Gaddafi's prey

(BRUXELLES2) For anyone going to Libya or interested in this country, Annick Cojean's book, published in 2012, is a must read (or reread). Entitled "the prey in the harem of Gaddafi", it describes the relentless device, set up by the former Libyan leader and his entourage, in order to ensure the company of young women and young men. A real sexual slavery. Behind the display of the "Amazons" who surrounded the former Head of State, during each of his visits - we had the right to see their presence on the podium in the Commission's press room in 2004 -, nothing more or less than a vulgar pimp was hiding. We were not in the "opportunism" of a man taking advantage of his power but rather a system with his touts, his madam mother and her harem, of serial rapes, aimed at satisfying passions but also to enslave a people or enemies.

To under the university

This is what the rebels discovered in August 2011 when they overthrew power: a bedroom and an obstetrics room, nestled under a university auditorium. " Sex was currency, means of promotion, instrument of power » testifies a young student. “The manners of the Guide proved to be contagious. His mafia operated the same way. The system was corrupt to the core”. A well-honed system, with ramifications and spies in all the universities and administrations, and coordinated by the secretariat of the institution in liaison with Bab al-Azizia (the residence of the Guide). The object? The selection of the prettiest students that should, under any pretext, fall into the nets of the Guide... and his clique. »

The government by sex

And behind this real industry, shame and silence hit the victims. System confirmed by a close collaborator of the dictator. "He ruled, humiliated, enslaved and punished through sex." But there were 2 categories: the "all comers", preferably young people, from the working classes, who were selected by the "special service" close to protocol and directed by Mabrouka Sheriff; and the trophies - stars of the small screen, singers, dancers, actresses and journalists - and the daughters or wives of leading figures from other countries. The challenge - writing. A.Cojean - "was less to seduce the woman than to humiliate through her the man who was responsible for her - there "is no worse offense in Libya" - to trample him, to annihilate him, (...) to suck up his power."

At the EU-Africa summit

This desire for domination, he exercises it on all occasions. Thus during the 3rd European Union - Africa summit in November 2010, Mabrouka Shérfi went to the airport manager's office, examined all the photos of the first ladies, and stopped on one of them. them, endowed with a formidable mane and particularly spectacular". Everything was then done to retain this lady: diamond adornment, place of honor at dinner, hijacked official motorcade car and delayed departure plane... to allow the lady to take a detour to Bab al-Azizia – Gaddafi’s residence.”At 11 a.m., the husband was waiting for his wife in an airport lounge. At 11 a.m., she still wasn't there. Nor at noon. The embarrassment of the protocol and delegation employees was obvious. The wife arrived at 13:30 p.m., flippant and smiling, the zipper of her skintight ensemble torn on the side." The scene is not unique according to the author

A means of terror

Beyond the powerful, this intertwining network and secret harem was for Gaddafi quite simply a means of making a reign of terror over his population. As war rape is a weapon, it takes on an additional dimension here: opprobrium and silence. "It's the law of silence, and no one will ever testify to a rape says Dr. Krekshi, a gynecologist. Even on the women's side. "Too sensitive. Too taboo - writes A. Cojean -. Nothing to gain from it. Everything to lose. In a country entirely in the hands of men, sexual crimes will not be debated or judged. The carriers of messages will be decreed unseemly or liars. The victims, in order to survive, will have to remain hidden."

The end of a serial rapist

And this undoubtedly explains the end of the "dictator", with an image which does not appear on the official films of the rebels and which the author describes. "Even before the lynching, the beatings, the shots, the stampede, a rebel brutally introduced a wooden or metal stick between the buttocks of the deposed dictator, who immediately bled. 'Violated' breathed one of the women (. ..) A lawyer from Misrata will confirm it to me: “So many Libyans felt avenged by this symbolic gesture! Before his appointment with death, the rapist was raped.

• The prey in Gaddafi's harem (Grasset editions, Oct. 2012, 326 p., 19 euros)