Crowds in Tobruk criticise Gaddafi openly

Tobruk In the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk — part of what some are calling ‘Liberated Libya' — a flood of criticism of Muammar Gaddafi, his sons, and the vicious tactics he's long used on his own people pours out of locals at the slightest prompting. Many are worried that with Gaddafi surrounded by still-loyal troops in Tripoli, their unfinished revolution could still fail.

While there's happiness — not least of all because they haven't dared speak their minds, even to their closest friends, for decades — there's also a feeling that they had better get their word in while they still can.

Members of the Libyan Army who defected last week to the side of the protesters in Tobruk are readying for a possible reprisal from pro-Gaddafi forces. They say Gaddafi has at least three brigades of paramilitary loyalists in and around Tripoli, one controlled by his son, Khamis.

Major Salma Faraj Eisa says the military in Tobruk, working with local youth, is preparing secret weapons depots in case Gaddafi manages to rally his forces.

She's the main aide to Major General Sulaiman Mahmoud, the military commander in the Tobruk area, and was in the room when he received a call from an official in Tripoli ordering local troops to fire on demonstrators last week. Maj. Gen. Mahmoud's answer? "No."

Death sentence

Now Mahmoud has a death sentence on his head. But his decision early in the uprising is one reason Tobruk was liberated at a cost of so few dead — just three young men shot while they stormed the local police headquarters.

Elsewhere, there were reports of violence in Libya yesterday, particularly in and around Tripoli, the capital. Al Jazeera carried footage of a group of men — most in uniforms — who were executed with their hands bound behind their backs in a field. Al Jazeera reports, and most of the uprisings supporters believe, that the victims were officers killed for refusing orders to shoot civilians.

Ali, a retired naval officer who asked that his full name not be used, says a general who defected with his men in the town of Zawia has twice tried to bring forces into Tripoli, but was repulsed by heavy weapons fire. An unconfirmed report by a source in Zawia claims there have been dozens of local casualties.

The outcome of the stunning revolt remains uncertain. But Tobruk residents' warm welcome of foreign journalists, who were viewed with fear and suspicion here for decades (since talking to one would likely earn a visit from the secret police, if not worse), shows how much Libya has changed in just a week.

Happy residents who want to tell their stories practically accost reporters, eager to tell their stories. Such change was hard to foresee, even for Libya's neighbours.

"For us, the post-Mubarak era started five to six years ago," says an Egyptian journalist in Tobruk. "Here, this was truly unimaginable."