was Tripoli,the Libyan capital really pro Gheddafi ?
How Gheddafi`s stronghold managed to rebel?
the real atmosphere of the first week of the Libyan revolution
as it was seen by Libyans of Tripoli!
Ahmed Fergiani writes:
A WEEK OF REVOLUTION
What happened in Tunisia has touched a lot the city of Tripoli, the Libyan capital is 200km from the border with the Republique Tunisienne, 850km from Tunis, which is nearer to Tripoli than Benghazi Libya`s second city , there were large number of Tunisian in Tripoli and many young Libyans were crossing the border in a sake of DOLCE VITA at the night clubs of Dgerba ,Hammamat,and Gammart rather than other Libyans who go to do the Medical checkups at the Tunisian clinics, Tripoli people were watching with so much attention the steps of the Tunisian revolt and the famous story of Muhammad Al Buazizi who burns himself in southern Tunisia giving the spark of the revolution against Ben Ali who leaves the country just weeks later ...... the majority of Tripoli inhabitants were shocked and surprised of all that, but Gheddafi was even more surprised and worried of that, Gaddafi who appeared on the state TV with an exclusive speech to the Tunisians wondering and asking them:
Why this is so?
What` s your goal you Tunisians?
You have nothing without him… Tunisia without my friend Ben Ali has got 4 goats and a few olive trees!
But the message was clear; it was for us Libyans not for the Tunisians. then it was the Egyptians’ turn through their Tahrir Square to shoot another coup de grace against Gheddafi, Mubarak`s game was over but what about us? This was the most used question in Libya, in the same period as I was working in a tourist agency so I had to fly every week from Tripoli to Benghazi and to Sabha in the Libyan south and I was hearing the same phrase.. The real men are on our right and on our left… they mean Tunisians and the Egyptians. That was the situation in Tripoli and I must say that the dictator was totally wrong with his Tunisian speech as it was like more petrol on the fire.
Tripoli is ready to take off
I have just received 15 American tourists to tour the Greek and Roman ruins of Libya, we had to fly to Benghazi on the 17th of February, The tour leader was Jan Weatly who sat with me to discuss the tour details at the lobby of Corinthia Hotel but although I knew that we were not going to make it but I preferred to keep silent and talk about other ground management! I left Jan to the city centre to have coffee with my friends and to monitor the situation!
The city is preparing for unknown destiny and ambiguous future, signs of that could be seen in the people's eyes, who were aware of what is going on, the other signs came through the fear parades of his supporters with their luxury cars, running with green flags and his photos stuck on the glass with no respect to any thing..They were driving in high speeds, as if there was no red traffic lights! With the loud music being sung by singers who sing only for him in front of the shops and cafes shops along the main street of 1st September in the Italian quarter, people were looking surprised!, Speechless trying to figure out the significance of all this! While the anti Gheddafi Libyans were just exchanging glances of scruple and anger,moaning with painful hilarious phrases like:
Oh thanks to leaders that we can at least see such cars crossing the streets of this city
Look how they live well these Libyans. (Those pro Gaddafi)..... .
The most discussed subject at that cafe shop was the situation in the other part of the country, as the news about Cyrenaica came to us not through the government sources who seem to be in another planet, but through our colleague who was in Cyrene just 200km from Benghazi with 20 Italian tourists, he told us the strong anti Gheddafi demonstrations and to forget as well about that part of Libya:
Guys Cyrenaica is out of his hands...it is over there!
The Cyrenaica is Libya`s largest region, it extends from the Gulf of Sirte to the Egyptian border, and the richest too as the oil fields are located there.
But what happened there apart the 5 victims in Benghazi? Asks Hisham!
In Albaida City yesterday there was the universal flood against Gaddafi, where even the local security members were sided with the protesters .
In Albaida? Are you kidding? One of us asks surprisingly!
Albaida is the native city of Gheddafi`s 2nd wife and considered to be as Gheddafi bastion in Cyrenaica.
We are no longer part of Gheddafi`s Libya but we are free region!
