MISRATA: An imprisoned Libyan army colonel who surrendered to the rebel forces two months ago told AFP on Saturday that Moamer Qadhafi's regime is riven with division and in the process of collapse.
Speaking from a prisoner of war camp in the rebel enclave of Misrata, Colonel Wissam Miland said Qadhafi's military hangs together through coercion and mercenary-enforced martial law, but that infighting is rife.
"I think it will soon collapse," he said, offering a rare glimpse inside Qadhafi's three-pronged loyalist force, made of up army regulars, militia fighters and mercenaries.
"Among the militias, the Libyan soldiers were starting to fight with the foreign mercenaries, there are many problems," he said in an interview.
The prospect of mounting divisions among Qadhafi's fighters will be an encouraging sign for many NATO countries, which have warned that there can be no clear-cut military solution to Libya's nearly six-month-old civil war.
Since the beginning of the revolt, the alliance -- along with Libya's rebels -- has used sanctions, diplomacy and brute force to try to cleave off parts of Qadhafi's inner circle in the hope of hitting the regime's tipping point.
The prospect that Qadhafi's use of foreign mercenaries may be backfiring will also offer hope that the once oil-rich regime could be running out of options.
While it has long been known that Qadhafi has used paid fighters from Chad, Niger, Mauritania and other Sahel nations, their exact role has not always been clear.
"Within my unit there were a lot of mercenaries," Miland said. "But they are not fighting with the army -- they surround the army. They don't let anyone fall back. If you retreat, they will kill you."
But, Miland warned, Qadhafi is also successfully using economic, social and political levers to sustain his regime.
"Most of the soldiers are illiterate, they are just trained very hard and they are told that Qadhafi is the most important person in the world -- 'Your life depends on Qadhafi, if Qadhafi loses, you lose'," he said.
"Most soldiers fight, because they do believe that without Qadhafi they cannot live."
And as the death toll mounts, there are also signs that Qadhafi's war effort has gathered some self-sustaining momentum.
"Some people are fighting not because they like him, but because their cousins or relatives have been killed," Miland said.
Miland said he had decided to defect because satellite news reports seemed to show that the rebels were not -- as he said the regime claimed -- "a band of Al-Qaeda terrorists."
He finally did so on May 28 after his forces were ordered to attack Zliten, a town not far from Misrata.
"I thought it was wrong to kill Muslims and fellow Libyans," he said, "but if I refused the order I would be shot immediately, so I decided to surrender."
Down the hall of this high school-turned prisoner of war camp, dozens of ex-Qadhafi soldiers told a similar story.
Many are in their twenties, some as young as 16, and some are terrified and confused about what has happened.
At a on-site clinic one arrival, a 19-year-old caught during the ongoing fighting at Tuarga, looked around the room furtively as he writhed from multiple gunshot wounds.
He swore he was a civilian caught up in the fighting. None of his fellow inmates believe him, but none challenged the claim openly.
Ali, a policeman, was ordered to go to "Qadhafi-liberated" Misrata or risk losing his pay. When he arrived he was ordered to fight "drugged Al-Qaeda terrorists."
After his capture he was allowed to call his wife who had already held a funeral service for him and refused to believe he was still alive.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.