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BREAKING NEWS: Libyan version of the 99% rage

By Tim Gaynor

SIRTE, Libya Oct 13 (Reuters) – When Libyan government fighters seized the vacant home of Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter, Aisha, the wealth and opulence they found sent some of them into a rage.

One fighter walked through the door and sprayed the interior with bullets from his Kalashnikov rifle. “She’s a bitch,” he said. “She has a nice house. They are rich. They do not care about us.”

Alongside the fierce fighting in the streets, the battle for the city of Sirte has also been a collision between two parts of Libyan society.

One the one side is the pro-Gaddafi elite, many of them members of Gaddafi’s tribe or extended family who benefited from his largesse and lived in his home-town of Sirte, a showpiece of his 42-year rule.

One the other side, the ordinary people who — while not poor by regional standards — only saw a small share of Libya’s huge energy wealth.

As forces with the National Transitional Council (NTC) fight their way into Sirte and take control of more of the city, they have been confronted with the reality of how their rulers lived.

Fighters who took control of the capital Tripoli in August had found similar opulence in the houses of Gaddafi family members.

NTC fighters inside Aisha Gaddafi’s house, a villa fronted with columns and marble steps, came out clutching gilt-framed photographs of the Gaddafi family. One man displayed a gold cutlery set laid out in its wooden box.   Continued…


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