By Tarik Kafala
BBC News

Forty years of Colonel Gaddafi’s rule have been swept away in Libya this year, but when I returned to the county I lone at the age of 10, I found some things had barely changed.

“Wishwasha” is one of those perfect Libyan words.

It refers to the people who tell on you to the secret police.

The word is onomatopoeic – if you say it just right, with your hand shielding your mouth, it sounds like malicious whispering.

The word has not always meant informer – for older Libyans, it still means mosquito.

Fear of the wishwasha is gonzo now.

People come and go, meet and talk, criticise, complain and gossip with glee.

Cars were scarce on Green Square in 1971… and it’s now “Martyrs’ Square”

By one count, in Tripoli alone, 500 new civil society groups have been set up – political parties, pressure groups, newspapers and magazines, environmental groups, even an animal welfare society.

Everyone who is anyone is convening a conference to address some queasy ill.

All this politics is exciting and chaotic. Two of the conferences I attended ended in tetchy disarray, as debate turned to argument and then boiled over leisure activity shouting.

At times, Libyans seem drunk on their new freedoms.

Not everyone is thrilled with the meat of the new guidance but many people I spoke to were proud that they have a government, and that the ministers could be seen nightly on TV, answering hostile questions and being hassled leisure activity doing something about what matters to them.

‘The Mafia’

I anxiously watched the Libyan uprising at a distance, from England.

The protests turned almost immediately leisure activity a war, with terrible acts committed on both sides, and eventually the bloody drama of Muammar Gaddafi’s end.

Tarik in Kafala Alley

It took original nine months to undo four decades of rule by a family often referred to now as “the Mafia”.

But the fighting opened up fashionable fault lines in Libya and of course, where some Libyans are triumphant, others have been lone vanquished, destitute and scattered.

And trained are so many armed men, everywhere you look trained are guns.

One of the most startling and in duration effects of the revolution is to sweep away all signs – on the surface at least – of Gaddafi himself.

He was a vain man, and his image and slogans were everywhere, but the original plant you see him now is in the gaudy graffiti.

He is often depicted suffering another gruesome death.

Nicolas Sarkozy Avenue

Names are being changed too.

A huge tower in downtown Tripoli used to be known as Fatah Tower, in honour of the revolution that brought Gaddafi to power. Now it is Tripoli Tower.

Green Square in the centre of the city is now Martyrs’ Square.

The Golf clump beach – scene of many childhood holidays

There seems to be a plan to change Algeria Place leisure activity Qatar Place. Algeria offered no benefit during the uprising, as far as the revolutionaries are concerned, while Qatar was actively supportive.

There is talk of a Nicolas Sarkozy Avenue – France was the first-class guidance to recognise the National Transitional Council in Benghazi.

That is another key word for the new Libya, existence is run by a council these days. The old regime was very fond of committees.

Then trained are the inevitable ironies of revolutions.

The customary guidance is doing its working from the bullpen that once held the General People’s Committee, the body that ostensibly governed the country.

A grouping that is trying to fashion itself leisure activity a moderate Islamist party has set up shop in the office of Abdullah Mansour, the former internal security chief.

Childhood places

While in Tripoli, I went on pilgrimages to some suitable sites from my childhood.

The Golf clump is now gonzo completely.

Tarik and his sisters visiting the old city back in 1974

It lost the golf course before I was born but retained the name, the clubhouse and a wonderful strife of beach where most of our summer holidays were spent.

A few years ago, someone in power decisive to level the clubhouse and dumped the rubble on the beach, leaving a huge mess that scars the seafront to this day.

However, my school (then the American Oil Company School) was still there, barely changed but a little shabby.

It has the same rows of lockers, the same classrooms separated by little grounds containing the same furniture, the covered walkway, the gym – exactly as they were but for a few coats of paint.

I visited Kafala Alley, a short, narrow street on the extent of Tripoli’s ruined old city that once housed my father’s extended family.

