Below are a few quotes from an article in the Guardian, “Muammar Gaddafi's 'trophy' body on show in Misrata meat store”:
"Bloodied, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers, and dumped on a cheap mattress, Muammar Gaddafi's body has become a gruesome tourist attraction and a macabre symbol of the new Libya's problems.
"Hundreds of ordinary Libyans queued up outside a refrigerated meat store in Misrata, where the dead dictator was being stored as a trophy. A guard allowed small groups into the room to celebrate next to Gaddafi's body. They posed for photos, flashing victory signs, and burst into jubilant cries of ‘God is great'.
"Wounds on Gaddafi's body appeared to confirm that he was indeed killed in cold blood in the chaotic minutes following his capture on Thursday. He was found in the town of Sirte, hiding in a drainage pipe. There was a close-range bullet wound on the left side of his head.
"The dispute [over how to get rid of Gaddafi’s body] threatens to overshadow NTC plans to declare a formal end to Libya's nine-month uprising . The council will announce from Benghazi, where the Libyan revolution began in February, that the project of national liberation is now complete. It will say a new, democratic post-Gaddafi era has begun.
"On Thursday, Jibril [the NTC-appointed interim prime minister] claimed that Gaddafi had been killed from a bullet to the head received in crossfire between rebel fighters and his supporters. He was dragged alive on to a truck, but died 'when the car was moving', Jibril said, citing forensic reports.
"Gruesome mobile phone footage obtained by the Global Post undermines this account. It records the minutes after Gaddafi's capture, when his convoy came under Nato and rebel attack. He is dragged out of a tunnel where he had been hiding. Blood is already pouring out of a wound on the left side of his head. ... Gaddafi is clearly dazed and wounded – but is alive, conscious, and pleading feebly with his captors."
This must indeed be the auspicious dawn of liberal democracy in Lybia. And the NTC may also throw in a reference to the rule of law in that declaration they plan to issue.
