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Conflicts between ethnic communities in Libya are rising as the country is set to hold parliamentary elections almost a year after Muammar Gaddafi's exit. According to The Guardian, Libya 's minority Berber community, which had faced persecution under Gaddafi's pan-Arabism policies, now fear an Islamist takeover. During his 42 years in power, Gaddafi persecuted the country's minority Berber or Amazigh community, arresting its leaders, banishing its language from schools, and having protesters beaten. Gaddafi insisted the 'traitorous' Imazighen were an ethnolinguistic fiction, even though they make up about 600,000 of Libya 's six million population. Nearly a year after Gaddafi was turfed out of power, and days before the country's first democratic election this Saturday, Amazigh culture is enjoying a revival. In March, 17 people were killed after fighting erupted between Amazigh Zuwara and the neighbouring Arab towns of Riqdaleen and Al-Jamail. The two sides lobbed mortars at each other. The ethnic clashes were triggered by fresh tensions over who did what during last year's revolution, with Zuwara accusing its neighbours of siding with Gaddafi, as well as smoldering disputes over land and smuggling routes. In the absence of a strong central authority, ethnic quarrels have broken out in several parts of the country, most notably in the south-eastern desert town of Kufra . Here, more than 150 people have been killed in fighting between black Toubou tribesmen and their Arab Zuwayy neighbours, leading some to wonder whether the country is already beginning to fall apart. Having played a leading role in overthrowing Gaddafi, with other Imazighen fighting their way down from the mountains, leaders say they now feel let down by the country's transitional leadership. They are nervous about what role the Amazigh people will be given in Libya 's new political ascendancy. Especially, they say, if Islamist parties, as seems possible, though no one quite knows what will happen this Saturday, sweep to power in Tripoli . "We helped our brothers overthrow the dictator. But now feel we are being betrayed," Eissa al-Hammissi, an ethnic Amazigh documentary maker, said. After Saturday's poll, Libya 's new national congress will elect a government and a committee tasked with drafting a constitution. At the revolutionary headquarters in the town of Al-Jamail , fighters said that the Zuwarans are to be blamed for the violence in March. They admit that they had arrested 23 Zuwaran militiamen, but said that the men had strayed into Arab territory. They were later released after interrogation.

As polls loom, ethnic tensions beset Libya