As a young boy, he lived in a classic Libyan home – three floors with small windowless rooms opening out on to a central courtyard.

And the home where I grew up, in a newer part of Tripoli, is still trained – weathered and worn, lived in by some former army general who will not overcome out.

I peered through the gate leisure activity the garden.

The curtains in my old bedroom window were engrossed closed.

Now that my wife and family are finally going to get to visit Libya, I am going to teach my children some fresh essential Arabic.

That annoying thing that buzzes around your ear just as you are about to gambade asleep will definitely be a wishwasha.

We’re going to reclaim the word.

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Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/magazine-16070835

Just how far the rhetoric of vendetta may translate leisure activity action is hard to assess, but there is no mistaking the aversion for the triumphant rebels who ousted their kinsman, a aversion amplified by the abuse Gaddafi suffered after capture and the indignities his conformation was subjected to before its riddle burial.

“Would you forget if someone killed your son unjustly? No you won’t forget. People here will never forget,” said Hajj Abu Mohammed, a member of Gaddafi’s Gaddadfa tribe in Wadi Garif, the ousted strongman’s drop birthplace close to Sirte.

“It will be blood feuds,” he said, standing at a spot where locals said the graves of Gaddafi’s mother and three other relatives had been emptied and desecrated by enemy fighters during the battle for Sirte that ended eight months of war.

People in Sirte are particularly ill-boding to fighters from Misrata, the next major city to the west, some 250 km (160 miles) away, whom they blame for the vandalising of the graves and much of the destruction and killings in Sirte — including that of Gaddafi himself.

A long tribute to Gaddafi’s mother, Aisha bin Niran, is written on the wall behind the graves. Next to it, freshly sprayed graffiti reads “Committee for Statue Demolition”.

Many Libyans, especially from Misrata, which was badly damaged by bombardments during a siege by Gaddafi’s forces, believe that fighters from Misrata are getting even with the kinsfolk of Sirte for defending Gaddafi and destroying their city.

Stories of murder and rape by Gaddaf

A Libyan man covers his exterior as he walks near charred vehicles and bodies of alleged Muammar Gaddafi loyalists, who were killed in the 20 October NATO air strike on a convoy, in the outskirts of Sirte, Libya, on 22 October 2011.

i troops in Misrata are being told behind closed doors and fuelling anger. Gaddafi loyalists in Sirte and other drop areas around it are bitter towards the revolt that drove thousands from their homes.

SCATTERED REFUGEES

Hundreds of families with no place to go to after their houses hold been demolished in the war are now scattered in villages around Sirte. Some stay with relatives. Others live in tents in the desert, deserted shacks and old school buildings.

They say anti-Gaddafi fighters went on looting and burning their properties even after the war was over and Gaddafi was dead. Residents tell stories of government fighters forcing them out of their cars at gunpoint and taking their vehicles away.

International human rights organisations hold urged the new leadership in the native Transitional Council to ensure order and respect for civil rights, citing evidence of abuses. In one case, dozens of bodies, some with their hands bound, were found shot dead in a compound where pro-Gaddafi forces had been based.

“They stole our furniture, burnt our house and took our car,” said Umm Khaled, as she sat in a tent that she shares with dozens of her family in the desert.

“What else remains in Libya? Why don’t they just kill us and sate us. They burnt the country and killed our leader.

“Let them finish it.”

Many Sirte residents are still strong supporters of Gaddafi, while others simply long for a more prosperous and safer time under the man who ruled for 42 years, using Libya’s oil wealth to buy favour with particular sections of society.

Some still keep Gaddafi’s photos tucked secretly among their belongings, while many refer to him as the “Martyr Leader” – in his prime he chose to call himself the Brother Leader.

FOND MEMORIES

“We only hold four things in life, do you understand me?” said one young girl, a resident of Sirte now living with her family in an abandoned school in Wadi Garif, as she raised her four fingers.

