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Title Foreign Correspondent: Libya
Published Australia : ABC, 2011
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Description 1 online resource (streaming video file) (27 min. 54 sec.) ; 168263682 bytes
Summary With their country finally liberated from the Gaddafi regime, thousands of Libyans who fled decades ago in fear of their lives are at last free to come home. We accompany the prominent opposition figure Mansour El Kikhia on his emotional journey from the United States, where he campaigned against Gaddafi for 33 years, to his home city of Bengazi, where the revolution that eventually overthrew the regime began, and on to Tripoli, where a transitional government is taking its first tentative steps in remaking the country."I never thought I would see the country again, never. It was a dream. It was a dream that has come true for me." - Mansour el KikhiaProminent Libyan opposition figure Mansour el Kikhia has been living in exile in the United States for more than three decades. As he campaigned against the dictatorial rule of Moamar Gaddafi from afar, he was forced to watch, helpless, as his relatives and friends were arrested, tortured and killed, his family home was seized and turned into a museum and Libya became a giant prison for anyone even suspected of disloyalty. Now he is at last free to come home. Foreign Correspondent's Mary Ann Jolley first met el Kikhia back in February, for her story on Gaddafi's relations with the West, Monster Makeover. Back then, the uprising had just begun, and he was fearful for the future of his nephew, Salim, who had disappeared while helping to transport wounded fighters to hospital.For this latest story, Jolley accompanies Mansour el Kikhia back to his homeland, where he is reunited with friends and family, including an emotional meeting with his rescued nephew. Salim describes how he was imprisoned and tortured for seven long months in a notorious Tripoli prison. It's a story, like so many others, that can only now be told. In Gaddafi's Libya, all roads led to the Abu Salim prison, in Tripoli. This was where tens of thousands of political prisoners were incarcerated. Many never left and their families are only now discovering the truth of what happened to their loved ones.In the prison, Jolley and el Kikhia discover dozens of bewildered Libyans wandering through the cells and corridors, looking for answers. Elsewhere in the capital, they catch up with those trying to build a civil society from scratch, in a country that's damaged and confused.El Kikhia warns that after decades of repressive, one-man rule, the way ahead will not be simple."Because Libya had very weak institutions, Mr Gaddafi was able to take over very quickly. We have to work very hard to prevent this being hijacked by fundamentalists or by radicals or whatever it takes." - Mansour el Kikhia
Event Broadcast 2011-10-25 at 20:00:00
Notes Classification: NC
Subject Dictatorship.
El-Kikhia, Mansour O.
Political prisoners.
Politicians -- Death.
Qaddafi, Muammar.
Libya.
United States.
Form Streaming video
Author Ann Jolley, Mary, reporter
Benkato, Fawzi, contributor
Clifford Grayling, Anthony, contributor
el-Kikhia, Mansour, contributor
el-Kikhia, Najib, contributor