Fear Stalks the Streets of Gadhafi's Capital

Rebels hold a young man at gunpoint between the towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf. They accuse him of being a loyalist to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. (Reuters)

MARCH 4, 2011
By MARGARET COKER
The Wall Street Journal

TRIPOLI, Libya—The residents of Libya's capital, subject to a clampdown as Col. Moammar Gadhafi loses much of the rest of his country to opponents, are gripped by fear and paranoia.

Pro-Gadhafi security forces, visiting homes at night, have made scores of arrests. Families of some antigovernment activists have gone into hiding after receiving threats from officials. Doctors say patients with gunshot wounds—a sign the injured person may have been at a street demonstration—have been arrested and taken from hospitals.

Some residents of Tripoli, home to two million of Libya's six million people, on Thursday described these and other incidents that form what they say is a tapestry of terror in the capital. As Col. Gadhafi has rallied his base, these people say, reprisals have escalated against those who protest his rule. Political uncertainty has warped the fabric of once-quiet neighborhoods, residents say, with some saying they are afraid to speak to longtime neighbors.

One Tripoli resident said that after anti-Gadhafi rallies first swept the city, a longtime neighbor, a widow, set off for work the next morning wearing the uniform of Libya's special forces, who have since conducted an at-times fatal crackdown on antiregime protesters. "It was the first time she wore such a thing," this person said. "We always knew we were being watched—and now we understand who have been the watchers."

The mood of uncertainty was deep in the hours before Friday, the Muslim world's traditional day of prayer and in recent weeks the major day of antiregime protests across the region.

"It is impossible to distinguish between the pro-, the anti- or the indifferent—even among people you have known for years," said another Tripoli resident who, like several who spoke for this article, communicated online out of fear of being seen speaking with journalists invited by Col. Gadhafi's government. "Who will take to the streets in this situation?"

Col. Gadhafi, in a speech Wednesday, reiterated the governnment line—that protesters in the capital were al Qaeda sympathizers. "All Libyans love Moammar," he said.

Much of the country's east is in the hands of opponents. Anti-Gadhafi forces consolidated their westernmost positions in the oil-refinery town of Brega on Thursday with gun emplacements and antitank batteries, a day after repulsing an offensive by pro-Gadhafi forces.

Col. Gadhafi's fighter jets dropped bombs on or near the city early in the morning, Brega residents said, but it wasn't clear what had been hit. Two craters were visible along roads leading to the city's university, site of Wednesday's fiercest fighting.

Thursday in Brega, a pickup truck sped into a parking lot coming from a rebel position further west. Inside the back seat were four men the rebels said they had captured during a reconnaissance patrol.

The men looked like teenagers. One was in tears. They said they were from Niger and had been brought to Libya with promises of jobs. Once they arrived, they had been given guns and told to fight. Rebel officers said they would be taken into custody and tried in a court of law. What court or legal system might hold a hearing wasn't clear.

Officials with Col. Gadhafi's government in Tripoli have issued permission for visiting journalists to move freely, an assurance renewed in the daily press conferences held in the luxury hotel that houses the foreign reporters.

On Wednesday, a journalist traveled with an independent driver toward Zawiya, an important oil-refinery center 30 miles west of Tripoli. The car was stopped by army soldiers at a fortified military checkpoint on the city's outskirts, where soldiers said reporters were forbidden from entering the city.

When the government offered an official tour through Zawiya on Thursday, government-appointed guides bypassed the town center, which residents say is controlled by antiregime protesters. Instead, they sped to the government-controlled Zawiya Oil Refinery Co. There, as officials declared their readiness to put the country's energy back online for consumers, one man quietly broke ranks.

The man whispered to one journalist that security forces were making widespread arrests in the center of town. "We are besieged, and we do not even have children's milk," said the worker, before quickly moving away.

Later on the trip, officials drove reporters as far west as the Tunisian border, demonstrating its control of the country's west. Near the border, pro-Gadhafi civilian militiamen manned checkpoints at intersections. On the return trip, the convoy passed roads leading to Zawiya that were blocked with earth berms and truck tires. Closer to Tripoli, tanks and heavy artillery in firing position were seen at multiple checkpoints. Tanks stood next to several mosques.

Tripoli's protests began Feb. 18, after much of eastern Libya had erupted with antigovernment protests. Demonstrators in multiple districts of Tripoli say security forces loyal to Col. Gadhafi have sprayed crowds of protesters with live ammunition, especially in the industrial suburb of Tajura, the working-class Fashloom and the downtown Souq al-Jouma'a district. Security officials deny that troops have opened fire on civilians.

Libya's Public Security department placed the death toll across the country during the protests at 374, which includes 111 security officers and 263 civilians. The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights estimates that at least 3,000 people have been killed so far.

In Tripoli, nine families interviewed this week said their unarmed relatives had been shot while demonstrating on Feb. 20 and Feb. 25, describing how security forces encircled protests and opened fire.

These 11 wounded men have had operations to remove their bullets at home by relatives who are doctors, after being counseled by these medical professionals not to go to the emergency rooms.

One person said Wednesday that a doctor removed a bullet lodged in his relative's upper thigh in such a home operation, using pliers and commercial disinfectant. It is unclear what the status of the wounded person is.

"Our relatives are doctors, and they say the injured [from demonstrations] are not safe in the hospital," said one resident. In interviews, two doctors said hospital administrators require them to report gunshot injuries and other suspicious wounds to the security service.

On Feb. 21, a family in a southern Tripoli district said they were visited by an officer from the revolutionary committee based in their district. These paramilitary brigades report directly to the office of Col. Gadhafi, residents say, and comprise a parallel security corps to the capital's regular military forces.

The officer, a man who spoke with an accent common from Col. Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, sat in their living room and told the family that an informer had relayed how their son had played a prominent role in demonstrations a day earlier. The officer said the family would face reprisals for the son's actions unless they left the area.

The family fled to the home of relatives outside the capital.

In Tajura, the industrial district to the east of the capital and a hotbed of anti-Gadhafi sentiment, at least 22 people have been arrested since Monday, say opposition leaders there. Since Feb. 20, pro-Gadhafi security forces have made nighttime sweeps through the city, scooping up men and raiding homes of people related to protest organizers, these people said.

Residents said security forces have arrested teenage boys in what they call a bid to pressure families to keep their older children away from demonstrations. One protester said his 15-year-old brother had been arrested and now his parents are pleading with him not to go to a planned demonstration Friday.

"The message they are sending is that your whole family is vulnerable—your babies as well as you," this protester said.

—Sam Dagher in Al-Zawiya, Libya, and Charles Levinson in Brega, Libya, contributed to this article.