Libya ends its ghoulish exhibition of Gaddafi’s rotting body

LIBYA’S interim rulers have finally ended the public display of the bodies of Muammar Gaddafi, his son and army chief, after four days in which thousands of Libyans went to see for themselves that the dictator was really dead.

Guards yesterday locked the gates to the compound surrounding the cold storage container where the grim parody of the lying in state, typically accorded to deceased leaders, had been played out.

That may signal a decision is near over how and where to bury the bodies or simply that they are seen as a health hazard.

“That’s enough,” said one of the guards. “He’s been causing us as much trouble dead as he did alive.”

A steady stream of visitors filed in yesterday before the closure, but far fewer than on previous days, when crowds flocked to the container where the three rotting bodies were laid out on filthy mattresses.

There were still a few disappointed people. “Can I just bring my son in?” an old man pleaded.

“No, we’re closed,” the guard replied angrily. Later, fresh guards came on duty and allowed about 100 people to see the bodies then shut the gates again.

Fighters guarding Gaddafi’s body and those of his son Mo’tassim and former army chief had placed plastic sheeting under them as fluids leaked into the market cold store in Misrata where they had been taken after their capture and killing near Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte.

With the door constantly opening to allow a procession of onlookers, the refrigeration unit failed to stop rapid decomposition. Guards handed out surgical face masks against the stench and had sprayed disinfectant over the corpses overnight.

Gaddafi and his son died after being captured, wounded but alive. But few Libyans are troubled about either how they were killed or why they were exposed to public view for so long. Islamic tradition dictates burial within a day. “God made the pharaoh as an example to the others,” said Salem Shaka, visiting the bodies yesterday. “If he had been a good man, we would have buried him.”

The Gaddafi burials have been held up by wrangling between factions within the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) over where they should be interred. NTC leaders want Gaddafi buried at a secret location so it does not become a shrine.

Gaddafi’s tribe, centred on the city of Sirte where he made his last stand, has asked for the body so they can bury it there. Gaddafi requested to be buried in Sirte in his will.

“There are different views,” said an NTC official. “Some people want them buried in the invaders’ cemetery in Misrata,” he said, referring to a place near the sea where hundreds of Gaddafi fighters have been buried with some dignity and respect.

“Some people want to hand them over to his tribe, but we have some demands. Many people have been kidnapped and killed by people in Sirte since the 1980s. We asked them to give those bodies back. Since then they have been quiet.” NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said it had formed a committee to decide the fate of Gaddafi’s corpse and would follow guidance from Libya’s religious authorities.

Mr Jalil has also ordered an investigation into Gaddafi’s death in response to international pressure to determine how he was killed by a bullet to the head shortly after capture. The US, Britain and international rights groups have called for an investigation into whether Libya’s former rebels killed a wounded Gaddafi after pulling him out of a drainage pipe near Sirte.

Mr Jalil raised a new possibility, suggesting Gaddafi could have been killed by his own supporters. “Let us question who has the interest in the fact that Gaddafi will not be tried. Libyans want to try him for what he did to them, with executions, imprisonment and corruption,” he said.

“Those who wanted him killed were those who had played a role under him. His death was in their benefit.”