A Question Mark Over Yarmouk: Re-Thinking the Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre of August 2011 A Report of the Citizen’s Investigation Into War Crimes in Libya June, 2012 Chief author: Adam Larson All original content, as published here and at libyancivilwar.blogspot.com © 2011/2012, Adam Larson Free to re-use with attribution for non-profit purposes of educating the public. This PDF file is available from the CIWCL website as file: http://ciwclibya.org/images/QMOY_Final.pdf http://www.ciwclibya.org Contents: Timeline of key events (especially at the Yarmouk base) ------------------------------------ 4 Map of relevant cities (mostly Western Libya) ------------------------------------------------- 5 Part 1 – Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 (section) 1.2: Report Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 1.1: About the CIWCL and this Report -------------------------------------------------------- 10 1.3: A “Holocaust” Scene on the World Stage ------------------------------------------------ 12 1.4: Another Khamis Prison Massacre --------------------------------------------------------- 20 Part 2 – Problematic Witnesses --------------------------------------------------------------- 32 (section) 2.1: So-Called Witnesses and Injustice --------------------------------------------- 33 2.2: Cataloguing the Witnesses ------------------------------------------------------------------ 37 2.3: The Captive Soldiers “Confess” ----------------------------------------------------------- 51 2.4: Believe Whom? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 68 2.5: See-Through Salem and the Fakers he’s Touched --------------------------------------- 81 Part 3 – An Alternative, Evidence-Based Explanation ----------------------------------- 94 (section) 3.1: Racist Brutality, up to the Shed ------------------------------------------------- 95 3.2: Un-Burnt Victim Clues -------------------------------------------------------------------- 108 3.3: Charred Victim Clues ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 118 3.4: Timeline Clues for a Rebel Massacre ---------------------------------------------------- 125 3.5: In Closing … -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 136 Sources -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 143 3 Timeline of Key Events: General Developments Yarmouk Base / Prison Shed February 15-21: start of Civil War in Libya, as By early March: an agricultural shed behind the Yarmouk simultaneous protests and militant attacks base starts holding those suspected of challenging the hand control of many Libyan cities to the government. opposition, with a de facto capitol in Benghazi. March 19: NATO begins aerial bombing of March 7: Arrest of BBC Arabic news crew, including government targets in Libya to enforce a “no Feras Kilani, who was reportedly beaten at the shed and fly zone” and enable a full rebel takeover of learned of torture of the few prisoners there. Libya July-August: Rebel offensives from Az April – August: prison population reportedly grows Zintan, Misrata, and the sky, push rebel steadily as the war intensifies. control closer to Tripoli. August 19/20: Operation Mermaid Dawn Aug 22/23: Both dates cited for a detailed roll call of launched, NATO-coordinated Rebel offensive prisoners read out: 153 prisoners. Perhaps four more pushing into Tripoli from all sides. added after, for 157 total.. August 22-23: Tripoli reported freed, Bab Al- Aug 23, afternoon: order to massacre all prisoners at Aziziyah taken, Muammar Gaddafi on the run, Yarmouk is sent from Khamis Gaddafi to base only holdout neighborhoods and some army commanders, it’s said. bases remaining in loyalist hands. Late August-October: With the capitol under Aug. 23, just after sunset: The order is carried out, using control, the rebels turn to other holdout cities, Kalashnikov rifles (many clips emptied) and seven ferociously besieging Sirte, where Muammar grenades, at close range for minutes straight. 106 killed, Gaddafi is holding out. 51 escaped, mostly unharmed. Original reports said around 150 were killed. Oct 20: Muammar Gaddafi killed, along with Aug. 23: Earliest claimed date of Rebel conquest at his son, defense minister, and about 100 Yarmouk. (see 3.4.1) others, while leaving Sirte. Libya is declared Aug 24, 6:15 am: Misrata fighters report finding liberated. (somewhere) remains of 140 prisoners killed with grenades. No further mention, unless… (see 3.4) To present:: fighting between rebel factions, Aug. 25-26 – clues of that mystery persist, alongside first between tribes and militias, in the south, west, official story clues from Yarmouk - 140-170 prisoners etc. Revenge, persecution, cruelty, and death killed in a base still held by the loyalists. (see 3.4) are rampant, confusion reigns, freedom Aug. 26-28: body discovery upon the acknowledged rebel remains elusive, elections are postponed, and conquest of Yarmouk. saturated Media coverage, dozens the NTC remains unable to govern. of sobbing witnesses, the charred skeletons shown, removed, fleeing loyalists blamed. Aug. 29 – Khamis Gaddafi reported killed in flight from the massacre base… Until present: Libyans and foreigners frequently return to the scene to show their determination to figure out what happened there and punish the right people. 