That was the comment of our friend from Bengasi when answered our telephone call to know how the situation was in Benghazi! But this answer gave us the certainty that they made it!
These were the last telephone calls between Tripoli and Benghazi as Gheddafi soon cut off all telephone lines of Cyrenaica making it another Libya!
Well, they made it but what about us here?
Hisham says, hisham is a guy who was in France for years....
Us...? No ... we do not deserve life with dignity just see these idiots who think they are in Hollywood boulevard, they do not realize what is happening in Benghazi...ok am leaving to Benghazi ,au revoir!
After that little talk, me and my friend Mustafa left the city centre driving through the back streets of Gargarish (ex Giorgianpopoli) the luxury quarter of Tripoli which was inhabited by the Americans in late sixties and today the majority if its inhabitants are Gheddafi`s right arm…me and Mustafa were discussing of how would be the reaction of Gaddafi to all this uprising of Cyrenaica.
my friend said that it will be not like in Tunisia or Egypt and he was convinced that as Gheddafi is crazy so he will swipe them from the earth, as we were approaching another popular quarter called Gurgi located at the back of this chic quarter of Gargarish suddenly there was a confusion and noise along with number of young people who fled terrorized as if they have convicted something screaming and shouting at us:
go back, go back, it is turned on at Gurgi, a Molotov was thrown at the security van!
We tried to turn back but many other drivers got the same message and they had the same thought, so in few minutes a real panic was created, the street with that small number of cars was suddenly closed but in some how we made it and ran away!
Yes come on here is the spark…
Mustafa said while he was driving me back to the small hotel where I used to stay in Tripoli!
Mustafa just go home before they fix endless check points! Don’t worry I will let you know if anything happens here!
I was back to the hotel, and through the balcony I can see the town with a lot of strange atmosphere, screaming, cars chasing each other’s and scattered shooting.
The other day I suggested to the Americas to visit Leptis Magna at least to skip the pro regime demonstrations in Tripoli.
Leptis Magna is about 120 km from Tripoli, our visit was lovely and they have enjoyed the story of Rome of Africa but I was at the restaurant located close to the ruins after the visit was terminated… one of the guides who is well known of being anti Gheddafi came to me saying:
hey Ahmed, am driving to Misurata to join the rebellion there..It was started this morning there!
That was a real surprise for me! Misurata is a calm lovely city bathed with the Mediterranean, its inhabitants who are different origins Arabs, Berbers, Jewish and Turkish are peaceful and wealthy as their fame was linked to the trade along the last three centuries ,Misurata was Gaddafi`s first home when he was expelled from Sebha in 1962.
On the way back to Tripoli I told to my American group that the situation has reached the non return point as Misurata rebelled today, strangely just before we got to Tripoli at the suburbs of Tagiura, we were stopped many times by new check points and a lots of roadblocks made by the various military corps of Gaddafi . but at the end we were back to the Corinthia hotel save and sound, where I stopped to have a coffee and discuss the situation with my clients at the hotel`s executive club!
So what do you think Ahmed? Am really worried about your future in this country?
Yes I know that I will stay jobless for a year at least but at the end there is a little hope of liberty after long decades mum!
I left the Hotel walking to my small Hotel at the downtown where I stopped at a small sort of corner shop to top up my cell phone:
Can I top up with five Dinars please?
I got just one of ten..Get it as no more mobile prepaid card in town!
Can we get a loaf of bread please? Three Tunisian ladies asked..
Sorry, we got no more bread!
Just two days after the outbreak of the Libyan upraise in the far city of Benghazi, almost every food stuff was sold out in Tripoli! The restaurants and small kebab shops were closed as the foreign workers were preparing to leave the country, just by chance I found I Turkish restaurant where that night was working just on take away as he was scared of any rebel gathering at his restaurant!
