Unbelievably inhuman situation

Sarah Carabott spoke to witnesses and sources close to the protesters for a first-hand account.

Muammar Gaddafi remains in total control of Tripoli while an undeclared evening curfew keeps most rebels behind locked doors for fear of being shot by “Gaddafi’s men” who roam the streets in four-wheel drive vehicles, according to people in the capital.

The family of a young injured boy, who is being treated daily for leg wounds at his house in the capital, refused to take him to hospital out of fear he would not come out alive.

Numerous claims surfaced yesterday of people being killed in hospitals and a large number of corpses disappeared, denying their families a burial.

A source based in Misuratah claimed the police had kidnapped 61 teenagers between 16 and 18 years old and took them to undisclosed destinations where they were not allowed to shave. People who live in the town said the youths were being given hallucinogenic tablets and presented to the media as “the people behind all this trouble”.

The opposition’s advance on Col Gaddafi’s strongholds around Tripoli seems to be on hold. Az Zawiyah, a small town next to the capital, has been cut off completely from the city by one of Khamis Gaddafi’s military camps. Reports on news channels last night spoke of Gaddafi forces firing on protesters after Friday prayers, with the death toll put at about 60.

Although there are no military units in Brega, a major oil-exporting port to the West of Egdabia, the regime wants to regain hold of this 180,000 barrel-a-day city. Civilians are therefore defending it “with all their might”. Fights between revolutionaries and tribes from Surt have been going on relentlessly for the past few days.

People in Zentan, the first western Libyan city to start protesting after Benghazi, were paid to remain quiet with families allegedly offered up to $3 million, sources claimed.

People outside Libya have refrained from contacting relatives in the North African country as most calls are monitored.

A young man based in Tripoli said people had been arrested over the last two days after they were tracked down when using their mobile phones. In Libya, phone numbers are registered on ID cards, so someone would always get in trouble, he added.

Various Libyan Facebookers said that, for security reasons, the safest way to contact relatives and friends was through the internet, using satellite connections and not the government’s DSL. However, as was the case in Egypt and Tunisia a few weeks ago, internet surfers have to change their registered online location every once in a while.

A Libyan man pleaded with the international community, especially neighbouring countries, to “do its best to spread the Libyan cause. No one in Libya is sure if they will be alive in the coming days because what is happening around us is unbelievably inhuman”.