Benghazi citizens 'free but broke' ahead of Ramadan

With Ramadan around the corner, hundreds of Libyans have been turning up each day at Benghazi's banks, hoping to get cash ahead of the holy Muslim month of fasting. But the banks of Benghazi, the stronghold of a five-month insurgency against Colonel Moamer Gathafi's rule, are facing a liquidity crisis and are sending the majority of their customers home empty handed. "I've come here for five days and got no money," said a retired policeman who was seeking to withdraw 200 Libyan dinars ($165, 115 euros) although his monthly pension of 350 dinars has been unpaid since April. Another pensioner, Messe Abdullah, said he was struggling to make ends meet with a big family to support and only two sons as income earners. "In four days it is Ramadan and Ramadan is expensive for someone like me who has a big family of 15," said the 65-year-old. A crowd of around 100 people on Thursday sat on the stairs below the shuttered doorway of a branch of BNP Paribas bank, praying to be called in. "Ramadan is here, there are extra needs but there is no money," said Yasmin Muhammad, 62. She added large families spend up to 3,000 dinars -- or 10 times the average public employee salary -- during the Muslim month of fasting. Najit Ali, a 35-year-old teacher and mother of six jobless youths, said that after 10 days of queuing she still hopes to collect some funds to help. "There has been no money or salaries since April," she said. "We will endure because God is generous, but I am worried. Life is hard. Nothing is cheap now." Some who have been queuing for weeks are growing angry, most having gone unpaid since April or even March, while others complain of only being able to get part of their wages as banks cap withdrawals at 100-200 dinars per person. "I earn 600 dinars per month but I can only withdraw 100 or 200 dinars," said Naji Mohammed, 32. Ahmad Misrati, a driver, tried to make light of the situation, saying: "Thank God Gathafi got us used to poverty. "The people who depend on the state and don't have a second job are the hardest hit -- that's about a third of society," he said. Some customers at Al-Wahda bank complain they are being ping-ponged from branch to branch without results. "I've come all the way from Jalo and still I cannot even get money at the headquarters," fumed a mother. A bank employee said on condition of anonymity: "People are coming from all over Free Libya for money but there is none. Nobody knows where our money is. What can we do?" "We are free but broke" Bank of Commerce and Development manager Hamed Salhin Elraeid said the problem boils down to a cash shortage, as many banks had their headquarters and a sizeable portion of their funds in Tripoli. In addition, "banks cannot generate hard currency out of pay cheques of the private or public sector," and while shoppers use cash, retailers are no longer putting it in banks to pay for goods bought abroad. This coupled with a law that required all banks to keep 20 percent of their assets in Libya's central bank has put lenders in the rebel-held east under extreme pressure. "Most businesses have stopped depositing cash and most of our balance is in the central Bank of Tripoli," said Elraeid. "We are waiting for the international community to help our National Transitional Council to open accounts abroad so that they can open letters of credit or allow the private sector to import goods themselves." NTC chairman Mustafa Mohamed Abdel Jalil said the opposition body hopes to begin paying salaries next week, when Ramadan starts, but on the streets frustration is mounting. Abdel Jalil insists Benghazi is still managing within its "limited resources", but at the banks of the rebel capital, nobody seems to blame his council, which has yet to get a penny from Libya's frozen assets abroad. "We are free but broke," joked Farah al-Misrati, one of the customers queued at a bank, stressing that things are make-or-break in Libya. Hussein Mohammed, a 28-year-old policeman, said: "The bank tellers keep telling us the money has run out. This Ramadan no doubt will be tougher than others. We are fighting a war and have no money. "The problem is not with the NTC or the revolution," said another customer, Khaled al-Mabny. "The solution needs to come from the outside. We have frozen funds all over the world. Libyans are rich."