That night was real sadness, the streets were almost empty except from the security cars.... shootings were loud and through the balcony I saw a helicopter flying or let say it was flying in same place in the far east end of Tripoli .... I was so curious of that so I came down to the lobby where there were just few foreigners and the two Libyan receptionists and one of them said:
the two quarters of Fashluom and Suk Algiuma both have joined the rebellion and about five people lost their life.
In the next morning I went straight to the hotel where I was going to do the transfer of the Americans to Tripoli air port as they were alerted by the American embassy to leave the country, I found the hotel foreign staff was moved to live in the hotel Cheery from the Philippines was terrorized:
It is no longer safe here Ahmed, last night was terrible!
Don’t worry Cheery nobody will touch the foreigners, it`s our matter not yours!
In that day I had to go three times to the airport and the first trip was at 11.00 o’clock in the morning, as soon as we left the hotel, we saw I big Gheddafi poster burnt on the ground, Endless number of military tanks and armed soldiers along the road to the Airport which was crowded with people of different languages and different races, all were in hurry .all queuing or sort of queuing, trying to get to the main entrance doors ,in other words they were trying the salvation!
The image was identical to the Titanic; indeed it is the Libyan Titanic!
It was sad feeling with all these people leaving Libya alone to the Barbary of Gheddafi!
Another scary night falls and the stupid state TV transmits a real mental prostitution: a manifestation of the Libyan people from the streets of Tripoli ... Libyan people who are delighted to have been born in Libya and proud to live the era of international thinker The Brother leader Muammar Gheddafi.. Thanks to a little bottle of Grappa I managed to watch such nonsense! then I went out of the hotel to see how it looks like in town; the small streets leading to the Green Square were dark and closed with barriers made of wood and trash bins, young people with knives and swords on the street corners asking the Passer-by:
Hey, do you want Grappa or Hashish?
No, am fine thank you.
While I was about to reach Green Square and along Omar Mokhtar Street (the ex-corso Sicilia) there were heavily armed soldiers with strange faces they don’t seem to be Libyans wearing anti bullets, masks and ready to take one`s life in a few seconds ....the street was crossed by Tracks full of soldiers heading to the rebel quarter of Gargarish in the west end, giving a clear message to the inhabitants of how they would be treated in case of rebellion!
Before I got to the Green Square, just to the left I saw the famous scary building of justice ministry was burnt! While in the same Square I saw just few hundred people holding Gheddafi pictures, the atmosphere was of Tension, fear, hypocrisy and terror.. I remained for about ten minutes maximum when I was called by a friend of mine who told me his story when he was caught last night in his way back home! Our conversation took few minutes then I preferred to go back to my hotel with the terror of armed soldiers and the Hash dealers!
ZANGA ZANGA
The Gheddafi`s regime reaction to the ongoing revolt was the famous speech of Zanga Zanga, his long speech in which he was menacing the rebels or the rats as he called them to be chased lane by lane! The speech reflected the anxious mood of the colonel and showed the world his true face.... but one must admit that thanks to that speech he managed to take the control over the cities or the villages that were going to rebel, he assured through that speech his power and force which made many people especially the commons education to believe of his image as a strong leader.
But was he really Strong? I will say that he was a strong as a blood thirsty! He spoke only about tanks, arms, massacres, and executions! He described the rebels as Rats! But the Australian rats of Tobruk managed to defeat the AFRIKA KORPS of Rommel and to change the Libyan history, today we the Rats are going to defeat the forces of the Arab Mussolini of Libya!
He referred many times in the same speech to the Libyan law of the kingdom era in which death penalty was foreseen for any rebellion! The colonel has forgotten that he would deserve these penalties as he rebelled in 1969 with his military coup!
Once that speech was over I decided to see the reaction to that bloody speech, first I went to Corinthia Hotel to stay closer and see my few foreign friends who work at Corinthia Hotel…they were, Filipinos Tunisian and Maltese , first I met the director himself the Maltese Joseph Pisani , who was worried and sad for his hotel and the country in which he spent years, the staff was fearful, everyone wants to go away , I had a coffee with a Tunisian guy then left the hotel to the green square, the Taxi wants 10 Dinars! The normal trip is 3 Dinars but when I asked him the reason his answer was:
He who loves Gheddafi should be able to pay that amount!
