belong to the Libyan
people," Aujali said. "We need immediate access to these resources to avert a
further humanitarian crisis."
On the street, we met some Libyan-Americans, including Heba Benomran (pictured below), who
told us she had driven all morning from Columbus, OH, to attend the ceremony.
Heba carried a message, "Thank you America," printed on a sign and she's even set
up a website to sell Libyan rebel apparel.
Inside the embassy, Aujali took questions from the press on
the next steps for the TNC effort in Washington. He said he was confident that
State and Treasury Departments would soon deliver good news to the TNC on
releasing some frozen funds. He said he expects a current drive to unfreeze international
assets that are frozen by United Nations Security Council resolutions to
succeed as well. The U.N. sanctions committee is reviewing that issue now.
But Aujali disagreed with the State Department's repeated
insistence that the money goes to humanitarian purposes only, and not toward
buying weapons.
"If Qaddafi was
killing his people with potatoes and eggs, I would accept that. But Qaddafi is
killing his people with real weapons. We must have arms to defend ourselves,"
he said, adding that the TNC has the option of getting arms from other
countries.
We found two U.S. officials at the event: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Easter Affairs and Ambassador-designate to Bahrain Thomas
Krajeski, and
Alyce Abdalla, the current desk
officer for Libya at the State Department.
"It's a good day for Libyans and a good day for Americans," Krajeski told The Cable. What about the
funds? "We're working on it," he said.
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