The last countdown

Our correspondent is reporting from Libya

The last countdown. The Embassy of Libya in Moscow lowered the green flag of the socialist folk Libyan Arabic Jamahiria, but immediately raised a new red-black-green flag of the opposition transition National Council (PNS) instead. It is understandable: Libya is still between the past and the future. It seems to be Tripoli in the hands of the rebels. But where is Muamar Gaddafi? Perhaps, to the publication of this number The New Times, the colonel, for the capture of which $ 1.7 million has already been announced, will no longer be alive, or it will be captured, or suddenly will be discovered abroad. Another option: they will not find Gaddafi, and the faithful units will have the strength to continue resistance. Which of the scenarios is closer to real life - the author of The New Times found out at the fighting places

If the main forces of the Libyan rebels with battles made their way to Tripoli from the east, then the correspondent of The New Times, on the contrary, from the west, from Tunisia. The first surprise was expected at the checkpoint in Ras-Jdir: contrary to the widespread opinion, now the Tunisian-Libyan border, in any case, for foreigners, is closed. I had to return to Tunisia and request a visa at the Libyan embassy. They managed to get them only on the fifth attempt. Ziba entered Libya through the place. The first “live picture”: several civilians, sitting on mattresses, drink traditional sweet tea for a new anthem of Libya. The last days of the month of Ramadan are coming - Muslims are used to spending them in calm and peace. But as you move deep into the Libyan territory, you begin to understand: the world is still far away.

The first acquaintance, this town, apparently, had already believed in the victory of the opposition: everywhere the tricolor flags of the New Libya-two days ago in Ras-Jdine, new flags hung with the old ones. Having left the bus bus (something like our minibus), our conductor Hammet begins to hug with a noisy and friendly company of local residents. Everything is on the side of the opposition. Muhammad Zentani, a pipe fighter, has just returned from Tripoli-he says the food has ended there. Strange, because all grocery deliveries go to Tripoli from the west, from Tunisia, through Ras-Jdir. If from Ras-Jdir to Tripoli, according to the leadership of the PNS, all the cities are already captured by the rebels, then why did Tripoli without bread?

In minutes of rest. On the basis of the rebels near Zeental in Zibe, we are introduced to the new Stalker - this is Hafiz (Arabic, “Watchman, Guardian”), a fighter of the opposition. Hafiz has no eye and right hand, the left is not enough nail phalanges. On the shoulder is a Kalashnikov machine gun of the 1974 model, which, judging by the letters knocked out on the barrel, for some reason was given the name Klashink Off. Lame on the left leg, Hafiz climbs into a huge jeep, and we are moving to the city on the city - there is his house. How he manages to drive a car - one God knows. Just a couple of meters from the border, mobile communications disappeared. On the way to Nalyut, we call on one of the bases of the rebels - to rest. The base is more like a tiny provincial market, where all rows are covered with red carpets with amazing patterns. A guy in his sweatpants and with two machine guns in his hands sits near the road: with a bored look, a TV is watching, on which they are loudly broadcasting about shootings in Tripoli.

Hafiz, our "stalker" "die!" The TV earned in the early morning and in the Hafiz house. Of the fourteen cable TV channels, two are shown by Japanese cartoons, the rest - military operations in Libya: combat reports, killed, wounded, screaming people ... Women - four sisters of Hafiz and mother - spit on TV and shout “DISCOUTE!” Every time Muamar Gaddafi appears on the screen. Around noon on the street near the house, shooting is heard, the sound goes on increasing, but where they shoot, it is incomprehensible. Then someone moan is heard and everything subsides. Hafiz's sister makes it clear: do not worry, they say, everyone is used to it here. The home library in the Hafiz house consists of three books: the Qur'an, the Anglo-Arab Dictionary and the English language textbook of the second class level, according to which 19-year-old Jonna, sister of Hafiza is engaged in.

At sunset, Hafiz invites on a tour of the city: cafes and outlets are open. In the crowd, men with machine guns prevail. Even the melon merchant turned out to be weapons.

The press center is the only place in the city where there is the Internet. There we get acquainted with journalists Aklam Bagm and Abdalla Salem Mos. In fact, they say, only one small hospital, where new wounded are brought every day. Doctors are not enough, although the Libyans from Europe come to help. “There are full of cities in Libya where there are no hospitals at all, only first -aid posts,” Bagm and Mosa explain, “a hospital in falling compared to them, one might say,“ Central Hospital ”. But what about then to be with social achievements, including an extensive network of free clinics, which was merit of the Gaddafi mode? Bagm and Mosa do not know anything about this: “There are large good hospitals in Benghazi and Tripoli. But from here to Benghazi - more than 2 thousand kilometers ... ”But with food, they assure Bagm and Mosa, there are no problems yet:“ Glory to Allah, NATO countries help us with food and water. ” So, everything is not as bad as the Zeentani's Destanian assured Ziba?

On the streets of Nalyuta, the status of Libya as an oil producing country is certainly not a fiction. There is a war, and there is enough gasoline in NAYUT, and it is cheap: in terms of dollars - about 50 cents per liter, two times cheaper than in a neighboring Tunisia. But you won’t be especially enriched on this difference: for transporting gasoline across the border, the Libyan customs takes a large fee - about 10 dinars ($ 8. - The New Times) with every 10 liters, and the actual change of power did not affect this in any way.