He was smart, his answer was a proof that he was anti Gheddafi, as I was not a lover of the colonel so I decided just to walk till my destination, where I saw the Barbary of his faithful supporters who were crossing the road with crazy speed and chanting victory songs! Shooting in the air by the Kalashnikov, the square was full of families holding the green flags and his pictures, plenty of security agents with their death cars ,the famous TUNDRA! …I felt very sad as all these people cannot face the reality!
In the same day every mobile phone has received 20 dinars of top up ... there were two targets of such generosity, the first was enhancing the commons to be faithful to Gaddafi, and the message that as long as Gheddafi is in power there will be wealth and tranquility, while the second was to encourage people to talk more through the mobile so the state can discover the hidden cells of the rebels in Tripoli and to get news about further rebellion attempts.
The next day I had no intention to go out but I was forced as I was eating for the last 2 days just cans of Tuna, Beans with some crackers with a lot of Grappa which is an alcoholic beverage of Libyan Jewish origin known as Boja….(pronounced as j in Spanish) I was hanging around the city centre but there was almost no body, the city was paralyzed ,most of the shops were closed, long queues for the bakeries as the foreign workers left the country…but suddenly I found a small restaurant or let say sort of kebab shop, after I came and asked what they serve:
Hi we have got just grilled chicken and rise…
Then a half chicken with rice please, any bread?
You must be kidding; bread is part of the past!
I went back so happy with that dish of rice and half chicken.
24/2/2011 THE HOPE
It is been a week since the revolt got started and there was no life at all in Tripoli , everything has changed, no more coffee at the Italian style cafe shops of Tripoli ,no more telephone calls as the danger could be your cell phone, so my time was killed through smoking cigarettes and watching the news through Aljazeera TV .
on the other hand the situation was very clear, the number of Gheddafi supporters have decreased in the streets, there is an evident lack of security on the streets, indeed even the traffic police have disappeared... the situation was out of his control, the appearance of his son Saif on Libyan TV reflects the state of nervousness of the Gheddafis, he appeared in TV in different ways: as a wise man who speaks about the golden Libyan future through his project, Libya of tomorrow, as a Mafia boss who threatens the Libyans with endless civil war or even as mentally retarded who speaks about Al-Qaida in Libya!
We the anti-Gaddafi Libyans were happy of the situation, the far Cyrenaica or Libya`s eastern region is already free, to the west of Tripoli the city of Zawia is rebellious and free as well, Such situation gives you unspeakable joy, Makes you feel the approach of that sacred moment for all the humans…. the Freedom ...But all seems a dream, seems far away after years of hopeless, years of long depression…oh freedom how sweet you are!
Tripoli is the city where I was brought up in the last 19 years, but I am not familiar with Faslhoum, suk algiuma and Tagiora they were just names for me, nevertheless I did military service 15 years ago at the Navy base of Suk Algiuma ... properly these unknown quarters for me are giving the good news…they are rebellious, on fire, they are Anti Gheddafi. ... .
i can see it in that far horizon that our history is being written, our life is regaining its dignity, I can see the wall of the Medina (Tripoli old town) the wall that was built of recycled blocks of the roman and byzantine era with its new door called by Libyans Bab Algiadid guarded by two cannons giving access to a labyrinth of alleys Flanked by medieval houses, mosques, the Jewish quarter (Alhara) and the Roman arch of Marcus Aurelius.
I can see That sad Medina which was a home of Turkish, Arabs, Maltese, Greeks, Jews, British, Spanish, French and Italians ...as if they were all standing there, and hugging it,I see the lighthouse flickers behind those clouds ,the light rain is making it very shiny, I see the minaret of the mosque that kisses the bell of Santa Maria degli Angeli church with love and peace.
I see a different future of the city illuminated by a light in the far horizon, it`s message of hope, the hope that was lost in the last forty two years.
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