Finding Hope in Libya

[tabatha]

What’s particularly impressive is the paucity of revenge killings and looting in Tripoli, the capital. There have been a few incidents in which rebel soldiers apparently executed prisoners, and black Africans have been treated abysmally (they are accused of being mercenaries for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi). But the Libyans who served in that hated regime mostly have not been molested.

I saw many Libyans fleeing for Tunisia, and, presumably, many of them were Qaddafi loyalists. But rebels did not hinder them at checkpoints or pilfer their belongings. And, as far as I could tell, the homes and luxury vehicles the loyalists left behind have been mostly untouched by neighbors and rebels alike.

In addition, I went through dozens of armed rebel checkpoints and was never once asked for a “baksheesh,” meaning bribe or gift.

What we know of the top rebel leadership is also reasonably encouraging. Mahmoud Jibril, the acting prime minister of the rebels’ Transitional National Council, earned his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh and taught there, too. As for Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the acting chairman of the council, he is a former justice minister who challenged Colonel Qaddafi by calling for the release of political prisoners. Ali Tarhouni, the finance minister, is a former economist at the University of Washington.

Some Americans have fretted that Islamic extremists will take over Libya, but very few of the rebel leaders have been associated with Islamic fundamentalism. One exception is Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a military commander in Tripoli, who says he was tortured by the C.I.A. in 2004. Yet he told my Times colleague Rod Nordland that all is forgiven and that he appreciates the American role in the Libyan revolution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/opinion/finding-hope-in-libya.html?_r=1