Lizzie Phelan’s Libya diary: Day 1 (27/7/11 1.20 AM)

by Lizzie Phelan
July 27, 2011

Mustafa Mohammed Kazouz educating me and the Libyan children about NATO's "protection of civilians"

Arrived in Libya, less checkpoints on the way to Tripoli than the last time I was here at the beginning of June. Still long queues for petrol. Tripoli seems busier.

Yesterday (25/7/11) NATO bombed a wedding party and a hospital in Zlitan. NATO is bombing Tripoli as I write, I can hear the planes and the bombs dropping outside the hotel. Sukant saw smoke rising from the Bab Alziza compound. I saw just a few minutes ago on the TV that there were people at the compound taking part in their nightly get togethers and defiant celebrations of the Jamahiriya.

Mr Hamedi's martyred wife and children

Went straight to the house of Khaled Hamedi. He runs an international NGO called the International Organisation for Peace, Care and Relief (IOPCR) which has done work in many countries including Gaza, and he acted as a mediator between the Palestinian factions.

His house in Sorman which was bombed over one month ago by NATO was in complete ruins, hit by 7 rockets. His entire family were martyred, his pregnant wife, his two daughters, his son, his cousins. In total 13 people were killed, including his chef from Sudan who has left behind his family nearby in Libya. An elderly gentleman from the same tribe as the family, Mustafa Mohammed Kazouz showed us around the bombed out house. Pictures of the victims were displayed in the sites that they died in the night. His wife died while shielding her daughter with her body.

Gamal Abdel Nasser with Mr Hamedi's father

A group of young black Libyan children from another part of the country had come (it seemed as part of some kind of boy scout group) to see the house and learn about what had happened. They chanted songs calling for death to NATO and the western nations aggressing their country and pledging their loyalty to Muammar Gaddafi and the Jamahiriya.

Mustafa also showed us a photo album of a Qatari Sheikh Zaidi (now deceased) who was a guest in the house when Mr Hamedi was a teenager. He explained that all the palm trees in the grounds were also from Zaidi. He said Zaidi was surely “coming out of his grave” now that his own Qatari family bear great responsibility for the bombs that killed his once friend, Mr Hamedi’s, family.

Lizzie Phelan interviewing Mr Hamedi

We stopped off at the Rixos Hotel before going to our hotel. There were less western journalists. We saw Dr Shakir who said he has been calling out the journalists for their shameful and criminal lies they have been publishing about Libya. One Libyan friend said the only thing the journalists are good for is stopping the Rixos from being bombed.

In the evening I interviewed Mr Hamedi, which was deeply moving. He is incredibly strong and it is almost impossible to understand what he is going through and how he finds the strength to get through each day. After the interview, Sukant, myself and some of our Libyan friends spoke with Mr Hamedi for a couple of hours about what is happening in Libya.

Mr Hamedi said one of the only ways he can go forward is with the hope that Libya will be victorious against the criminal NATO nations.

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