MISRATA, Libya—Moammar Gadhafi’s blood-streaked body was on display in a commercial freezer at a shopping center on Friday (Saturday in Manila) as Libyan authorities argued about what to do with his remains and questions deepened over official accounts of the longtime dictator’s death.
Misrata residents crowded into long lines to get a chance to view the body of Gadhafi, which was laid out on a mattress on the floor of an emptied-out vegetable and onions freezer at a local shopping center.
The body had apparently been stowed in the freezer in an attempt to keep it out of the public eye, but once the location was known, that intention was swept away in the overwhelming desire of residents to see the man they so deeply despised.
“We want to see the dog,” some chanted.
Men, women and children filed in to take their picture with the body. The site’s guards had even organized separate visiting hours for families and single men.
‘This is his penalty’
“I felt joy,” said Mustafa Ali, 37, who is unemployed, as he left the freezer. “How long have we been waiting for this? We have martyrs, and this is his penalty.”
Gadhafi’s 69-year-old body was stripped to the waist, his torso and arms streaked with dried blood. Bullet wounds in the chest, abdomen and left side of the head were visible.
The bloody siege of Misrata over the summer instilled a particularly virulent hatred of Gadhafi there—a hatred now mixed with pride because he was captured and killed by fighters from the city.
Authorities have promised to bury Gadhafi in accordance with Islamic traditions calling for quick interment, but Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said the burial was delayed because officials were debating “what the best place is to bury him.”
Mahmoud Jibril, the interim prime minister, visiting the body in the freezer, said the burial could take place in the next 48 hours.
Gadhafi family’s appeal
Gadhafi’s family, most of whom are in Algeria or other nearby African nations, issued a statement calling for an investigation into how Gadhafi and another of his sons, Muatassim, were killed. In the statement on the pro-Gadhafi, Syria-based TV station Al-Rai, they asked for international pressure on the ruling National Transitional Council to hand over the bodies of the two men to their tribe.
Account of death demanded
International calls mounted on Friday for Libya’s interim leaders to provide a fuller accounting of the final moments before Gadhafi’s violent, messy death, as new videos circulated that showed him and Muatassim alive, apparently while in the custody of the former rebels.
The United Nations (UN) and two leading human rights groups called for a thorough investigation into precisely how Gadhafi, who was seen on the Internet in cell phone videos bleeding and heaving as he was manhandled by screaming fighters, wound up dead with what appeared to be bullet wounds to the head and chest.
One video in particular was receiving heightened scrutiny on Friday because it showed a conscious Gadhafi wiping blood off the left side of his face, revealing no bullet wound. Later videos of his corpse showed a bullet wound in the same spot, adding to skepticism about the interim government’s official explanation that he was accidentally killed during a shootout with Gadhafi loyalists.
US wants explanation
The United States, which along with other major Western powers heartily congratulated the Libyan people on Thursday as news of Gadhafi’s death was announced, also said that Libya’s post-Gadhafi leaders must furnish a detailed explanation of how he had died.
Officials with the interim government indicated that they would pursue an investigation, although senior military leaders in Misrata, where the bodies were taken, said they saw no need for one.
In Misrata, which harbors special antipathy toward Gadhafi because of his military’s vicious assault here during the struggle to oust him, there appeared to be little concern about the manner of the deaths.
Two senior security officials in Misrata dismissed the need for an investigation, saying the interim government’s explanation of what happened–that Gadhafi and his son had died of injuries sustained on the battlefield–was plausible enough.
‘What investigation?’
Ibrahim Sharkasy, the head of the local security committee in Misrata, left open the possibility that Gadhafi had been executed but said it was more likely that he had been shot and killed during skirmishes.
“What investigation?” he said, adding that that the military authorities did not investigate fights on the battlefield.
A senior official in Misrata’s military intelligence service, Col. Ismail Shukri, said it was possible that Muatassim, despite his relatively healthy appearance in the video, had died of internal bleeding. Another video, he said, showed Muatassim lying down with his hand across his face.
National catharsis
The death of Gadhafi, who was found Thursday hiding in a drainpipe after two months on the run, was a moment of national catharsis in the country he ruled for 42 years.
The interim government said it would formally declare Libya’s liberation Sunday in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the revolution to oust him began in February. Officials said Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council, would make the proclamation.
Council officials have not said whether Gadhafi’s son Muatassim was found dead or alive. But a new video circulated on Friday showed the son, too, had been captured alive. The video showed him sitting upright, smoking a cigarette and wearing a blood-stained shirt. Reporters and photographers who saw his body said it had wounds in the neck and chest.
Rights groups
The whereabouts of another Gadhafi son, Seif al-Islam, who had been reported captured or wounded on Thursday, was unknown, and there were rumors that he may have fled to Niger.
Navi Pillay, the top UN human rights official, formally requested an investigation into Gadhafi’s death. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also urged the new Libyan authorities to investigate the killing.
Asked about Gadhafi’s death, Mark Toner, a US State Department spokesperson, told reporters in Washington on Friday that Libya’s interim government had “pledged to provide a full accounting of what happened, what transpired leading up to his death. And we look to them to do that.”
The interim government has ignored calls by its allies for similar investigations before, quietly dropping an inquiry into the controversial killing of its top military official in July.
Desperate decision
Shukri, who said he had questioned senior Gadhafi aides in recent days, said that Gadhafi had been in Sirte since Tripoli fell on Aug. 21, having traveled in a convoy of about 25 cars to Sirte, his birthplace, where he moved from house to house. Shukri said that the ill-fated decision to flee the city on Thursday in a convoy had been made by Muatassim, who was directing military operations for the loyalist forces in Sirte.
The plan had been to travel to a small town west of Sirte, and then head south through the open desert.
“It was a desperate decision,” Shukri said. “It was a failed decision.”
Nato forces spotted the convoy before it had traveled two miles and called in a French air strike. Nato said on Friday that the strike had destroyed at least 11 of the vehicles and had probably contributed to Gadhafi’s capture.
Scene of mass destruction
Anti-Gadhafi fighters who had arrived soon after the attack described a scene of mass destruction, with as many as 50 bodies scattered about and the charred remains of victims still sitting in the driver’s seats of the destroyed vehicles.
At Nato headquarters in Brussels on Friday, the alliance’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said that it would seek to end operations in Libya on Oct. 31 but that a formal decision would be made early next week. For now, he told a news conference, Nato would “monitor the situation and retain the capacity to respond to threats to civilians if needed.”
Nato has been conducting aerial assaults on Gadhafi’s forces since March under a UN Security Council resolution to protect Libyan civilians. The assaults were widely credited with helping the rebels overthrow him. With a report from New York Times News Service