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Amid a Berber Reawakening in Libya, Fears of Revenge: The Amazigh are re-emerging as a political force after de...http://nyti.ms/pcr74k
he language is Tamazight, the tongue of the Amazigh, or Berbers, who, after decades of oppression in Libya are re-emerging as a political force.
As rebels have chased the Qaddafi military from much of the arid highlands in Libya’s west this spring and summer, Yafran has become the easternmost outpost of a cultural and linguistic reawakening that has expanded across the map, and it is expected to expand more.
Overlooking the Libyan desert plain, the city shows signs of a nascent sense of self-determination — a step, the Amazigh hope, toward full national and regional recognition.
“Before we were in darkness — we were invisible,” said Osama Graber, 36, an Amazigh mechanical engineer who is now an opposition fighter. “And now we can be seen, and are tasting freedom.”
No sooner had the Qaddafi forces pulled back from this city than its residents began reasserting their standing, even as the Qaddafi military lingered just beyond rocket range.
They followed a model seen in other traditionally Amazigh cities — including Nalut and Jadu — that have already broken free of the government’s grip. And they hope to build on gains realized by Amazigh people elsewhere, including in Morocco, which gave official standing to the language in June.
Classes in Tamazight are being held. An Amazigh security force has been formed. A local weekly newspaper, called Tamusna, for “wisdom,” has started to circulate in three languages — Tamazight, Arabic and English.
And Amazigh cultural and political leaders have framed a set of public demands for a postconflict Libya. As part of their vision, Tamazight will have an equal standing with Arabic, and Libya will become a parliamentary democracy based on a constitution grounded in tolerance and respect for human rights.
But with these high official aspirations, made possible by force, have come whiffs of revenge, which raise questions about whether the swift social reorganization gathering momentum in Libya risks fueling tensions that could undercut stability in the years ahead, or even lead to intractable internecine war.
After the Qaddafi military withdrew in early June, the houses in Yafran of the Mashaashia, a tribe whose members supported the Qaddafi government, were set upon and burned. Their occupants vanished from these mountains, apparently having fled. Many Amazigh residents say the Mashaashia are not welcome back.
The number of houses burned here is in dispute. Some say perhaps 15 or 20, others say more. The Mashaashia had a small presence in the city, which had a full-time prewar population of about 25,000, and the remaining residents say perhaps 150 of them were chased away.
The arson followed patterns seen in more densely populated Mashaashia areas, including the towns of Awaniya and Qawalish. Many Yafran residents say it was justified.
“These people, they were bad,” said a fighter, who gave only his first name, Hatam. “When the Amazigh families moved away from the fighting, they stayed and broke into homes, took things and killed our sheep.”
The Mashaashia households, other residents said, also provided sons who fought in pro-Qaddafi forces or offered intelligence and logistical support to government troops that besieged the mountains.
The attacks on the Mashaashia, however, seemed not to be directed only against the homes of those known to have sons in the military. Among the ruined houses were those once occupied by families whose connections to the government would seem of little consequence, including that of a widow and her children, who neighbors said were 13 and 16 years old.
Reprisals have been a source of embarrassment for the Transitional National Council, the de facto rebel authority, which has relied on Western support to survive. Officially, after prodding from Western diplomats, rebel leaders said that they would investigate the crimes and try to redress the grievances later.
“They are welcome back to their homes after the war, after we defeat the Qaddafi forces,” Jalal el-Digheily, the new rebel defense minister, said in an interview on Thursday.
But such declarations are not often echoed on the lands the Amazigh consider theirs. Years of oppression and months of bloodshed have hardened sentiments.
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