By Mohammed al-Tommy
BENGHAZI: Protesters gathered outside the offices of Libya’s largest oil company Tuesday and blocked the entrance as they demanded more transparency over how the country’s new rulers are spending its money and more jobs for youth.
 
A spokesman for the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco), Abdel Jalil Mayuf, said the protesters were preventing employees from entering the building as they attempted to halt work for a second day.
 
“We cannot get inside. They are protesting against the authorities, they want money,” he said.
 
The group of 50 protesters, some of them unemployed youth who had fought in last year’s war to oust Moammar Gadhafi, blocked the office entrance gate in the city of Benghazi.
 
Their demands, also made at previous protests in Benghazi, included the sacking of Gadhafi-era officials.
 
Deputy Oil Minister Omar Shakmak said the protest was mainly former fighters complaining over payment from the government.
 
“This has nothing to do with the oil sector or Agoco workers or the company itself,” he told Reuters. “If this [is] not sorted out by end of the work day, Agoco workers will protest against this.”
 
Oil accounts for the bulk of Libya’s economy and exports, and the North African country is close to returning to prewar production of 1.6 million barrels per day.
 
Discontent has been simmering in Benghazi, the cradle of the Libyan revolt, for a while. In January, protesters stormed the headquarters of the ruling National Transitional Council while its chairman was still in the building.
 
The interim government appointed in November is leading Libya toward elections in June but is struggling to restore services and impose order on a country awash with weapons.
 
A Libyan official said Tuesday seventy thousand ex-rebel fighters are now under the command of the Ministry of Interior.
 
“The Interior Ministry has absorbed 70,000 revolutionaries who follow its orders and receive salaries,” Omar al-Khadrawi, deputy interior minister, said.
 
“They help the ministry fight against crime, protect strategic sites, embassies and diplomatic missions,” he said, adding that his ministry will soon determine who qualifies for specialized training.
 
Tripoli and Amman signed an agreement in January mapping out the training of 10,000 former rebels. Khadrawi said the government is studying how to best disarm the population, noting an estimated 250,000 weapons remain on the streets.