TRIPOLI, Libya – Mervat Mhani, sits at her office inside a sand-colored concrete building on the outskirts of Tripoli, surrounded by photos of thousands of people who remain missing in Libya.
As a worker for the Ministry of Martyrs and Missing People, she has for months been helping families try to account for their missing loved ones.
"They know that their sons are probably dead and will never come back," she says. "But they still continue the search because they want to bury their sons."
Almost nine months after Libya's civil war, the fates of thousands of people who disappeared under Moammar Gadhafi's 42 years of power and during the recent civil uprising remain an agonizing mystery for many Libyans.
Mhani says that it is impossible to provide an exact figure for the people who disappeared here, but she estimates that around 10,000 people are missing. Some were arrested during Gadhafi's rule and secretly killed in prisons. Other were snatched from the streets or shot down for attending anti-Gadhafi demonstrations in the early days of the rebellion against his rule last year.
Others vanished after going out for groceries, Mhani says.
Aladin Ali Al Righeg is one of those still searching. On Feb. 12, 1989, Gadhafi's security forces raided his family home and took his brother, Adel, 25. For years his family took food and clothes to the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli where Adel was being held.
The prison guards would always accept the boxes of food and clothes. Sometimes, he says, they would tell him that his brother needed something, like a razor. But in 2004 the prison guards came to his house and told him that his brother was dead.
Friends with contacts inside the prison later told him that Adel had been killed in a June 29, 1996, massacre at the prison. Human Rights Watch and other agencies say that there are reports that more than 1,200 prisoners were killed in a single day in a riot sparked by the appalling conditions. A mass grave with about that many corpses was found last fall outside Tripoli.
The Al Righeg family pleaded to have Adel's body returned to them so that they could give him a proper burial, but they were refused. Like other families, they were offered compensation in exchange for agreeing not to sue the government, but they refused.
Al Righeg wants those responsible for his brother's death brought to justice.
"My brother is like a fire in my heart that will not go down until we find his killer," he said.
Many believe some of the missing were killed on the orders of Abdullah al-Senussi, Gadhafi's head of intelligence. Al-Senussi fled Libya and the interim Libyan government has requested his extradition from neighboring Mauritania.
Meanwhile, mass graves continue to be uncovered throughout the country.
The Ministry of Martyrs and Missing People is going through the slow process of takingDNA samples from the bodies and looking for possible matches to DNA samples from the families of the missing.
Mhani says the thousands of people who remain unaccounted for, a number Human Rights Watch puts at between 8,000 and 20,000, are almost certainly dead. But Libyans need to know what happened to the missing, and so recovering their bodies is important.
"The families want their samples to be tested as soon as possible," Mhani says, admitting that Libya does not have the forensic facilities to move fast. "It's going to take years."
As a worker for the Ministry of Martyrs and Missing People, she has for months been helping families try to account for their missing loved ones.
"They know that their sons are probably dead and will never come back," she says. "But they still continue the search because they want to bury their sons."
Almost nine months after Libya's civil war, the fates of thousands of people who disappeared under Moammar Gadhafi's 42 years of power and during the recent civil uprising remain an agonizing mystery for many Libyans.
Mhani says that it is impossible to provide an exact figure for the people who disappeared here, but she estimates that around 10,000 people are missing. Some were arrested during Gadhafi's rule and secretly killed in prisons. Other were snatched from the streets or shot down for attending anti-Gadhafi demonstrations in the early days of the rebellion against his rule last year.
Others vanished after going out for groceries, Mhani says.
Aladin Ali Al Righeg is one of those still searching. On Feb. 12, 1989, Gadhafi's security forces raided his family home and took his brother, Adel, 25. For years his family took food and clothes to the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli where Adel was being held.
The prison guards would always accept the boxes of food and clothes. Sometimes, he says, they would tell him that his brother needed something, like a razor. But in 2004 the prison guards came to his house and told him that his brother was dead.
Friends with contacts inside the prison later told him that Adel had been killed in a June 29, 1996, massacre at the prison. Human Rights Watch and other agencies say that there are reports that more than 1,200 prisoners were killed in a single day in a riot sparked by the appalling conditions. A mass grave with about that many corpses was found last fall outside Tripoli.
The Al Righeg family pleaded to have Adel's body returned to them so that they could give him a proper burial, but they were refused. Like other families, they were offered compensation in exchange for agreeing not to sue the government, but they refused.
Al Righeg wants those responsible for his brother's death brought to justice.
"My brother is like a fire in my heart that will not go down until we find his killer," he said.
Many believe some of the missing were killed on the orders of Abdullah al-Senussi, Gadhafi's head of intelligence. Al-Senussi fled Libya and the interim Libyan government has requested his extradition from neighboring Mauritania.
Meanwhile, mass graves continue to be uncovered throughout the country.
The Ministry of Martyrs and Missing People is going through the slow process of takingDNA samples from the bodies and looking for possible matches to DNA samples from the families of the missing.
Mhani says the thousands of people who remain unaccounted for, a number Human Rights Watch puts at between 8,000 and 20,000, are almost certainly dead. But Libyans need to know what happened to the missing, and so recovering their bodies is important.
"The families want their samples to be tested as soon as possible," Mhani says, admitting that Libya does not have the forensic facilities to move fast. "It's going to take years."
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