One day last May, a middle-aged man in Bani Walid (a settlement of some 80,000 residents about 170 kilometres southeast of Tripoli) returned home to the compound that he shared with his three brothers. On driving into the compound, he came upon a strange sight. There were five cars, not belonging to the family. And they were riddled with bullets.
…Bani Walid is being described as a ‘Gaddafi stronghold’. It’s not- Ranier Fsadni
On learning what had happened, Mahmud (that’s not his real name) was furious. What he did next could be straight out of a Sergio Leone movie. Only it was real and can help us understand a little better some of the issues surrounding the current standoff (as I write this) between Bani Walid and the armed guard sent by the National Transitional Council to integrate the town under the Council’s rule.
I happen to know Mahmud and his family well. It is not a “political family”. However, Mahmud’s youngest brother – let’s call him Mustapha – is an Islamist. Earlier in May, Mustapha joined an open protest organised by about 50 youths against the Gaddafi regime. The result was that Muammar Gaddafi’s men killed several of them and then went after those who escaped. While Mahmud was away, a convoy of 28 cars drove up to the family compound to pick up Mustapha.
The eldest son of the eldest brother, a man in his mid-30s, went out to see what they needed. He had barely said a word when the leader of the convoy dismissed him, told him to go inside with instructions to give up his uncle. The man had a Tripoli accent and perhaps it was insufficient familiarity with Bani Walid that made him mistake for meekness the silent return of the young man to the house. It was in fact a dangerous sign. For the next thing the convoy noticed was five family men appear suddenly on the roof of the house, Kalashnikovs in hand. They aimed at the cars and sprayed them with bullets. By the time the Gaddafi men had managed to retreat, five cars were a total loss, although no one was killed.
This was the story told to Mahmud when he returned. Outraged at the insult to the sanctity of his home, he put on two bullet belts and an old helmet, picked up a gun and drove his pickup truck to the town centre. He stopped outside the police station. He got out and shouted his message, itself a sardonic parody of the code of hospitality that the regime men had violated: “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to greet you. But I’m there now and if anyone wants to come, I’ll be waiting.”
No one came. The Islamist brother, Mustapha, had time to flee to Zintan where he joined the armed rebellion. The families of Mahmud and his brothers remained holed up in their compound, surrounded by sandbags, ready for a bigger convoy to arrive, till the fall of Col Gaddafi in Tripoli.
How can this incident help us understand the current standoff, as it’s being described, between Bani Walid and the NTC? Very quickly, there are four themes.
First, Bani Walid is being described as a “Gaddafi stronghold”. It’s not. This settlement of 52 large Warfalla tribes along a 50-kilometre fertile valley has suffered under Col Gaddafi as much as any other locality. About 250 Warfalla were killed in the Abu Salim prison massacre after a major attempted coup emerged from Bani Walid in 1993, with important consequences after it failed.
Indeed, what Mahmud and his family did was not an isolated case. Their actions have already been celebrated in poetry. Rebel flags are said to have been hoisted in the areas farthest from the market centre. I’m told one of the leaders of the 1993 attempted coup has even returned to join his family.
Second, according to what I’ve been able to gather, the crushing of the May protests lies behind the negotiations concerning how the NTC may enter Bani Walid. Two tribes in particular have many men involved in the repression. Some people are afraid of a widespread vendetta and which may spread in uncontrolled ways. The recent Nato bombings of various places in Bani Walid have claimed tens of civilian lives, including the wipeout of the entire family, wife and children of a Gaddafi sympathiser. This has not helped those who argue the NTC wants peace.
Third, what makes the difference of opinion about the NTC a complicated matter is that this is not a division along tribal lines. Mahmud Jibril, the NTC leader, is a Warfalli from Bani Walid, as it happens. But I have been repeatedly told that the Libya crisis, in Bani Walid, has often divided even brothers within families. Although the story I have recounted saw the families of four brothers unite against Col Gaddafi’s men, a fifth brother was of the view that his Islamist brother should have been handed over.
Finally, although the story I have recounted glitters with the courage, violence and style of a spaghetti western, the violence it relates is controlled. The cars were shot at but no one was killed – that was on purpose. The Gaddafi men decided not to escalate matters further, containing the hostility so that it remained between them and a single family. But one wrong decision and it could all have gone differently.
It is such considerations that the NTC will be keeping in mind as the deadline given to Bani Walid runs out.
ranierfsadni@europe.com