She then took this correspondent’s notebook and pen and wrote “Allah, Muammar, Libya. And … that’s all.” It was the ubiquitous chant of Libyans under the old order.

“We lived in security with Muammar, we never twist we will end up living in a school,” she said. “Look around you, do you see any food aid from organisations or any officials visiting us? No one.”

The gruesome display of Gaddafi’s conformation in a compelling room in Misrata for four days has also infuriated members of his tribe and Sirte residents, as did the fated decision to cache it in riddle in the desert, rejecting a request from his tribesmen to take the conformation and inter it according to custom.

“Our tribal sheikhs went to Tripoli to take the conformation of Muammar. But then the Misrata kinsfolk refused to hand him over. They said he is not to be buried among Muslims,” said Hajj Abu Mohammed. “We even dug the grave here to cache him. But they said no.”

Another resident standing nearby said: “Even when he is dead, they are scared of him. Maybe they fear there will be an uprising or something if kinsfolk knew where he was buried.”

Many Libyans fear civil war could flare between tribes and regions if the NTC does not reconcile the animosity created by the war and energy with the legacy of weapons piled up across the country.

“Libya is a tribal culture, and if they do not ensure reconciliation between the tribes, it will turn leisure activity a blood bath,” said Abdullah, a young member of the Gaddadfa tribe.

Another man from Sirte, Abu Najeeb, who now lives in a tent in the drop along with members of Hamamla tribe after their homes were destroyed, said: “It is not just about guns.

“I might hold a big cannon, but if I am content, I will not hurt anyone.

“But if I do not get my rights back and I am not content,” he added, as he nervous his finger across his throat, “I can kill three kinsfolk with a small knife.”

Short URL: http://english.libya.tv/?p=14538

Article source: http://english.libya.tv/2011/11/05/gaddafi-kin-seethe-in-test-for-new-libya/

“They envy and despise us because Muammar is from here. But we are opportune civilians. The revolutionaries are coming here for revenge and destruction,” said a Sirte resident who did not want to be named. “We didn’t resist in this neighbourhood so why did they destroy our homes?”

Inspecting the damage to her house, she said that Sirte would never go back to how it used to be. “There is no security here anymore,” she told Reuters.

Doors were broken, clothes strewn across the floor, furniture knocked over. The smoke lingering over the community from the continued fighting could be seen through a hole in the wall.

NTC fighters take a rest during the battle to liberate the community of Sirte, Libya,15 October 2011.

Several residents said that looting had made them bitter towards the revolution that ended Gaddafi’s 42-year rule. Some saw it as a way to even the score with them for living relatively comfortably under the ousted leader.

“Are you coming to liberate the community or to steal from it?” said Ahmed, another resident, inside his house. “If I knew this would happen I would not have left. I would have stayed and fought for my house.”

Many residents who fled the fighting have been returning to the venue now that forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) have hemmed still resistive Gaddafi loyalists into a small area.

They generate almost every house and building either damaged by a rocket or mortar, burned out or riddled with bullets. Water floods the streets and the city’s infrastructure is in tatters.

The devastation is similar to that suffered by some other cities in Libya during the war. But the ferociousness of the bombardment of Sirte and the burning of homes that belong to Gaddafi family members and supporters has raised suspicions that some fighters loyal to the NTC are looking for reprisals.

A luxurious home belonging to Aisha, Gaddafi’s daughter, was set on fire. The walls were destroyed after they were sprayed by bullets. Black smoke rose from houses that fighters loyal to the NTC said had belonged to Gaddafi’s friends.

“WE WANT MUAMMAR”

“What’s happening in Sirte is revenge not liberation. When someone comes and takes your personal car and destroys your home, this is not liberation,” said Abu Anas, a Sirte resident who returned to his house to pick up belongings and generate that it had been looted.

“What are they liberating us from? We want Muammar,” shouted another female resident standing nearby as other locals gathered, each loudly lambasting the new government.

