10th anniversary of Gaddafi’s death: the confused legacy of a despot

He financed terror, was courted by the West – and died on the run in 2011: Gaddafi’s bizarre demeanor as the ruler of Libya polarized ten years after his death. Now his son wants to take power.

They caught him in a tunnel, huddled and covered in blood. One of the fighters immediately called Anwar Suwan: “They told me that Muammar al-Gaddafi was scared, was trembling and had a gun in his hand.” The long-term ruler of Libya then asked: “What’s wrong, my sons?” The fighters took the pistol from him and put him on the back of a pickup truck, says Suwan. But on the way from Sirte to Misrata, Gaddafi died as a result of a shrapnel on his head, as a doctor later discovered.

For Suwan, the fighters are heroes. The wealthy businessman from Misrata provided the militias with money and weapons for the fight against Gaddafi. His death was a triumph for him. The eccentric despot’s dazzling career ended in his native city of Qasr Abu Hadi, where he had fled the capital. “He wanted to prevent Tripoli from being destroyed,” says Ahmad Gaddaf al-Dam. For decades, Gaddafi’s cousin was probably his closest confidante, the special envoy for delicate tasks. In the last phone call he said: “I am not Nero and I will not allow Tripoli to be burned.”

Europe’s heads of government ensnared Gaddafi

Gaddafi was the unrestricted ruler of Libya for 42 years. He loved bizarre performances, declared himself King of Africa. With billions from the oil business, he financed terrorism and militias around the world. The attacks on the Berlin nightclub “La Belle” in 1986 and the Pan-Am plane over the Scottish Lockerbie two years later are attributed to him. After paying compensation and renouncing the atomic bomb in the 1990s, he was ensnared by Western heads of government.

Gaddafi met the most important heads of government in Europe: Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi, Gerhard Schröder, and last but not least Nicolas Sarkozy. In his own country he ruled with an iron hand, wanted to buy the favor of the Libyans with free schools, universities and clinics.

Confrontation with NATO – “a mistake”

“I am proud that I was able to experience an era when Libya led the continent. It was glorious,” says his cousin Gaddaf al Dam. Today he lives in an opulent apartment in Cairo, is writing an autobiography and is involved in a party that wants to run in the next parliamentary elections in Libya. When thousands of people rose up in the east of the country in 2011, he turned his back on his homeland. Gaddafi wanted to nip the uprising in the bud. He called the demonstrators cockroaches. He sent the army and shot them.

But then NATO intervened. In the long run, Gaddafi’s units were unable to counteract the constant bombardment of the fighter jets. Underestimating that was his undoing, says Gaddaf: “We thought it was a mistake to confront NATO. He thought it was glorious. The result was predictable.”

After Gaddafi’s death, Anwar Suwan took his body. A coroner took a sample of his hair, bones, teeth. In his house he exhibited the dead ex-despot for days. Before the funeral, he kept it in a vegetable refrigerator. Where Gaddafi was buried remains his secret. “He went to hell,” says Suwan laconically.

The hunt for Gaddafi’s billions began immediately

After the end of the Gaddafi era in 2011, the hunt for his billions began. Libya’s new government commissioned Mohammed Ali Abdallah with the search. It should be about hundreds of billions of euros – parked in an impenetrable network of front men and companies all over the world. “He either wanted to hide the money or use it illegally, for example to finance his terrorist activities. He and his government did not want to be officially associated with it,” says Abdallah.

One trail led to South Africa. Shortly before he fled Tripoli, Gaddafi is said to have flown plenty of cash and gold bars there. According to media reports, the then President Jakob Zuma is said to have hidden the assets in a bunker in his home village and later shipped them to Swaziland. Here then the track is lost. “We definitely have evidence that money flowed to South Africa in 2011. We could understand that,” says Abdallah. But unlike in other countries, the investigators were never able to secure the assets. Part of it will probably be gone forever, he says.

Struggles and economic crisis

In the years that followed, Libya fell into chaos. Rival militias are still at war today. The infrastructure has fallen into disrepair, the economy collapsed. Libya’s coast has become an Eldorado for smugglers and smugglers. Thousands of migrants fled to Europe. Foreign powers intervened. The United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia supported General Haftar in the east of the country, and Turkey supported the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.

This is probably one of the reasons why not a few long to go back to the old days under the dazzling despot. “After all the destruction in Libya, it is clear that Gaddafi was right,” says his cousin Gaddaf al Dam. The situation in the country is miserable. The Libyans would have to beg today. Even after a ceasefire and the agreement on a unity government, things are simmering in the country.

Gaddafi’s son as a new bearer of hope

A new president is to be elected in Libya in December. To this day, the electoral law is controversial. Of all people, Gaddafi’s son Seif Islam is now considered a bearer of hope, who was convicted in absentia by a court in Tripoli for war crimes and is under the protection of a militia in the city of Zintan.

The 49-year-old probably wants to run in the presidential elections. He is sure of the backing of Gaddaf al Dam: “He has every right to run in the elections,” he says. “He hasn’t announced it yet. But the Libyans are demanding it.”

Apparently they want to restore the family’s honor in this way. Ten years after the death of the long-term ruler, that would be a bizarre turn in an incredible story.