The body of Libyan
ex-leader Muammer Gaddafi was buried
overnight in a secret location after days
of being put on display in a market
freezer, a Misrata military council
member said Tuesday.
The source, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Gaddafi’s remains were
buried “overnight in a religious ceremony”
along with the corpses of his son
Mutassim and ex-defence minister Abu
Bakr Yunis Jaber.
According to guards at the entrance to
the market on the outskirts of Misrata,
215 kilometres (132 miles) east of Tripoli,
a convoy of four or five military vehicles
took away the bodies late Monday night to
an unknown location.
Three religious leaders loyal to the ousted
dictator prayed and performed a religious
ceremony before the burial, the military
council member said.
The father and two sons of the former
defence minister were present when the
bodies were picked up at the market, the
source said.
The burials come amid raging controversy
over the circumstances of Gaddafi’s death
after he was taken alive during the fall of
his hometown Sirte last Thursday.
Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil
said a commission of inquiry is to probe
the strongman’s killing after foreign
governments and rights group raised
questions.
“In response to international calls, we
have started to put in place a commission
tasked with investigating the
circumstances of Muammar Gaddafi’s
death in the clash with his circle as he was
being captured,” Abdel Jalil said on
Monday.
The UN human rights office welcomed
this announcement.
Disquiet has grown internationally over
how Gaddafi met his end after National
Transitional Council (NTC) fighters
hauled him out of a culvert where he was
hiding following NATO air strikes on the
convoy in which he had been trying to flee
his falling hometown.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at
that point.
The corpses of Gaddafi — with a bullet
wound to the head — his son Mutassim,
and decades-long confidant Abubakr
Yunes had laid in a meat market freezer
on the outskirts of the city of Misrata
until Monday.
Libya’s interim prime minister Mahmud
Jibril said in Jordan on Sunday that an
autopsy report showed Gaddafi was killed
in “crossfire from both sides.”
Since Friday, thousands of ordinary
Libyans have viewed the bodies of the slain
men, many taking pictures on their
mobile phone.
Meanwhile a fuel tank exploded in Sirte
late on Monday killing more than 100
people, NTC military commander Leith
Mohammed said.
“There was an enormous explosion and a
huge fire. More than 100 people were killed
and 50 others wounded” Mohammed told
AFP in Tripoli.
He said the scene was “a heart wrenching
spectacle with dozens of charred bodies.”
The accidental explosion happened as a
crowd of people waited near the fuel tank
to fill up their cars.
