Libya: Gaddafi's driver, he was without fear but lost

ANSAmed
VERBATIM POST
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(ANSAmed) - ROME, OCTOBER 27 - He never showed any fear, but he looked lost, not knowing what to do: this picture of Muammar Gaddafi was sketched by Huneish Nasr - faithful driver of the Libyan leader for 30 years - who witnessed the final days of the colonel before his capture and death in Sirte, his birth city.

From a prison in Misrata where he was taken several days ago together with Mansour Dhao, former head of Gaddafi's guards, Nasr told the Guardian about the Thursday when Gaddafi was captured by the combatants of the new Libya.

''Everything was exploding. The revolutionaries were coming for us. Gaddafi wasn't scared, but he didn't seem to know what to do. It was the only time I ever saw him like that,'' said Nasr, looking back on those terrible moments before the battle that would leave him deaf in his right ear. ''When the NTC forces arrived, Gaddafi threw his hands up in surrender. He was knocked to the ground with a rifle butt, which blackened his left eye. Gaddafi was being pulled from a drainpipe'' said Nasr, who fell to the ground immediately after.

The driver - a member of the Gaddafi tribe - remembered that he was able to get a final glimpse of his ''master'' before he was swarmed over by the rebels.

One week later, Nasr and Daho seem to be the only survivors of the old loyal guard that stood by the Libyan leader during the five days of the final attack on Sirte, hiding in houses to avoid capture. "If any of the other close staff are still alive, I don't know where they are or what happened to them," said Nasr. "The rest of them may be somewhere with the revolutionaries or they may be dead," he added.

Returning to the memory of the final days of the man he served for a lifetime without any second thoughts, Nasr underlined: ''Gaddafi was strange, he was always standing still and looking to the west. Without fear. I was with him for 30 years and I swear by God that I never saw any bad behaviour in him. He was always just the boss. He treated me well," Nasr added, explaining he received a salary of 800 dinar a month, as well as a house in Sirte.

But one image Nars - now over 60 - would like to forget is seeing the colonel being lowered into an unmarked grave and covered with sand. (ANSAmed).