Dick-tator Qaddafi Buried in Secret Desert Location ... like a RAT

Qaddafi Buried in Secret Desert Location at Dawn, NTC Says

Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Ola Galal and Caroline Alexander

Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was buried in a secret desert location at dawn today without the involvement of his tribe, said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, deputy head of the National Transitional Council.

"Qaddafi's page has now been turned forever," Ghoga said in a telephone interview from the eastern city of Benghazi.

Qaddafi died Oct. 20 while trying to escape from his besieged hometown of Sirte. Conflicting accounts emerged over the manner of his death, with Human Rights Watch saying evidence suggests he was executed and NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil saying initially that Qaddafi died in "crossfire" and later that he may have been killed by loyalists to silence him.

Talks on a new government will be completed in two weeks, and the first elections held within eight months, the NTC has said. During that time, the council faces the tasks of uniting the factions that helped to overthrow Qaddafi, disarming militias and restoring oil production. The country has the largest crude reserves in Africa.

Libya was producing about 1.6 million barrels of oil a day before the conflict broke out in mid-February, causing output to slump to a "trickle," according to the International Energy Agency. Production will be 600,000 barrels by the end of this year, the agency said last week.

The NTC has formed a committee to investigate Qaddafi's death, heeding calls by groups including the United Nations.

Libyans had been lining up to see Qaddafi's body, which was taken to Misrata, a city in the west whose forces had led assault on Sirte and captured him.

Qaddafi's death followed eight months of fighting between his loyalists and the one-time rebels who have run the country since seizing Tripoli, the capital, in August.

--With assistance from Mariam Fam in Cairo: Editors: Heather Langan, Digby Lidstone