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| Africa North |
| Libya dispatch: as lawlessness spreads, are the rebel 'good guys' turning bad? |
| 2011-11-05 |
| Abdul Mojan's moment of realisation came when the good guys threw him into the boot of their car, slammed it shut and drove off with him a prisoner inside. When they finally stopped and hauled him out, he asked them: "What are you doing? I'm a revolutionary just like you! I've never supported Gaddafi.'" But the former rebels didn't care. They had taken a liking to the new office block in western Tripoli that Mr Mojan managed and they wanted the keys and ownership documents. He tried to reason with them, pointing out that there were plenty of government buildings standing empty. To no avail, however. "We have sacrificed for this revolution and you haven't, and now we will take what we want," he was told by a cocky 18-year-old. "You can have the building back when the revolution is over." A week later Mr Mojan was still incredulous as he recounted his tale to The Sunday Telegraph, admitting that he felt lucky to escape without a beating although there was nothing he could do about the 5,000 dinar (£2,550) they stole from his car. Many of Tripoli's residents have had a similar moment of grim awakening in recent weeks. Their liberators, still swaggering around the city in Che Guevara-style berets and armed to the teeth, have not gone back to their home towns as they promised. Nor have they started handing in the guns they used to fight against Gaddafi, as they said they would. "When they said Libya Free, they meant the cars, the refrigerators and the flat-screen television sets," runs one joke doing the rounds in Tripoli's cafes. Stories of gunmen taking expensive cars at checkpoints, giving receipts saying they will be returned after the revolution, are nervously swapped over cups of tea. More alarming than the looting have been the armed clashes between militias. There have been three big fights in the capital alone in the past week; shoot-outs at a hospital, Martyr's Square, and the military airport, which have left several dead and dozens wounded. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #6 Yet another Bammo 'victory.' |
| Posted by: Iblis 2011-11-05 23:42 |
| #5 ban this idiot |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-11-05 16:01 |
| #4 Militias Will Be Supprting Imams : Rehab Through Salvation : Arms : Be Given Up : Arabiya : All : Eids : Support Infrastructure : Libya |
| Posted by: Kojo Snomons3633 2011-11-05 15:58 |
| #3 Yeah, I've been looking at the sides in the whole Libya affair so far as Really Bad, Bad, Less Bad, Semi-Bad, and Sorta Bad. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2011-11-05 15:30 |
| #2 There are Good Guys? Who knew? |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2011-11-05 13:26 |
| #1 In the end we'll have to conclude that Qadaffy---who managed to keep the lid on for 40 years---was a genius. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-11-05 12:28 |