#libya Libyan rebels fighting off boredom: Everything in the Libyan rebel-held town of Zintan is at a standstill... http://bit.ly/p79ah2
Everything in the Libyan rebel-held town of Zintan is at a standstill except the fighting. Nobody works any more, shops and schools are shut, cash is scarce and people rely on handouts to eat.
For the men, it’s a life of boredom and combat, for the women one of cooking and stress.
When pick-ups packed with rebels, rocket launchers and cannon are not roaring out of the key rebel town in the west, heading for the front, Zintan seems smothered in a heavy drowsiness brought on by the July summer heat.
Since the rebellion against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi erupted in mid-February, Zintan some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Tripoli in the Nafusa mountains has known only warfare and survival.
For five months, no one has been paid, and for the past four months there has been no paper money available at either of Zintan’s two banks.
This week, one of the two reopened for the first time and local residents flooded the place. Such was the demand that each person was allowed only 200 dinars ($154), an official said.
Khalila Ahmed, 65, said he queued for three hours before reaching the cashier’s counter.
”I have no money at home, not a dime since the revolution began. I live on what people give me,” he told AFP.
