Tarik Kafala
BBC
December 13, 2011
The 30,000 people living in a town in northern Libya have been driven out of their homes, in what appears to have been an act of revenge for their role in the three-month siege of the city of Misrata. So what really happened in the town of Tawergha, are the accusations of brutality against the town’s residents fair and what does it say about hopes for national unity?
“No, they can never come back… They have done us too much harm, terrible things. We cannot forgive them.”
Najia Waks, a young woman from Libya’s third largest city, Misrata, is talking about the people of Tawergha, a town about 50km (30 miles) to the south.
For three months between early March and the middle of May, the forces of Muammar Gaddafi laid siege to Misrata. These forces were partly based in Tawergha, and the people of the town are accused of being complicit in the attempt to put down the uprising in the city. They are also accused of crimes including murder, rape and sexual torture.
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