Weird things happen in countries torn by civil war. The Parliament of Libya took refuge in a Greek car ferry hired to serve as last-minute accommodation for the troubled lawmakers and their families. The 17,000-ton Elyros liner has docked in the small port of Tobruk and is deployed as floating hotel for legislature that has fled war-torn capital Tripolis for eastern town of Tobruk.
“The ferry has been deployed, complete with its Greek crew, as a floating hotel for a legislature clinging to power in the Libyan city that is last stop before the Egyptian border.
Islamists and their allies have captured the capital, Tripoli, and most of Benghazi, the country’s second city. Derna, the next town up the coast, has been declared an Islamic caliphate and the front line begins at Tobruk airport, where pickup trucks mounting anti-aircraft guns face out into the shimmering empty desert.
The small port is home to what remains of Libya’s sovereign power. On one side of the bay, sitting on sandy bluffs, a hotel conference hall acts as chamber to the house of representatives, ringed by troops in sandy-coloured US-made Humvee troop carriers.
On the other, moored to a quay, is the white gleaming bulk of the Elyros, which usually plies it trade carrying cars and passengers between Greece and Italy, looming over a collection of grey naval patrol boasts.
“We had only three days to prepare everything in Tobruk, to find spaces for meetings, places to stay, internet, everything,” said Dr Muftah Othman, head of the town’s election commission. “If there is no ship, where will you stay?”
The mood on board is sombre. An escalator, switched on only for important guests, heads up above the car deck to restaurants and bars with bright lights and almost no people. Children of the parliamentarians who have fled with them play in the corridors while clusters of officials and women in shawls cluster around the tables, where they are served Pepsi and orange juice by the bemused crew in immaculate white uniforms.” (Full story in the Guardian)
