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By Bilal H. Bettamer
21 September 2015:
How do you get 100,000 people to peacefully protest against armed extremist militias – in the . . .[restrict]same square where the extremists will be protesting with their black ISIS flag? On 21 September 2012 in Benghazi we did just that.
In June 2012 several religious militias who shared ideology aligned with Al Qaeda united under one group with the same goal: to implement Sharia law, first in Benghazi and then the rest of Libya. They referred to themselves as Ansar Al-Sharia. Naji Hammad, a Benghazi police captain and teacher at the police academy, and I were concerned by this development. Hammad is not your ordinary police officer: he is a law graduate at top of his class, has two masters’ degrees, and in 2012 was completing a third masters in administrative law. Hammad and I followed the group of militias closely. He advised me to be less hostile towards them and, since I had friends who were joining Ansar Al Sharia, suggested I try to gather information regarding their plans and where they hid their weapons.
Ansar Al-Sharia started growing rapidly in number and spreading to new cities. Hammad and I began to raise awareness about this development. During the revolution I had translated for several foreign journalists and I contacted them about the danger posed by Ansar Al-Sharia. Hammad worked with local media and met with politicians to warn them about this group of militias, Hammad even met with then president of the General National Congress (GNC), Mohamed Al-Magarief, who promised to support the police in Benghazi against militias.
Our next goal was to spread the word that these militias were connected to Ansar Al Sharia and paying money to these militias was basically giving the money to Ansar Al-Sharia. We both became known as the “Anti-Militia guys” because we spoke against them every day at every opportunity. Most of the journalists with whom I spoke about Ansar Al-Sharia were interested, but not enough to risk a full investigation about them. Hammad met with similar success with local media.
Then one warm September night when Hammad and I were at my farm having a barbecue, we heard gunshots and explosions nearby. We went in his car to see what was happening. When found militias blocking the road to the US Consulate we knew something bad was happening there. We were aware that Ambassador Chris Stevens was inside the compound; he had met with Hammad the day before and I was supposed to meet him before he left Benghazi. Ambassador Stevens was a friendly person who made everyone feel like they were his friends. We learned later that night from my uncle who is a doctor that Ambassador Stevens was dead and Ansar Al-Sharia was involved.
Hammad and I met the second day after the murder at a small historical square in Benghazi where civil protesters usually gathered and we protested for hours mourning the death of Ambassador Stevens and calling for the end of militias in Benghazi. We clearly felt the public frustration. Hammad contacted a friend who was a popular radio show host about what we should do next. She suggested we use this tragedy to draw attention to our cause to end militias and return weapons to the police and army. Hammad and I agreed that we must do this before the anger faded and people accepted the militias as part of life in Benghazi.
With this new development, journalists covering the assassination of the Ambassador were calling me, wanting to hear more about our campaign against the militias. Hammad was making appearances on local TV and radio, while our friend the radio host was making a great effort. As Hammad and I planned Benghazi Rescue Friday, more and more people joined us. Some donated money and offered help; without them Benghazi Rescue Friday would not have been a success. My role was handling foreign media and recruiting college students to join the protest and help organize it.
On 21 September, a day I will never forget, I came to the protest hoping that 5,000 at most would show. I parked my car far away, and as I walked, I suddenly found 100,000 people attending the protest. I kept shaking hands with people telling me they came because I convinced them. A number of politicians, including Islamists who supported the militias and Muslim Brotherhood leaders, were present. I had not been part of the organizing committee so I didn’t know how massive or how well planned the protest was. Hammad brought the police to protect and organize the protesters who planned to march a half a mile to Kish Square, where Ansar Al-Sharia militia members were also protesting.
We knew Ansar Al-Sharia was at Kish Square. Although we had already planned our protest and route of the march, Ansar Al-Sharia also decided to protest the same day. We had met with them before the protest and had asked them to push back their protest so there would not be any clashes. They refused and asked us to move our protest because they claimed that they were “defending the honour of the Prophet while we were crying over an infidel,” referring the death of the Ambassdor.
The protest was more than any of us expected. Air Force helicopters and jets flew close by, newly washed police cars sparkled, and everywhere police officers were being saluted by people. It was one of the happiest moments in my life because that day I had hope. After months of fighting and failures and the deaths of many friends at the hands of terrorists, that day we were closer than ever to ending them. Benghazi had spoken.
As we walked towards our destination we passed Ansar Al-Sharia’s compound, and the protest organizers made a human chain to stop people from attacking the compound. When we arrived at Quiche Square, we found Al Qaeda black flags, angry faces, beards, and religious chants. Our group was much larger than the Ansar Al-Sharia group and we circled around them. The two groups began chanting against each other, then throwing water bottles, but nothing more. Ansar Al-Sharia were very self-conscious and chose not to become violent. I remember recording a video and seeing one of the Ansar Al-Sharia supporters screaming at the top of his lungs at the anti-militia protesters. I’ll never forget the look he gave me: he knew me and my part in Benghazi Rescue Friday because I was at the meeting when we tried to convince them to change the date of their protest. I’ll never forget the look he gave me that day because in my entire life no one has ever given such a hateful look – his veins and eyes were exploding.
After the protest I was at a friend’s house celebrating the success of the march when my phone rang and it was CNN’s correspondent asking for comments regarding the attack on Ansar Al-Sharia’s compound. I told her that I knew nothing about it and it wasn’t part of our plans: we wanted a peaceful protest to get our views across about the loss of Ambassador Stevens and removing militias from Benghazi.
It turned out that some of protesters had burned the empty Ansar Al-Sharia compound. Ansar had used a clever strategy they have since used multiple times: whenever they hear about a protest they evacuate their camps, move their weapons and cars, and later, after things calm down, they go back. After burning the Ansar compound, the protesters headed to another militia camp. This was not an empty camp. This militia, Rafallah Al-Sahati, was close to Ansar, but also to the GNC and received funding from foreign governments and political parties. This militia was npt afraid of shedding the blood of innocent protesters, and they did. But this is Benghazi, the protesters did not back down, they brought their weapons. The pro-militia media reported that “drunk night bats” paid by Qaddafi loyalists had attacked the “revolutionaries” (the name used by militias to refer to themselves). Before I went home that night I tried to stop the protesters from attacking the militias, but nine people had already died.
The president of the GNC, Mohamed Magarief, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mustafa Abushagur, appeared at a press conference surrounded by militia leaders, including Al-Qaeda affiliated militia heads. I knew the moment I saw them that Benghazi had been sold to the militias and Libya was not going to be fine anytime soon.
Three years later here I am remembering that night. It changed all of our lives. Remember Hammad’s friend, the radio host? She was kidnapped and dragged by her hair out of her house. After she was released by the militias, she left Libya and has not come back. The militias attempted to assassinate Hammad three times, killing his brother-in-law who they had mistaken for him, and Hammad was transferred to the Libyan Embassy in Sudan. I left Libya two years later. Thankfully the militias didn’t care about me; I received the usual number of threats from them. Benghazi Rescue Friday is the day my city stood up and was let down. [/restrict]
