Gadhafi's body still on display, questions linger
Source: Agencies |
October 23, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LIBYAN forces guarding Moammar Gadhafi's body in a cold storage room yesterday in Misrata let in members of the public to view the deposed leader for a second day, but the wounds that may hold the clue to how he died were covered up.
Gadhafi's body lay on a mattress on the floor of the cold room, as it did on Friday when hundreds of members of the public filed in to see that the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was really dead.
But unlike the previous day, Gadhafi's body was covered by a blanket that left only his head exposed, hiding the bruises on his torso and scratch marks on his chest that had earlier been visible.
A Reuters reporter who viewed the body said, Gadhafi's head had been turned to the left. That meant a bullet hole that earlier could be seen on the left side of his face could no longer be seen.
That bullet hole, and the other wounds, could help solve the riddle of whether, as Libya's new rulers said, he was shot in crossfire in a battle or, as some accounts suggest, he was killed by the fighters who caught him.
A local military commander in the city of Misrata, where the force which captured him took his body, said "over-enthusiastic" fighters took matters into their own hands when they came face to face with the man they despise.
"We wanted to keep him alive but the young guys, things went out of control," he said speaking on condition of anonymity.
Few people in Libya -- where thousands of people, including civilians, were killed by Gadhafi's forces in the seven-month rebellion - say they are troubled by the manner of his death.
The dramatic minutes leading up to Gaddafi's death were chaotic, violent and gruesome - as testified by the grainy mobile phone footage of the former leader, bloodied and dazed, being dragged along by NTC fighters.
What is not captured in the footage is how he died and who killed him.
Gadhafi's body lay on a mattress on the floor of the cold room, as it did on Friday when hundreds of members of the public filed in to see that the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was really dead.
But unlike the previous day, Gadhafi's body was covered by a blanket that left only his head exposed, hiding the bruises on his torso and scratch marks on his chest that had earlier been visible.
A Reuters reporter who viewed the body said, Gadhafi's head had been turned to the left. That meant a bullet hole that earlier could be seen on the left side of his face could no longer be seen.
That bullet hole, and the other wounds, could help solve the riddle of whether, as Libya's new rulers said, he was shot in crossfire in a battle or, as some accounts suggest, he was killed by the fighters who caught him.
A local military commander in the city of Misrata, where the force which captured him took his body, said "over-enthusiastic" fighters took matters into their own hands when they came face to face with the man they despise.
"We wanted to keep him alive but the young guys, things went out of control," he said speaking on condition of anonymity.
Few people in Libya -- where thousands of people, including civilians, were killed by Gadhafi's forces in the seven-month rebellion - say they are troubled by the manner of his death.
The dramatic minutes leading up to Gaddafi's death were chaotic, violent and gruesome - as testified by the grainy mobile phone footage of the former leader, bloodied and dazed, being dragged along by NTC fighters.
What is not captured in the footage is how he died and who killed him.
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