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Gaddafi's body on display in meat store freezer
October 22, 2011 - 13:20 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Bloodied, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers, and
dumped on a cheap mattress, Muammar Gaddafi's body has become a
gruesome tourist attraction and a macabre symbol of the new Libya's
problems.
Hundreds of ordinary Libyans queued up outside a refrigerated meat
store in Misrata, where the dead dictator was being stored as a
trophy. A guard allowed small groups into the room to celebrate next
to Gaddafi's body. They posed for photos, flashing victory signs, and
burst into jubilant cries of "God is great."
Wounds on Gaddafi's body appeared to confirm that he was indeed killed
in cold blood in the chaotic minutes following his capture on
Thursday. He was found in the town of Sirte, hiding in a drainage
pipe. There was a close-range bullet wound on the left side of his
head. Blood stains showed another bullet wound to his thorax. His
body, subsequently driven to Misrata and publicly paraded, was
barefoot and stripped to the waist.
Late on Friday the Gaddafi clan demanded a chance to bury the body. In
a statement on a Syria-based pro-Gaddafi television station, the
ousted dictator's family asked for the bodies of Gaddafi, his son
Mo'tassim and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who
overran his hometown Sirte.
What to do with the fallen dictator's corpse is the subject of a row
inside the National Transitional Council (NTC). Libya's interim prime
minister, Mahmoud Jibril, arrived in Misrata to talk with local NTC
representatives. They have made it abundantly clear they do not want
Gaddafi to be buried in their town. The NTC leadership in Tripoli
wants a solution quickly. One popular option is to bury him at sea,
like Osama bin Laden.
The dispute threatens to overshadow NTC plans to declare a formal end
to Libya's nine-month uprising . The council will announce from
Benghazi, where the Libyan revolution began in February, that the
project of national liberation is now complete. It will say a new,
democratic post-Gaddafi era has begun.
The NTC faces questions from international rights organisations. On
Thursday, Jibril claimed that Gaddafi had been killed from a bullet to
the head received in crossfire between rebel fighters and his
supporters. He was dragged alive on to a truck, but died "when the car
was moving", Jibril said, citing forensic reports.
Gruesome mobile phone footage obtained by the Global Post undermines
this account. It records the minutes after Gaddafi's capture, when his
convoy came under Nato and rebel attack. He is dragged out of a tunnel
where he had been hiding. Blood is already pouring out of a wound on
the left side of his head.
A group of fighters then frogmarch him towards a pick-up truck. There
are shouts of "God is great" and the rattle of gunfire. At one point
Gaddafi keels over; a fighter kicks him and scuffs dirt over his
bloodstained clothing. The rebels prop Gaddafi back on his feet and
propel him onwards.
Gaddafi is clearly dazed and wounded - but is alive, conscious, and
pleading feebly with his captors. Fighters at the scene said that he
was injured in the shoulder and leg when he was found. Fresh blood is
also flowing from a head injury.
The evidence has prompted Amnesty International to call on the NTC to
investigate. It said that if Gaddafi were deliberately killed, this
would be a war crime. The NTC's position is that it will support an
investigation because the new Libya is a law-abiding country, but
officials seemed sceptical that it was necessary. "Even if he was
killed intentionally, I think he deserves this," Mohammed Sayeh, a
senior official, told the BBC. "If they kill him 1,000 times, I think
it will not pay back the Libyans what he has done."
Amnesty also called for an investigation into the unexplained, violent
death of Gaddafi's son Mutassim. Video footage that surfaced shows him
calmly smoking a cigarette after his capture. Soon afterwards, someone
appears to have shot him. His body is now on show in another freezer
unit in Misrata, The Guardian reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
October 22, 2011 - 13:20 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Bloodied, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers, and
dumped on a cheap mattress, Muammar Gaddafi's body has become a
gruesome tourist attraction and a macabre symbol of the new Libya's
problems.
Hundreds of ordinary Libyans queued up outside a refrigerated meat
store in Misrata, where the dead dictator was being stored as a
trophy. A guard allowed small groups into the room to celebrate next
to Gaddafi's body. They posed for photos, flashing victory signs, and
burst into jubilant cries of "God is great."
Wounds on Gaddafi's body appeared to confirm that he was indeed killed
in cold blood in the chaotic minutes following his capture on
Thursday. He was found in the town of Sirte, hiding in a drainage
pipe. There was a close-range bullet wound on the left side of his
head. Blood stains showed another bullet wound to his thorax. His
body, subsequently driven to Misrata and publicly paraded, was
barefoot and stripped to the waist.
Late on Friday the Gaddafi clan demanded a chance to bury the body. In
a statement on a Syria-based pro-Gaddafi television station, the
ousted dictator's family asked for the bodies of Gaddafi, his son
Mo'tassim and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who
overran his hometown Sirte.
What to do with the fallen dictator's corpse is the subject of a row
inside the National Transitional Council (NTC). Libya's interim prime
minister, Mahmoud Jibril, arrived in Misrata to talk with local NTC
representatives. They have made it abundantly clear they do not want
Gaddafi to be buried in their town. The NTC leadership in Tripoli
wants a solution quickly. One popular option is to bury him at sea,
like Osama bin Laden.
The dispute threatens to overshadow NTC plans to declare a formal end
to Libya's nine-month uprising . The council will announce from
Benghazi, where the Libyan revolution began in February, that the
project of national liberation is now complete. It will say a new,
democratic post-Gaddafi era has begun.
The NTC faces questions from international rights organisations. On
Thursday, Jibril claimed that Gaddafi had been killed from a bullet to
the head received in crossfire between rebel fighters and his
supporters. He was dragged alive on to a truck, but died "when the car
was moving", Jibril said, citing forensic reports.
Gruesome mobile phone footage obtained by the Global Post undermines
this account. It records the minutes after Gaddafi's capture, when his
convoy came under Nato and rebel attack. He is dragged out of a tunnel
where he had been hiding. Blood is already pouring out of a wound on
the left side of his head.
A group of fighters then frogmarch him towards a pick-up truck. There
are shouts of "God is great" and the rattle of gunfire. At one point
Gaddafi keels over; a fighter kicks him and scuffs dirt over his
bloodstained clothing. The rebels prop Gaddafi back on his feet and
propel him onwards.
Gaddafi is clearly dazed and wounded - but is alive, conscious, and
pleading feebly with his captors. Fighters at the scene said that he
was injured in the shoulder and leg when he was found. Fresh blood is
also flowing from a head injury.
The evidence has prompted Amnesty International to call on the NTC to
investigate. It said that if Gaddafi were deliberately killed, this
would be a war crime. The NTC's position is that it will support an
investigation because the new Libya is a law-abiding country, but
officials seemed sceptical that it was necessary. "Even if he was
killed intentionally, I think he deserves this," Mohammed Sayeh, a
senior official, told the BBC. "If they kill him 1,000 times, I think
it will not pay back the Libyans what he has done."
Amnesty also called for an investigation into the unexplained, violent
death of Gaddafi's son Mutassim. Video footage that surfaced shows him
calmly smoking a cigarette after his capture. Soon afterwards, someone
appears to have shot him. His body is now on show in another freezer
unit in Misrata, The Guardian reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress