LIBYA: Dissidents tell of torture, executions under Gadhafi - 01.03.2004

01.03.2004 Despite Libya's public changes, dissidents speak out about abuses under leader Moammar Gadhafi, fearing the West will overlook them and hoping to attain human rights. BY NIKO PRICE Associated Press TRIPOLI, Libya - The scars on his wrists and neck are his own doing, failed attempts to end his suffering. The wounds on his back, the broken limbs, the missing teeth -- those, he said, were inflicted by police during long years in Moammar Gadhafi's political prisons. Through tears, Fouad said his speaking out imperiled him but that he was beyond caring. He gave his full name, although his wife begged a journalist not to print it for the sake of their children. ''What can they do to me that they haven't already done?'' Fouad asked, chain-smoking cigarettes in his living room. ``I'm not afraid if they chop off my head. I want to talk. I would rather be dead than live like this.'' In interviews, Fouad and other political dissidents offered a rare window into the repression in Gadhafi's Libya. They told of political prisoners starved in cramped cells and of torture carried out in suburban villas. Fouad told of a Libya that has been largely ignored amid its recent overtures to the West and said they fear that as their country comes in from the cold, Western governments may ignore the regime's abuses. Libya is changing. Over the past year, Gadhafi has publicly renounced terrorism and allowed U.N., U.S. and British weapons experts to begin to dismantle his weapons of mass destruction programs. He has given a new prime minister responsibility for reforming the failing economic system. REPRESSION CONTINUES Dissidents said repression has lessened as well since just after Gadhafi's 1969 coup, when they said political courts sentenced hundreds to death, and since 1984, when they said the government hanged people from lampposts, then broadcast the images of their swinging bodies on state television. But political repression continues. Some dissidents spoke of imprisonment and torture in the past few months. In a report released last week, the U.S. State Department said Libya routinely used torture to suppress opposition in 2003. Amnesty International says Libya holds hundreds of political prisoners. The issue did not come up during recent visits by members of U.S. Congress, who had what they described as warm meetings with the Libyan leader. Before leaving, they spoke optimistically about lifting U.S. sanctions and restoring diplomatic relations. ''We want to be friends,'' said Rep. Solomon Ortiz, a Texas Democrat. For Fouad, the visit was encouraging. ''It gives us hope. That's why we're holding ourselves up, in the hope we'll get human rights,'' he said. ``I don't think America would like Libya to stay as a military dictatorship.'' But other dissidents, more careful about the risk of discovery and speaking only on condition of anonymity, were pessimistic that the country's opening could translate into greater freedoms. ''The delegates of Congress -- do you think they care about me? They care about the billions in oil,'' one man said. ``Domestically, there is no chance of change. Do you think Gadhafi will let himself be overthrown? Will he open the political prisons? He won't. I'm sure that nothing will change unless this man is taken out by force.'' Speaking to the news media is risky. Government minders accompany journalists on most forays out of their hotel, and police question journalists seen conducting interviews or taking photos unaccompanied. PRYING EYES Most of the dissidents spoke in hurried conversations on Tripoli streets, glancing over their shoulders to see who might be watching. Fouad and another dissident approached The AP discreetly in a city square when no minders were present, then walked away one by one, telling the journalists to follow after a few minutes. Fouad's friend, walking a block ahead, led the journalists through a maze of streets before ducking into Fouad's doorway. ''In nations like Libya, you become a master at getting through the lines, at not showing yourself. We know talking about politics is very, very dangerous,'' he said, then broke into a smile. ``Big Brother is watching, my dear.'' The men said that while most Libyans oppose the regime, there is no organized opposition movement because the intelligence apparatus is omnipresent. ''They hung me from the ceiling and left me there. They pointed guns at my head. They blindfolded me. They broke my arm, they broke my leg, they broke my hand. I lost my teeth,'' Fouad said. ``I have no freedom, no rights. I can't take it any more. I'm going crazy.