13 - Aḥmad Fāl Wuld Ad - Dīn : Fī ḍiyāfat katā’ib al-Qaḏḏāfī (Hosted by Gaddafi Troops)

Summary

The constant struggle for survival forced man to commit various acts that might be judged to be unethical, as for decades a silent consent to enslavement was prevalent in Libya. Collaborators with the regime have forgotten about ethical values, love and friendship. The novel by Moorish Aḥmad Fāl Wuld ad-Dīn, a correspondent of Al-Jazeera, gravitates to non-fictional genres, as it is based on real events and is related to the experience of the author himself, who as a journalist illegally crossed the unprotected section of the border from Tunisia to Libya to report on the massacre in the city of Zawia (Az-Zāwiya). While recording the program, he was arrested and became a prisoner of Gaddafi’s troops. The narrator in the first person tells what he experienced from the moment he was entrusted with the task at the headquarters of Al-Jazeera until his release and return to his homeland. This is a report showing the brutality of the fighting parties and the dehumanization of soldiers whose psyche has been distorted. It is a reflection on the time and a commemoration of these difficult days.

In the novel, a lot of space is occupied by descriptions of military cruelty and the acts perpetrated by Gaddafi intelligence service employees. Ruthless torture is administered to prisoners and the author describes how he as well as other foreign journalists detained by the dictator’s army were abused:

“Don’t let him sit, keep him standing! Traitor, dog, pig, did you sell yourself, what’s your name?”

“Aḥmad Fāl Wuld ad-Dīn.”

Woe to you! And woe to the institution that sent you here to inevitable death! You traitor, collaborator. (…) You are one of those Al-Jazeera rats! Listen, you’ve entered the lion’s den and you can’t get out of its fangs.”

The world has always been an arena of violence, killing, torture and exploitation. The author speaks about the mass use of torture and the killing of hundreds of people. He does not avoid emotional involvement.