http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/libyas-rebels-take-revenge/story-e6frg6ux-1226186182145 Libya's rebels take revenge From: The Australian November 05, 2011 12:00AM SITTING in their home on the outskirts of Tripoli, a Libyan family is afraid. Their fear is that a knock on the door could come from the rebel militias that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
This situation is extraordinary. Only weeks ago, these people were enthusiastic supporters of the uprising against the Gaddafi regime. One of the members of the family sitting in the living room was a rebel fighter. He spent two days in a gunfight in Tripoli battling the bodyguards of Gaddafi's son Mutassim, and still keeps a Kalashnikov in the boot of his car. Apart from having mobile phone footage of the gun battle, he has registration showing his membership of a rebel katiba, or brigade. But now he and his family are frightened. And he is angry at the triumphant rebels' growing reliance on vigilante justice. The rebel fighters came to this house a few days before and took away one of the family. It's not as if they were seeking revenge for the man being a Gaddafi supporter; it appears this is a dispute over money that has been running for some time. But one of the parties has decided that rather than go through the courts, a quicker way to get the dispute resolved is to get the rebel fighters to pay a visit to the family. They took away the man, who later escaped from their capture. Enraged, the rebels returned to the family home, and when they could not find the man took away another member of the family, saying they would hold him hostage until the man they were after gave himself up. They even threatened to take away the children. Gaddafi is barely in his grave and the ruling rebels are already acting in a way reminiscent of some of Gaddafi's henchmen during his 42 years as dictator. "Mafia," says the member of the family who fought as a rebel, describing the behaviour of the militias. "This is just like the mafia in Colombia or Russia," he says. "Gaddafi was horrible, but I never knew of him capturing the relative of somebody if they could not find the person they wanted. They would have just kept looking. And I never heard of them threatening to take children." He adds a comment that may help explain Libya's problem of victorious rebels, in power without accountability. "After 42 years of Gaddafi mentality, there's a little Gaddafi in all Libyans," he says. "We have to make sure it doesn't grow." This family is so afraid they have asked that their names not be used. The man who escaped from the rebels has returned home but fears they will return. He says he knows of one case where a man was taken away on suspicion he had been a Gaddafi supporter and was then beaten to death. The rebels telephoned his parents the next day to say the man had become ill in custody and died. The wife of the man begins crying as I leave. The children come to the front door and one of them makes the gesture of cocking a gun. She says this is what one of the rebels did the night they turned up at the house. This situation, which is being replicated across Libya, reflects the most pressing problem for the country after Gaddafi.The rebels who came to the house were from the Misratah brigades - fighters from the 100 Misratah katiba (battalion) who for eight months were caught in the middle of the civil war. Misratah became the front line, located on the border between the east of the country, which the rebels controlled, and the west, which Gaddafi ruled. The bloodiest fighting was in Misratah, which suffered more casualties than any other town. Early in the war, in March, the Gaddafi forces took control of Misratah, until then a rebel stronghold. The local rebels fought an extraordinary and brutal counter-offensive to recapture the town. Gaddafi sent in his most feared unit - the 32nd brigade, or Khamis unit, run by his son, Khamis - which took Misratah back. The rebels then pulled off another feat by forcing out the Gaddafi forces. The Misratah brigades became something of a legend; among the rebels they developed a reputation as the toughest and most brutal fighters. It must have become clear to the National Transitional Council, the rebels' ruling political organisation, that the Misratah brigades were a problem before Gaddafi was killed in the town of Bani Walid. The NTC announced a one-week ceasefire to allow the civilians in Bani Walid to leave. This decision was taken under international pressure, particularly from Britain and France. It allowed hundreds of civilians to leave who would otherwise have been killed. But the Misratah fighters were upset by this. They wanted to go in immediately but reluctantly agreed to hold off. Drive through Misratah today and you will see the results of the past eight months of fighting. Building after building has holes blown in it. Some are large cavities from mortar shells and others smaller bullet holes. It is a scarred town with a scarred population. But while the brigades created awe during the war, they now cause fear. One Libyan university student observes: "The Misratah rebels probably need five years of therapy. They need a lot of help." At present, however, revenge clearly prevails over rehabilitation. There is a growing list of human rights abuses by the Misratah brigades. The most obvious was the apparent lynching of Gaddafi, who had the misfortune to be captured by the Misratah fighters. Many of the rebels, and the NTC leadership, would have preferred Gaddafi to have been put on trial. That way they could have tried to get him to reveal where he had salted away billions of dollars of the country's oil revenues. The latest atrocity linked to the rebels is the discovery of 53 bodies of Gaddafi fighters on the lawns of a hotel in Sirte, Gaddafi's home town and the place where he was captured. The bodies were found with their hands tied and gunshots to the head. The symmetry of a civil war that leads to a change of regime is shown by the fact Human Rights Watch has gone from documenting massacres by the pro-Gaddafi forces to those by the anti-Gaddafi forces. HRW was told by medical staff in Sirte that between October 15 and October 20, 23 bodies were found with their hands tied in an apparent massacre by pro-Gaddafi forces. Only days later the 53 people massacred by the rebel forces were found. According to HRW's emergencies director Peter Bouckaert: "This latest massacre seems part of a trend of killings, looting and other abuses committed by armed anti-Gaddafi fighters who consider themselves above the law. It is imperative the transitional authorities take action to rein in these groups." HRW has documented rebels from the Misratah brigades terrorising residents of Tawergha, a town of about 30,000 people, mainly immigrant workers from central Africa. While some of these workers fought with the Gaddafi forces, it appears any former resident of the town - they have now fled across the country - is liable to be tortured, beaten and killed. HRW investigators have documented that 1300 former Tawergha residents have been seized and some have been shot, even though unarmed. They have had their homes looted or burned, been tortured with electric shocks and severely abused. In one case the rebels beat to death a mentally ill man because he would not - or could not - give them the password of a walkie-talkie he was carrying. In another case, an African man was whipped as he was forced to run around a courtyard, then told to climb a pole while shouting, "Monkey needs a banana". Those not arrested found they were not allowed to withdraw their money from the banks. One pregnant woman who went for a check-up was told at the government-run hospital: "We don't treat Tawerghans here." HRW's Sarah Leah Whitson says in a statement: "Revenge against people from Tawergha, whatever the accusations against them, undermines the goal of the Libyan revolution." At first vigilante justice was dealt out just to the Tawerghans. Now it is spreading, with rebels fanning out across the country as a law unto themselves. And there are no signs of the situation being brought under control. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! 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