BEIRUT—The macabre and divisive drama about the decomposing remains of Muammar Qaddafi appears to have concluded in an anti-climactic and anonymous burial deep in the Libyan hinterlands. Qaddafi’s body was interred early Tuesday in a secret grave, Libyan officials confirmed. Also buried were the remains of his son, Muatassim, and a former chief military aide, Abu Bakr Younis.
The Associated Press reported that a cleric and several relatives of the dead were present for a brief prayer service in the coastal city of Misrata before the bodies were whisked away in wooden coffins for predawn burial at an undisclosed site. The deteriorating remains of the senior Qaddafi had been on public display for four days inside a vegetable cold-storage locker in Misrata. The cadavers of Muatassim and the former aide were laid down next to Qaddafi’s body.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, meanwhile, said that those rejoicing in the death of Qaddafi will come to sorrow and predicted that the US is unprepared for the looming backlash from his overthrow.
Farrakhan told a Chicago radio station that Qaddafi’s death was “an assassination” and laid it at the feet of the US, Great Britain and France. Farrakhan, who considered Qaddafi a friend, said those nations’ establishment of a no-fly zone to stop Qaddafi’s planes and offers of humanitarian relief to the Libyan people were intended to help oust Qaddafi from power and gain access to Libya’s oil wealth.
“They succeeded in being the authors of the successful assassination of a sitting president,” Farrakhan told WVON-AM in Chicago, adding that it placed America’s interests in danger. “No one can trust the United Nations because it is a pawn of the Western world. No nation will give up their weapons of mass destruction like Qaddafi did, because it is the only protection they have against the wicked witches of the West.”
Images of Libyans posing alongside the gradually decomposing corpses were broadcast worldwide, a gruesome spectacle that drew both revulsion and morbid interest. Gawkers who lined up for a glimpse were issued surgical masks against the stench. Many posed for photographs alongside the remains of the man who wielded near-absolute power for more than four decades. The burials came amid reports that another of Qaddafi’s sons—his onetime heir apparent, Seif al-Islam Qaddafi—was trying to escape to the nation of Niger, just south of Libya.
The Qaddafi regime’s former security chief, Abdullah al-Senoussi, has already reportedly fled to Niger. Both al-Senoussi and Seif al-Islam Qaddafi are wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of murder and other crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the regime’s crackdown on protesters this year.
Another Qaddafi son, al-Saadi Qaddafi, found refuge in Niger after rebels chased the family from Tripoli in late August. Libya’s new rulers are seeking al-Saadi’s extradition, but there is no international warrant against the onetime professional soccer player and aspiring Hollywood producer.
Disagreements between officials in Misrata and authorities of Libya’s transitional leadership in Tripoli, the capital, reportedly delayed the decision on how to dispose of the senior Qaddafi’s corpse. They couldn’t agree on a final resting place, though both factions wanted to avoid Qaddafi’s tomb becoming a shrine for potential pro-Qaddafi insurgents. As the indecision dragged on, Qaddafi’s blood-streaked corpse remained inside the cold storage warehouse, the natural process of decay taking an obvious toll. Qaddafi’s family demanded that the remains be turned over to tribal kin in his hometown, Sirte.
In the end, the man whose mercurial vision guided the North African nation for more than 40 years—and who was once dubbed the “mad dog of the Middle East” by Ronald Reagan—appears to have been disposed of in an nameless stretch of desert with few witnesses. Qaddafi, his son and his former defense minister were apparently captured alive on Thursday in Sirte as the city was overrun by revolutionary fighters after weeks of intense urban combat. The fight culminated an eight-month war that cost more than 30,000 lives and sent Qaddafi and his entourage fleeing from Tripoli in late August. How Qaddafi and the two others buried on Tuesday died remains a matter of controversy. Libyan authorities say he likely died in crossfire. Others say the evidence indicates Qaddafi was executed with a bullet to his head. Amateur video showed fighters manhandling and shouting at the bloodied, dazed former leader after his capture.
Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news channel, showed footage of a fighter being lauded by comrades as the man who shot Qaddafi. But no video has emerged of any execution.
Succumbing to international pressure, Libyan authorities have vowed to investigate the matter of Qaddafi’s death. Human Rights Watch said on Monday its inquiry indicated that Qaddafi had been likely been executed. The group also found that 53 apparent Qaddafi supporters also appear to have been executed at a Sirte hotel as anti-Qaddafi forces overran the city. Libya’s new rulers have alleged that Qaddafi’s forces executed scores of prisoners in the regime’s final weeks.
