Voice from Tripoli: “Gaddafi is squeezing the people like a snake.”
Aryn Baker from Time magazine, currently located in Tripoli, gives us a rare insight into the hardships its inhabitants face, after managing to escape from his government minder and talking to a resident [emphasis added] :
“We hate Gaddafi,” says a young I.T. engineer sipping espresso in Tripoli’s old souk. “But I don’t see how we are ever going to get rid of him.” The engineer, whose name cannot be used for safety reasons, described an environment so oppressive and powerful that “sometimes I wonder if even thinking bad things about Gaddafi might get us into trouble.”
Indeed, even our conversation was fraught with danger. I had managed to slip away from my minder as I wandered the souk; the young engineer, having spied my escape, fell into step beside me and, staring straight ahead as we walked, asked if I thought I was getting the truth.
Cautiously I responded that it all depended on what the truth was. The persistent presence of minders and government goons had made me paranoid. “The truth is, they are killing us,” he said in an undertone. “Gaddafi is squeezing the people like a snake.” We twisted and turned through the small alleyways until we reached a café that he deemed safe enough for a continued conversation.
He told me he was envious of the young men and women of Egypt’s Tahrir square. In the first days of Libya’s protests, he had joined his friends in the streets. But then he saw three of his neighbors killed. Others simply disappeared. “There are snitches everywhere,” he said. “Even when you think you are among friends, people are listening to everything you say.” He had asked me to put away my notebook, for fear it was too obvious. Instead I tapped out our conversation on my I phone, hoping anyone watching would think I was playing a game.
I asked how he thought it would all end. He shook his head. “It won’t start from here,” he said, meaning Tripoli. “We are waiting for Benghazi.” By Benghazi, he meant the rebel held capital in the East. It has been a common refrain among Tripoli residents. Gaddafi’s power is simply too strong in Tripoli for any kind of organized resistance.
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