NATO backed rebel threatening captured Black men in Libya (theredphoenixapl.org)

TRIPOLI, Aug 31 – Nigerian Festus Prince said he took his family and ran after he saw a Libyan gang shoot his brother in the head for refusing to hand over money.

His tale is just one of several told by Africans at a camp near Tripoli describing intimidation or outright violence as forces fighting Muammar Gaddafi entered Tripoli.

Prince, one of Libya’s army of foreign workers, survived the ordeal at the cost of everything he had earned as a decorator in the country.

“A group of men broke through my door and asked for the money. I handed it over, and in a few seconds I lost everything I had worked for for seven years,” the 28-year-old said.

“My brother didn’t give them his money. They told me to move out of the way, and they made him lie down. Then they shot him in the head,” added Prince, who counts the clothes he wears at a camp outside the Libyan capital as his only possessions.

Tens of thousands of foreign workers have fled Libya since NATO backed armed militia and mercenaries began fighting against the Libyan Government and Gaddafi’s 42-year-rule in February, with Black Libyans and migrant African workers afraid they have become targets for fighters who accuse them of being mercenaries for Gaddafi.

This antipathy appears to have spread to all Africans, leaving them vulnerable to attacks, robbery and other abuse by the gun-toting, mostly young, fighters who ousted Gaddafi.

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TRIPOLI (Reuters) – In a part of Tripoli known for its loyalty to Muammar Gaddafi, two men vented their fury over the fall of the national government, shouting abuse at the media and calling journalists liars, traitors and spies.

Crowds of gun-toting rebels and their supporters who cheered the rebels on their march to the capital have stolen the media limelight. But among many others in the city, anger simmers over the NATO backed rebels’ military coup against Gaddafi’s 42-year-rule.

Rebels carry away looted items from a destroyed building in Tripoli, Aug 25, 2011

“You media don’t tell the truth, you’re all traitors, spies,” shouted a taxi driver, his face contorted with anger, not caring that nearby were armed and zealous rebels.

“You sold our country out,” shouted another man who came to join him, before a deafening crack prompted the shoppers in the busy street to duck and flinch.

“Look at this,” shouted the taxi driver, pointing at the young rebel across the street who had fired an anti-aircraft gun into the air.

“This is what our country has come to,” he said.

“Gaddafi gave us the best life. We were comfortable, we could go anywhere we wanted. Now we can’t go out at all. I have friends in Gaddafi’s army, and they will never surrender,” the 20-year-old said.

“Only God, Mohammed and Muammar,” he added, repeating a well-known pro-Gaddafi slogan that rebels have been busy defacing and covering with their own graffiti in recent days.

The shop worker’s brother’s allegiance was more nuanced.

“Before, arrogant or not, under Gaddafi there was no killing in the streets, no weapons. Now after the revolution, there’s killing, fear. I wish he was still here,” he said.

“There’s more Gaddafi supporters than rebels here. But they can’t act right now as we don’t know what the future will be. They’re waiting for Gaddafi to come back,” he added.

Gaddafi’s whereabouts and that of his son Saif al-Islam are unknown, and the NATO backed rebel leadership has announced a bounty of $1 million for Gaddafi’s capture.

Outside the store, commotion erupted as rebels bundled a dark-skinned man into a car. Many rebels accuse nationals of nearby African countries of being mercenaries for Gaddafi.

On Saturday, reporters saw the putrefying bodies of 22 men of African origin on a Tripoli beach. Those who had come to bury them claimed that they were mercenaries whom rebels had shot dead.

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The rotting bodies of 30 men, almost all black and many handcuffed, slaughtered as they lay on stretchers and even in an ambulance in central Tripoli, are an ominous foretaste of what might be Libya’s future. NATO’s puppet regime makes pious statements about taking no revenge on pro-Government forces, but this stops short of protecting those who can be labelled mercenaries. Any Libyan with a black skin accused of fighting for the Libyan Government may have a poor chance of survival.

The atmosphere in the Libyan capital is frighteningly uncertain a week after the anti Gadhafi onslaught of intense NATO bombing coupled with thounsands of Libyan rebels, mercenaries and foreign speciail forces from France, the UK, the U.S., Jordan and Qatar. Nobody knows who is in charge. Some dozen members of the NATO sposored Junta known as the “Transitional National Council” based in Benghazi gave a late-night press conference at the Radisson Blu Hotel to announce they were taking over, but appeared strained and nervous after landing by plane on a makeshift airstrip in the Nafusa mountains.

Sunday, 28 August 2011
independent.co.uk