Located on the banks of the coastal city of Al Bayda, the vault is over 1,000 kilometers away from the people that have the key code for the safe’s door in Tripoli.
Those people, however, belong to a separate self-declared government.
According to estimates, the total value of the treasures hidden in Al Bayda reaches $184 million. But Tripoli authorities refuse to give out the code in fear that the money will be used to fund their rivals.The Tobruk government has tried to break the safe, but to no avail.
Edmund Ghareeb, a Professor of Middle East history and politics at the American University in Washington, pointed out that the central bank governor resorted to the help of professional safecrackers to open the 48-year old vault as he doesn’t have money to pay wages to his employees.
“I can’t sell them [coins] as they are,” Ali El Hibri, the central bank governor in eastern Libya told the Wall Street Journal. “I don’t want to cause any controversy in the street by advertising the face of Gaddafi.”
Ghareeb said that El Hibri was going to melt down coins because Gaddafi was depicted on them.
“If it wasn’t so tragic it would be comical,” Ghareeb said of the situation. “But because of the picture of Gaddafi on the coins, they don’t want to have the political implications of this.”
Ghareeb concluded by saying that Al Bayda residents believe the money belongs to them.