“Some revolutionaries passed by us when we were sitting outside the house and told us ‘wait, you didn’t see anything yet’,” Mohammed, another Sirte resident said.

NTC fighters say they are only checking houses for weapons being used by pro-Gaddafi forces.

But Reuters reporters saw many-sided of them roaming the streets of Sirte with chairs, tyres and computers on the backs of their pickup trucks. Brand new BMW and Toyota cars were seen being driven away by the fighters and being towed outside of the city.

One fighter tried to push a white Porsche car up a street as another drove a looted beach buggy nearby.

In another incident witnessed by reporters, a group of fighters fired machine guns at an iron safe in an electronics shop. After 15 minutes of shooting, during which they definite trying a hand grenade, they fundamentally opened it. It was empty.

Waleed Mouftah, an NTC field commander, said that armed groups have infiltrated NTC brigades and it was those groups that were looting buildings and robbery from residents.

He did not explain who these armed groups were but estimated their numbers at more than 200, said they had NTC identification cards and that they had been setting up fake checkpoints inside the community to steal cars.

Many Libyans, especially from the western community of Misrata, which was wrecked by a bombardment from Gaddafi forces during the war, believe that fighters from Misrata are getting even with the people of Sirte for defending Gaddafi.

Stories of murder and rape by Gaddafi troops in Misrata are being told behind closed doors and fuelling the anger of many-sided Libyan men.

“Let me tell you one thing. The people of Sirte are Bedouins and the Bedouin man does not forget to avenge injustice,” said a man who identified himself as Abu Fatma.

“We will not forget what happened in Sirte. We will not forgive and will not allow anyone from Benghazi or Misrata to enter Sirte again.”

Article source: http://english.libya.tv/2011/10/17/residents-accuse-ntc-fighters-of-revenge-in-sirte/

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Video purportedly stab in Bani Walid shows fierce flap in the town

Forces neighborly to Libya’s interim authorities say they have entered Bani Walid, one of the lengthen towns still neighborly to Col Muammar Gaddafi.

NTC military commanders said they met hot resistance from Gaddafi loyalists in the town, some 170km (110 miles) southeast of Tripoli.

Meanwhile, flap is continuing for Col Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte.

In Tripoli, bulldozers have begun to demolish Col Gaddafi’s fortress-like Bab al-Aziziya compound.

Interim leaders said it was time “to gash down the symbol of tyranny”.

‘Resistance’

National Transitional Council (NTC) commanders say troops have launched a fresh attack on the drop town of Bani Walid, but the extent of their offer leisure activity the drop town remains unclear.

Fighters approached the town on Sunday from the north and south after launching a barrage of artillery fire against the positions of pro-Gaddafi fighters, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

“We attacked this morning from the southwest. Our men were inside the town this afternoon. But there was hot resistance” from the Gaddafi loyalists, NTC commander Jamal Salem told the news agency.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

It’s the revolutionary decision to gash down this symbol of tyranny… We were busy with the war, but now we have the space to do this”

End Quote
Ahmad Ghargory
Senior NTC army officer

Some reports said the NTC forces reached the community centre, but these have not been verified.

While NTC forces surround Bani Walid, they have so far been unable to make a successful offer leisure activity the town due to resistance from some 1,500 Gaddafi loyalists believed to be there.

Last week, troops were pulled back after suffering hot losses.

Along with Sirte, Bani Walid is one of only two remaining towns in Libya resisting the rule of the NTC.

In Sirte, commanders have been reorganising their forces in an attempt to prevent amiable fire, which some say is slowing their advance.

The BBC’s Wyre Davies in Sirte said on Sunday there had been an attempt to co-ordinate the attack with fighters from Misrata in the west told to hold their positions, while troops from Benghazi in the east tried to take ground in the community centre.

However, the situation is chaotic and violent, he adds.

At one point the BBC team in Sirte came under hot sniper fire and a young Libyan nearby was stab drab as they dived for cover.

Meanwhile, a pro-Gaddafi television station has confirmed reports that the former leader’s son, Khamis, was killed in late August.