4 5 Part 1: Introduction 1.1: Report Overview 1.2: About the CIWCL and this Report 1.3: A “Holocaust” Scene on the World Stage 1.4: Another Khamis Prison Massacre 6 1.1: Report Overview At over 150 pages all told, this report is not likely to be read to front to back by very many people. Some sections, especially 2.1 and 3.1, can be safely skimmed or skipped. However, it’s important that the report in whole be earnestly considered by as many people as possible. It encapsulates a nine-month investigation, by a team of quite thorough Internet researchers, into one of the pinnacle moments of the Libyan Civil War of 2011. This stark and chilling reminder of the clear line between good and evil, between the old order and the new, was found in a run-down shed at the Yarmouk military base administered by the notorious “Khamis Brigade.” Over 150 detainees were locked up there by a paranoid Gaddafi regime, we were told, and liquidated en masse by the guards on August 23 as rebels and freedom drew near. Then they burned all the bodies to cover up the crime, and slipped away out the back door as it were, just as the rebels smashed in the front. The alleged loyalist effort to silence all the prisoners failed; at least 51 of the 157 prisoners attacked – nearly one in three – managed to escape alive to tell all the details. Because of them, this massacre has been called most clear-cut regime crime of the whole war, but everything the world thinks it knows comes from these self-described witnesses who are amazingly inconsistent in recalling just what happened. Only a few core points anyone could have written on an index card make through in (nearly) all cases: Sunset, Aug. 23, Khamis soldiers/mercenaries, guns and grenades, 100-150 killed, all good people treated bad. Everything else is a mess of conflicting versions. The CIWCL draws attention to two quite serious crimes that might have occurred on or around August 23, at or near Yarmouk. 1) Rebel forces carried out most or all the killing there, apparently around 150 total at least. The CIWCL suspects the actual victims are some combination of loyalists, suspected mercenaries, and other victims of their taking of the capitol. 2) The alleged witnesses are potentially part of a broad – and sloppy - conspiracy to sow a false narrative of what happened. They did not witness the real violence at all, and are reading off a script, or different versions of one. To many people, this double allegation will be difficult to accept or even clearly consider. Naturally and rightly, people tend to believe those who (say they) witnessed immense horror, narrowly escaped death and, in many cases, lost family members. Charges that they’re fabricating it all, perhaps up to inventing demised brothers and sons, would be seen as a grave insult, not to be taken lightly or offered without good evidence. The CIWCL has not taken it lightly. Without access to detailed or credible official records to be decisive, it has amassed plentiful circumstantial evidence to suggest the distinct possibility the witnesses are false ones. The ways that could be managed, as well as morality and psychology considerations, are addressed in sub-section 3.5.2. Whatever has caused it, the witness accounts offer discrepancies that, on study, only 7 grow in number and variety. The massacre date, the time of day, the sequence of attack, how it started, how they and the others escaped, whether the victims were burned alive, and other crucial details - all come through with numerous distinct versions. What is described by the several dozen escapees reads more like multiple versions of this singular event that occurred in parallel dimensions. Agreement abounds, to be sure - in clusters of two who testify together as a team. But the lack of coherency beyond these small teams suggests these are made-up approximations of what they heard is supposed to have happened. (see section 2.4, “Believe Whom?”) The cause for dismissing the witnesses is the same case for re-considering the circumstantial clues part three lays out; the nature of