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Dissent still rife in small Libyan garrison town

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:53 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

By Maria Golovnina

GARYAN, Libya, March 30 (Reuters) - In a small Libyan town long suspicious of Muammar Gaddafi's rule, people watched in awe as Western warplanes roared into view this week and bombed a nearby army ammunition dump.

Just weeks ago, the town of Garyan, perched in the rocky slopes of Libya's Western mountains, sided with anti-Gaddafi rebels and announced its opposition to the central government.

Its revolt was swiftly quashed and anti-Gaddafi graffiti wiped out, but dissent is still bubbling underneath the surface.

The government took a group of foreign reporters there on Wednesday to highlight what it described as extensive damage inflicted by Western air strikes on civilian areas.

Unlike other similar outings, where journalists are usually greeted by crowds of fervent Gaddafi supporters, Garyan appeared subdued and -- when government minders were not looking -- some locals quietly challenged the official line.

"We heard the planes. They didn't bomb any civilians," said one local middle-aged man who asked not to be named.

Another resident, Adbul Motalib, said: "There were huge explosions. I woke up, it was like a big earthquake. I saw a big fire in the sky. We heard planes, maybe two or three.

"They are bombing because they want to destroy weapons. ... We think it's because they want to help. Some people were killed by the Libyan army."

Garyan is a garrison town about 100 km (60 miles) south of the capital Tripoli. It is perched in the barren hills near the heartland of Amazigh Berber tribes, an independent-minded ethic minority which has long tried to defy central rule.

At a mosque, one foreign reporter said he was approached by a man saying that about 50 people were killed in earlier clashes between protesters and pro-Gaddafi forces in the city.

Little is known about the fate of Garyan rebels who led the initial uprising and journalists were not allowed to talk to local residents at length.

The Libyan army is now using Garyan's strategic location to launch operations against the rebels holed up in Zintan, a nearby town which has been besieged by troops for weeks.

"COLONIAL AGGRESSION"

Unlike other government-held cities near Tripoli, Garyan's muddy streets were devoid of portraits of the Libyan leader. There were no crowds signing patriotic songs and waving flags.

Libya's official Jana news agency said that air strikes by "crusader colonial aggression" forces hit residential areas in the town of Garyan on Tuesday. It said several civilian buildings were destroyed and some people wounded.

During the visit, reporters were shown a house where officials said a baby boy had been killed as a result of a coalition air strike on an ammunitions depot about 10 km away.

The ensuing explosion at the depot ignited rockets stored there and sent them flying in all directions, hitting residential houses, officials said. A similar story was presented to journalists a day earlier in the city of Mizdah.

"It was chaos," said Sabri Suwessi, the baby's uncle. Asked to show the rocket, he said someone from the Libyan army had taken it away.

The projectile appeared to have punched a small hole in the front wall of the apartment. Local residents showed pictures of the dead baby on their mobile phones. The baby was buried in a nearby cemetery.

Abdul Motalib said some families had fled the suburb since the trouble started a month ago.

In the nearby, more pro-Gaddafi, settlement of Aziziyah, angry mourners shot in the air and shouted slogans during the funeral of a man who officials said was killed during another air strike in the coastal city of Sirte.

Libyan officials say more than 100 civilians have been killed since the start of the coalition air campaign on March 19 but Western officials deny the charge, saying they are targeting only military targets consistent with their U.N. mandate. (Writing by Maria Golovnina)