Euphoria as Rebel Forces Reach Tripoli

I feel fantastic. No one expected it to be this easy once the opposition got to Tripoli, but it really appears to have been simpler than we thought it would be.

The fact is that as soon as the freedom fighters came in, the entire city rose up and joined them straight away.

Muammar Gaddafi’s actions over the last few months have meant the morale of the troops was so low that as soon as they got a chance, they took off their uniforms, laid down their weapons and ran away.

People who opposed the regime had been organising for months, waiting for zero hour. When the moment came, they didn’t hesitate. The regime says 1,300 people have died in the battle for Tripoli, but no one believes this. The opposition National Transitional Council, NTC, thinks the figure is closer to 500.

I was forced to leave Libya in March, when I was stopped by pro-Gaddafi forces who tried to give me a gun to kill anyone who opposed the regime. (See Gaddafi Regime Tried to Recruit Me.)

I fled to London, and then went back to Benghazi for four months to set up an English-language radio station. I have been in London for the last month for the birth of my son, but I am leaving for Tripoli later today.

The NTC will move quickly to take control of Tripoli. In Benghazi, they used their new-found freedom to set up the institutions of government. Police went back to work, and new licenses were issued. As an example, 125 new newspapers have been set up in Benghazi in the last six months. And although the NTC cabinet was dissolved a few weeks ago, a new list of representatives has just been issued.

The first priority for the NTC will be to remove all weapons from militia groups. In Tripoli we estimate that Gaddafi’s supporters handed out 30,000 guns – issuing them to any teenager who said he was pro- government. There was an offer of 2,000 dinars, about 1,600 US dollars, for every anti-government person they killed – no questions asked. Now these weapons need to be collected. The plan is to offer a cash reward for those who return these weapons within a certain time period. After that, anyone found with illicit arms will be face a six-month prison sentence.

That is what the NTC is already doing in Benghazi and the rest of eastern Libya, and they have already collected thousands of weapons.

Only yesterday, my uncle in Tripoli told me that those who had carried out attacks on anti-regime activists were being picked out and taken to the freedom fighters’ committees for questioning. I don’t think we will see vigilantism or revenge attacks. Even before this final push, the NTC issued orders to their guys in Tripoli that they should not take revenge.

A couple of my friends remained Gaddafi supporters until very recently. As of yesterday, their Facebook statuses have changed and all their views have changed. It’s a question of if you can’t beat them, join them, and they have chosen that option. Everyone should be free to hold their own opinions – even to support Gaddafi – as long as they don’t use violence to pursue them.

I don’t think many Gaddafi supporters will have the guts to stick it out to the final bullet. As soon as the shooting started, most of them ran away. There’s still some fighting and there are members of pro-Gaddafi sleeper cells who start shooting randomly and then run off, but these incidents are diminishing.

Since March, it has been clear that defeating the Gaddafi regime was the only possible outcome. It took a while as the freedom fighters organised troops, formed battalions and trained soldiers. Perhaps it took longer than it should have done, and at times it seemed that we had reached a stalemate.

But this is the only way it could have ended – either this way, or with most of Libya wiped out.

When I spoke to my family in Tripoli yesterday, for the first time they were able to say whatever they wanted. They told me, “We are going to get rid of Gaddafi – he’s finished.”

No one is scared anymore.

I hope I am coming home to a free Libya and a free Tripoli.

Mohamed is a Tripoli businessman, who asked for his full name to be withheld for security reasons.