Tawarga: fires blaze and bad blood lingers in Libyan ghost town

Misratans have long accused population of poor dormitory town of murders, rapes and looting in alliance with pro-Gaddafi forces
Homes ablaze in Tawarga, a ghost town occupied by Libyan rebels. It's mostly black population fled in August. Photograph: Irina Kalshnikova

Columns of dark oily smoke wound up through the still afternoon air on Tuesday from abandoned homes set ablaze in the Libyan rebel-occupied town of Tawarga.

A local police chief, who refused to give his name and ordered journalists out of the town, said the fires were the work of arsonists in the pay of Muammar Gaddafi who were hoping to tarnish the reputation of the new authorities.






The fires came the day that Amnesty International issued a report accusing rebel forces of crimes against pro-Gaddafi civilians, and urged Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, to do more to prevent these crimes.

While the report blamed the Gaddafi regime for most of the abuses catalogued, it said reprisal attacks against dark skinned Libyans and foreigners were continuing in rebel-held areas.

The police chief in Tawarga said his forces where hunting for those responsible for the blazes, which raged unchecked.

"They are starting these fires to make the rebels look bad," he said, refusing to give a formal interview or show his credentials. "You must leave. It is dangerous for you. They might shoot you."

He insisted rebel units were combing the town looking for the miscreants. The only rebel units in sight were relaxing outside a shopping precinct that is their base in the town centre, unconcerned by the fires raging around them.

Some may question how arsonists in the pay of the Gaddafi regime could operate in a town nearly 100 miles from the nearest frontline, deserted of all but rebel units, and surrounded by army bases and checkpoints.

Bad blood between Tawarga and Misrata has lingered from before the war, when many Tawarga residents, their families originally from southern Libya, performed service jobs in Misrata. Misratans accuse them of being badly behaved and unruly and frequently make derogatory remarks about the skin colour of Tawargans.

Misrata has a similar gripe at another neighbouring town, Zlitan, which, like Tawarga, failed to rise against the Gaddafi regime while Misrata's streets were pummelled by government artillery. Yet Zlitan's Arab population are being encouraged to return home while Tawarga's remain absent.

Earlier this week, Jalil declared that the new, free, Libya, would be governed by the rule of law. He may need to do more to demonstrate this is the case before Tawarga's population return – that is, if they still have homes to return to.