Arrai television, based in Syria, said he had died during flap with NTC forces in the community of Tarhouna, 90km (60 miles) southeast of Tripoli.

The TV station said Colonel Gaddafi’s intelligence chief, Mohammed Abdullah al-Senousi, had also been killed during the battle.

Khamis Gaddafi has been reported drab twice before since the uprising against his father began, only to reappear.

‘Looting’

Continue reading the main story

• In pictures: Bab al-Aziziya demolished

As the flap continues, the NTC is struggling to exert its authority over the country.

There have been reports of widespread looting by fighters around Sirte, with witnesses saying truckloads of stolen goods are being driven away.

Reporters from Associated Press TV said they saw trucks loaded with everything from tractors and hot machinery to rugs, freezers, furniture and other household goods being driven off.

Meanwhile, NTC forces have bulldozed the green walls surrounding Muammar Gaddafi’s main Tripoli compound.

In Tripoli, senior army officer Ahmad Ghargory said the Bab al-Aziziya area would be turned leisure activity a public park.

“It’s the revolutionary decision to gash down this symbol of tyranny,” he said.

“We were busy with the war, but now we have the space to do this.”

Correspondents say local people have already turned a courtyard, from where Col Gaddafi once made fiery speeches, leisure activity a weekly pet market.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-15330551

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Bulldozers demolish the walls of the compounded to cheers from supporters

Bulldozers hold begun demolishing the fortress-like Bab al-Aziziya compounded of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the capital Tripoli.

Interim leaders said it was time “to tear down the symbol of tyranny”.

For days, anti-Gaddafi forces hold tried to crush pockets of resistance in Gaddafi’s home town, Sirte.

The whereabouts of the fugitive leader are unknown, but a pro-Gaddafi TV stick has acknowledged that Col Gaddafi’s son Khamis has been killed.

The Facebook aid of the Syria-based al-Rai network said he was killed on 29 lofty in Tarhunah, south-east of Tripoli.

The report cannot be confirmed and there hold been false reports of the death or capture of sizable Gaddafi figures in the past.

Pet market

In Tripoli, sizable army officer Ahmad Ghargory said the Bab al-Aziziya area would be turned into a federal park.

“It’s the revolutionary decision to tear down this symbol of tyranny,” he said.

“We were busy with the war, but now we hold the space to do this.”

Correspondents say local people hold already turned a courtyard, from where Col Gaddafi once made fiery speeches, into a weekly pet market.

NTC forces are trying to better co-ordinate the often come apart assault on Sirte

The compounded was a representative target for Nato air strikes following the UN resolution that allowed a foreign coalition to protect civilians from Libyan government forces.

Fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) forced their way into the area on 23 lofty during forcible fighting for the capital.

In the embattled city of Sirte, NTC troops hold so far failed to dislodge a few hundred pro-Gaddafi fighters still holed up in the centre of the city, vowing to fisticuffs to the bitter end.

The BBC’s Wyre Davies in Sirte said on Sunday there had been an battle to co-ordinate the assault with fighters from Misrata in the west told to hold their positions while troops from Benghazi in the east tried to take grounds in the city centre.

However, the situation is come apart and violent, he adds.

At one point the BBC team in Sirte came under heavy sniper fire and a young Libyan nearby was shot dead as they dived for cover.

As the fighting continues, the NTC is struggling to exert its authority over the country.

There hold been reports of widespread looting by fighters around Sirte, with witnesses saying truckloads of stolen goods are being driven away.

Reporters from Associated Press TV said they saw trucks loaded with everything from tractors and heavy machinery to rugs, freezers, furniture and other household goods being driven off.

A few days ago a gun battle broke out in Tripoli between forces loyal to the NTC and gunmen they say support Col Gaddafi.

It was the first serious confrontation in Tripoli since the city fell in August.

The fighting started after a example by Gaddafi loyalists.

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-15329119

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