Reader’s response: Take it from a Libyan, Gaddafi was terrible

It’s very saddening to read all the ignorant and oblivious comments on Facebook written in response to the This Is Africa article “The truth about Gaddafi: He was no friend of Africans. He only wanted to rule them.” Yes, Libya is in a bad state now. Yes, it is worse than before under Gaddafi’s rule. But that said, it is very wrong to conclude, as so many This Is Africa readers have, that Gaddafi’s rule was good,

He stole Libya’s wealth

Gaddafi was robbing his people, concentrating all the riches of this beautiful country in the hands of his family and people who worked for him. Besides that, us, the Libyan people, were also suffering. Gaddafi forbid the Berbers, the native inhabitants of Libya, from speaking their language and brutally persecuted people who were against his rule.

If you actually want to inform yourself about the real Muammar Gaddafi, look into the 1996 Abu Salim prison massacre.Abu Salim was a prison for political opponents, and in 1996 there was a mass killing of up to 1,200 prisoners, their dead bodies never found. Mass graves are still being dug out now.

It angers me to see how many Africans are unconditionally admiring Gaddafi

Public executions

Not to forget all the public executions of government critics, vocal students and teachers in the late 70s to early 80s. My parents themselves were at university when this happened, and they were forced to watch it on TV in order to not attempt to criticise the government.

Generally, the public executions were done in a very horrifying way. To deter people from protesting, the executions were shown on national TV for everyone to see. Students were gathered and forced to watch. The victims of public executions were almost always political prisoners and other opponents of Gaddafi’s rule.

Free education and healthcare under Gaddafi were a myth

Now, concerning the widely spread myths about free education and free health services: both the health services and the educational standards were poor in Gaddafi’s Libya. Education for teachers was not actually required since the training was badly done and could easily be bought. The equipment at hospitals was so bad that in order to receive treatment, you had to have the money to go to Tunisia for example.

It angers me to see how many Africans are unconditionally admiring Gaddafi, totally relying on his outside representation of himself and ignoring the suffering of their brothers and sisters happening INSIDE the Libya. There is perhaps a reason for this. Other Africans never got to see the true picture of what was happening inside Libya because critics and their families were brutally persecuted and information was censored.

Now, concerning the widely spread myths about free education and free health services: both the health services and the educational standards were poor in Gaddafi’s Libya

Listen to Libyans about Gaddafi

Yes, Libya is worse than before. It’s because the revolution very quickly became not about the people anymore, but a playground for outer forces (NATO for example) who intervened and helped escalate the situation dramatically.

As a fellow proud African and Libyan, I ask you to be open to the reports of actual Libyans who have been living under Gaddafi’s rule and lost numerous family members, their dignity and property to the regime. Yes, he was a proud African on the outside, maybe he was working towards uniting Africa, but he was a cruel dictator to his people.

We Africans need to stop looking up to “Big people” stealing our continents richness for themselves and priding themselves in it and start claiming our continent for US, the people!