海角大神

President Obama may have equivocated last night 鈥� saying the international bombing campaign against Muammar Qaddafi鈥檚 forces is not about forcing regime change while insisting that Mr. Qaddafi must 鈥渟tep down from power.鈥�

But in Libya鈥檚 rebel capital there鈥檚 little doubt about his intent. UN Security Council Resolution 1973 authorizes 鈥渁ll necessary measures 鈥� to protect civilians鈥� and here in Benghazi, the rebel government and ordinary civilians say there can be no true protection as long as Qaddafi remains in power.

鈥淚f you go to Tobruk, Marj, Benghazi, Zawiya, anywhere in Libya, you鈥檒l find a family that has lost someone to this man,鈥� says Abdel Kader Kadura, a law professor at Benghazi鈥檚 Garyounis University. 鈥淔or us, for Libya, there is one killer. Qaddafi. It doesn鈥檛 stop until he goes.鈥�

Consider the courthouse along Benghazi鈥檚 waterfront. It鈥檚 often described as the seat of Libya鈥檚 rebel government. But its true symbolic power lies in the graffiti and posters that adorn its walls and the small plaza it fronts, an outpouring of expression that鈥檚 become something of a shrine.

The images 鈥� faces of hundreds who have died at the hands of Qaddafi鈥檚 regime 鈥� are a potent reminder of the stakes of this conflict. In a very real way, they underscore the urgency of the rebel battle cry, "We win or we die," a slogan borrowed from anticolonial fighter Omar Mukhtar, whose jihad against Italy ended with his execution in 1931.

Amnesty: 'Detainees at grave risk of torture'

The reprisals may have already started. The drivers for three foreign news crews detained by Qaddafi鈥檚 forces 鈥� from CNN, AFP, and The New York Times 鈥� have remained missing after the foreign journalists鈥� release.

Amnesty International said yesterday it has documented 鈥渄ozens鈥� of cases of Libyan鈥檚 detained and not heard from again since the uprising began here in mid-February.

鈥淭hese detainees and disappeared persons are at grave risk of torture and other serious human rights abuses,鈥� the group said, recalling a 鈥渓ong pattern of 鈥� enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, prolonged arbitrary detention, torture, and other ill-treatment鈥� in Qaddafi鈥檚 Libya.

'My brother's fate will be repeated if we lose'

Some of the posters at Benghazi's courthouse feature martyrs of the present, such as Ahmed el-Dahlan, a 23-year-old engineering student who stormed the Benghazi barracks in the furious early days of the uprising then became a militia member. He was killed when Ajdabiya was overrun by Qaddafi鈥檚 forces two weeks ago.

Most are martyrs of the past, like Ali Abdul Hamid el-Jamil, a former officer who assisted Qaddafi鈥檚 1969 coup and later broke with the dictator. He fled the country ahead of a death sentence in the early 1980s, but was hunted down and murdered in Turkey in 1986, part of Qaddafi鈥檚 campaign to assassinate what he called his 鈥渟tray dogs.鈥�

For hundreds of Libyans whose loved ones went missing for years after being taken by Qaddafi's regime, the possibility that they had been murdered was long only a whisper or a fear.

Such was the case for Adel Bin Saud, a human rights activist who last saw his brother in the late 1980s, when government agents took him away after returning home from studying in England.

His brother was held at Qaddafi鈥檚 notorious Abu Salim prison. In 1996, when rumors began to leak out of a massacre of inmates there, the family feared the worse. But the government said nothing, so his mother continued to send care packages of food and clothing to the prison, hoping they would get through.

The murder was only confirmed for the family in 2006, when a tearful stranger knocked on the door. Recently released from Abu Salim, the man said he鈥檇 been eating the food sent for Saud鈥檚 brother for the past decade. An official notice of death was issued to the family only in 2008, though his body has never been returned.

鈥淭his is why the slogan, 鈥榃e win or we die,鈥� is so powerful,鈥� says Saud. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just words. My brother鈥檚 fate will be repeated for lots of us if we lose.鈥�

Eyewitness account of Abu Salim massacre

Nour el-Din al-Sharif was an eyewitness to the 1996 massacre at Abu Salim, which has since been well documented by Human Rights Watch and others. Mr. Sharif became a Qaddafi opponent while a student in London, and was present at the 1984 anti-Qaddafi demonstration at Libya鈥檚 embassy in London when British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed by one of the Libyan embassy guards.

In 1989, Qaddafi offered an amnesty to his foreign opponents, and Sharif took him at his word. 鈥淚 thought the ground for making a change was here [in Libya], not outside,鈥� says Sharif. Nevertheless, he was soon arrested and spent the next 13 years at Abu Salim.

On June 28, 1996, a group of Islamist prisoners furious at their treatment seized two guards and demanded better conditions.

Shooting erupted, with about a dozen prisoners and one guard killed. Then Abdullah Sanussi 鈥� Qaddafi鈥檚 brother-in-law and his chief of internal security 鈥� arrived and ordered the shooting to stop. He met with emissaries from the prisoners to hear their complaints.

Shortly thereafter, Sharif and a group of about 40 members of the secular opposition were blindfolded and taken to a holding room inside the prison.

鈥淲e thought we were the ones about to be killed,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淏ut, well, it turns out it was to save us. We had friends in the outside world; killing us would have caused problems for Qaddafi. The political Muslims didn鈥檛 have those kinds of friends. The only crime for about 95 percent of those guys was that they were very religious.鈥�

The next morning, he says, Qaddafi鈥檚 guards opened fire on groups of prisoners who鈥檇 been herded into courtyards.

'Qaddafi is a murderer of sons'

Among the dead was Fateh al-Araibi, a close prison friend of Sharif鈥檚, who was arrested at age 17 soon after an aborted trip to join the mujahideen fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in 1987. 鈥淗e never made it out of Peshawar,鈥� says Sharif, referring to the northern Pakistan city near the Afghan border. 鈥淗e lasted a month there 鈥� he realized he didn鈥檛 want to hold a gun.鈥�

Mr. Araibi鈥檚 mother has been at the Benghazi courthouse most days, near the tent erected for the victims of Abu Salim, with hundreds of faded portraits of young men who disappeared there.

鈥淵ou have to understand this history to understand what drives us now,鈥� says Sharif. 鈥淨addafi is a murderer of fathers, of sons.鈥