The situation at the front, assures Aklam Bagm, is rapidly changing in favor of the opposition. He calls to a large map of Libya, which hangs on the wall in the press center: “Here is a yellow spot on the map-this is on-youth. Nearby, to the east,-al-Havamit, there are now our people now. And here even the east, in Tije, - already the troops of Gaddafi. You see, the road between al-Khavamit and Tizhi ​​is interrupted-this is the front line. So all cities from Nalyut to the border are freed from Gaddafi ... But this road - Bagma's finger moved down the map down, south - leads to Gadamis and the border with Algeria. From there, from Algeria, mercenaries go to Libya. ” To the aid to someone - rebels or Gaddafi? “And how will anyone like it. Here the question is only in payment. True, Gaddafi has more mercenaries from Black Africa - from Niger, Chad ... Some of the captured mercenaries were full of dollars, dinars, euros ... "

Freedom in Livine rebellious Libyans demand freedom. But what does the word "freedom" mean for them? Bagm and Mosa explode: “With Gaddafi, we could not talk to you now, all the more in English, and even more so about politics! We no longer want all power to be in the hands of one person. To get a decent job, it was necessary to give a bribe to the Caddafi clan. To leave the country, we must ask Gaddafi about it. The army is personally subordinate to Gaddafi. Only three or four newspapers come out in Libya, and everyone supports Gaddafi. Here, in fact, we can already say what we think, we can scold Gaddafi. So, there are already changes! "

The dictator loved luxury. Inside the captured residence of Bab al-Azias in Libya, colleagues continue, “for forty years there is no normal education”: “Knowledge of English is a huge rarity for the Libyan. At school, we learn only the Arabic language. There is only one university throughout the country, and faculties are scattered in different cities. When the war ends, we will have everything: freedom and oil! ” - "But why then did few people leave the country with Gaddafi?" “Because since 1999 the borders have been closed. Yes, and no one who would like to leave. ” “Are there a lot of unemployed in Libya now?” - "All. No one works, the university is closed, schools are working, everything is worth it. No one is earned by no one, in fact, they are now in the country now. ” “Gaddafi runs Libya since 1969, why did the revolution happen only now?” - “Gaddafi cut out the dissatisfied with whole families. But now the XXI century, the Maghriba region has become a system of communicating vessels: the Internet, satellite technologies ... In neighboring countries, Tunisia and Egypt, revolutions have occurred. We realized that our turn has come. ” “What will happen to Kadadafi?” “If he does not get out of Libya, he will go straight to prison after the trial.” - "How much?" - "For life!" “And those who are fighting on his side, what will happen to them?” “They are not to blame for anything. They do not know what they are doing. ”

The face of the war is going further east. A meager landscape outside the bus window revives except for ammunition boxes, empty gasoline tanks and a carrier-worn-in-aircraft guns of NATO Raddafi armored vehicles. On the walls of the same small houses, there are sometimes inscriptions like Merci, Sarkozi (gratitude to the President of France for support) or Peri You, Nato! Hafiz, it accelerates to 190 km per hour, then sharply reduces the move: "Fights were going on here recently, one must look in both, on the road everything can wallow." Suddenly on the radio it is reported that the forces of Gaddafi bombed the city of Zuar - it is not far from Zintan. Hafiz has shouts: “So they are there now. It is dangerous to go further. We turn around "

* * On August 25, Libyan rebels took control of the military base of Gaddafi forces in Zuar, where there are warehouses of chemical weapons. . We did not reach Zintan only 5 kilometers. But we drove past the next base of the rebels. In a large trench, some rags, sapper shoulder blades, open jars with tuna and someone’s shoes mixed into a pile. There is so much garbage around that Green Peace representatives would have grabbed the heart. But people have a calm look: someone lies on the carpet, someone prays, women sprinkle a liquid for washing windows-so that flies do not get the rest of the food. Many wounded in bloodied bandages: there is no one to transport them and nowhere. Here, at the base, they can only make a dressing. The smell of sweat and mint tea beats in the nostrils. Suddenly the shooting begins, and a scream spreads over the base: "Check the clips." Fighters-purers grab their "kalashi". The rest have zero emotions. In the war, as in the war. ... In Nale in the house of Hafiz, we were waiting for the on the TV on which the next funeral was shown. It seems that all this will not end soon.

Where can he hide? The residence of Caddafi Bab al-Azias captured by the rebels in Tripoli is not only a complex of palace buildings, it is also a real underground “parallel city”, which is about 10 km in diameter. The RIXOS hotel, in which the other day, the son of Gaddafi Sex al-Islam suddenly appeared to declare: “Gaddafi in Tripoli, he will not run away, we will fight,” maybe one of the terminals of the Bab al-Azia system, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica suggested. Most likely, this system is connected by roads and tunnels with the airport, reliable houses, hotels and ministries. The bunker protection system has been constantly changing. And in March, new security soldiers appeared here, more similar to American military personnel who participate in operations such as “storms in the desert”, in Kevlar helmets, ceramic bulletproof vests, with special devices for monitoring the bottoms of cars and metal detectors to inspect people and objects. 30 years ago, the Bunker was built by Yugoslav specialists, and the training of security was entrusted to advisers from Stasi. However, a few months ago, the colonel hired Western advisers, probably the British ex-beans of the elite special forces SAS.