- JULY 27, 2011
Libyans pushed a car toward the pump at a Tripoli gas station in May.
People who recently left Tripoli tell of a city whose struggle to carry on with life as normal masks a pervasive fear. They speak of near daily house raids by the Public Guards, Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s security force dedicated to stamping out any hint of dissent. But they also describe signs that the regime’s control may be weakening, as young loyalists are shipped to a front line that is creeping ever closer to the capital, and frustration mounts with growing shortages and rising prices.
Such reports hearten rebel leaders who hope a weakened security apparatus and frustrated populace will hasten the regime’s collapse.
Rebel commanders say they are counting on armed cells to lead an uprising of Tripoli residents when rebel fighters close in on the city. The mood of residents, the degree of security forces’ control, and the ability of rebels in the city to get weapons and organize will help determine the strength of that potential uprising.
Obtaining a clear picture of what is happening in Tripoli, where Western journalists are shadowed by minders and limited in their movements, is difficult.
Interviews with five people who left the city in recent days—and support the rebels—offer a picture of life in Tripoli as a growing struggle. Blackouts expand by the day, knocking air conditioners out of service as the summer hits full gear. Sanctions and rebel sabotage of an oil pipeline have resulted in fuel shortages.
In a report released Monday, a United Nations team that just completed a weeklong fact-finding mission to Tripoli reported threefold price increases for food and transportation, and shortages of cash, fuel and electricity.
In general, however, basic food supplies can still be found in shops and markets, said Laurence Hart, acting U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, who was on the mission.
“The issue is how sustainable the situation can be,” he said. “The main reason the food stocks are up is because the supply chain between Tunis and Tripoli is under the control of the government. If that should fall under the antigovernment forces, that would cause a serious problem in Tripoli.”
He said medical supplies, cash and fuel supplies were running low. A fuel consumption quota is in place, and Libyan oil experts have warned fuel could run out in two weeks, he said.
Col. Gadhafi’s foes say the anticipation of a battle in Tripoli is growing as the economy weakens and rebels make gains outside the capital. “The people are waiting to start fighting,” said Mohammed, a 21-year-old economics student who left Tripoli a week ago for the rebel-controlled city of Zintan, in Libya’s Western Mountains. “People know that as the rebels get closer to the capital, it will be easier to get weapons into the city,” he said.
Others who have fled said some friends or relatives had obtained AK-47 rifles in recent weeks. Col. Gadhafi’s regime distributed weapons to supposedly loyal tribes in the early days of the uprising and some of those tribesmen were reselling their weapons for 2,000 to 4,000 Libyan dinars, these people said. Bullets were going for two dinars apiece.
A rebel cell attacked senior government officials with a rocket-propelled grenade on Thursday as they left a seafront building in the capital’s upscale Andalus neighborhood, according to rebel officials. Government officials in Tripoli said it wasn’t a rebel attack but a canister of cooking gas that exploded, the Associated Press reported.
The number of wartime checkpoints in Tripoli has decreased and are manned by ever older men as younger men are shipped off to the front, said those interviewed. Posters around the city call for new recruits to Col. Gadhafi’s army and offer generous signing bonuses, according to residents.
Fear is ubiquitous, as the Public Guards roam the city neighborhoods looking for signs of dissent. One person said his family turned their TVs to Libyan government channels each night in case police raided their homes.
Abdel Karim, a 26-year-old from Tripoli, said a splash of anti-Gadhafi graffiti on a wall near his house triggered an hours-long neighborhood sweep.
In the neighborhood, old women ululated in joy at the sounds of North Atlantic Treaty Organization airplanes in the sky and the subsequent explosions. Other’s shouted “Allahu Akbar,” he said.
All those interviewed said there were nearly daily arrest raids in their neighborhoods. Muhannad, a 24-year-old from Tripoli, said six of his neighbors were dragged off in the middle of the night two weeks ago and haven’t been seen since. Security officers told the neighbors they had received a tip they were harboring weapons and supporting the rebels.
Even among the security forces, supposedly made up of those most loyal to Col. Gadhafi, there were signs of unease with the regime, said Muhannad.
On the night his neighbors were arrested, a small team of security officials stormed through his apartment. One officer noticed a ripped picture of Col. Gadhafi taped to a chair—which Muhannad would sit on when at his desk. The officer quietly told him to quickly hide the picture and continued on, he said.
Mr. Hart, the U.N. official, said on his recent visit more people were in the streets shopping and spending time by the seashore, compared with May, when his U.N. team last visited Tripoli.
“Somehow people have developed coping mechanisms, and are trying not to be traumatized, but of course they are,” he said. “They are tired and concerned.”
—Benoît Faucon in London and Christopher Rhoads in New York contributed to this article.Corrections & Amplifications
Bank withdrawals in Tripoli are limited to 1,000 Libyan dinars (about $625) a month. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said 1,000 Libyan dinars equaled about $60.
