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Gaddafi's brutality exposed in Tripoli

Anne Barker reported this story on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 08:09:00

TONY EASTLEY: As Moamar Gaddafi's forces retreat from the Libyan capital and other parts of the country, rebel fighters are finding more evidence of the brutality of his regime.

More bodies of prisoners have been found near a warehouse in Tripoli where charred remains were found at the weekend.

Middle East correspondent, Anne Barker went to the warehouse and spoke to locals who gave a chilling account of how the prisoners were herded into the building by Gaddafi's forces and then killed.

ANNE BARKER: Salem Rajab (phonetic) lives in the house next door. Most were civilians, he said, who'd been arrested weeks, even months ago for taking part in a protest against the Gaddafi regime.

The soldiers, he says, were from the Khamis Brigade, named after its commander, the son of Moamar Gaddafi.

SALEM RAJAB: That night, according to the witnesses, they took them and they put them inside and they put, you know, the small bombs inside, about five, six bombs inside, and they start shooting them.

So we wait Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Friday the rebels came and they liberate this place. When they opened we went inside. We found 53 corpse were executed and burnt completely.

ANNE BARKER: In the days since, another 20 bodies have been found outside the warehouse and another 12 across the road.

SALEM RAJAB: For the process of identification in the future we put them in a special plastic and we put them in a grave here nearby in the corner.

ANNE BARKER: You buried them here?

SALEM RAJAB: Yes we buried them here.

ANNE BARKER: Soon a Red Cross team, including Hitchen Khadraoui arrived to retrieve one more body found in a house behind a fence.

HITCHEN KHADRAOUI: What we find, what we discuss, what we see, anything can be used as information. We don't talk about evidences because we don't have investigative police authority, it's information gathered for reports.

ANNE BARKER: Libyan's are divided on whether Moamar Gaddafi and his sons should be sent to the International Court of Justice or simply shot if and when they're captured.

Salem Rajab, though, wants nothing more than to see the Gaddafis put in the dock.

SALEM RAJAB: I want to hear the answers from them. Because they are human being, why they did like that? Those are innocent people, civilians, protesters.

UNIDENTIFED MAN: All of those there, innocent people.

SALAM RAJAB: Yes, they were civilians.

ANNE BARKER: And sadly more graveyards with many more civilian bodies are bound to be uncovered in the weeks ahead.

This is Anne Barker in Tripoli reporting for AM.