It was the day when the ordinary people finally got to peer beyond the fortified concrete walls. For the first time, Tripoli’s citizens discovered how Colonel Gaddafi had lived a life of opulence and surreal fantasy while they cowered under his bloodthirsty rule. After the rebel fighters had overrun the tyrant’s massive sprawling compound, yesterday it was the turn of normally law-abiding Libyans to ransack and loot his properties. And they could scarcely believe what they saw.
Astonishing: This teapot and teacups fairground ride was just one of sites that greeted insurgents inside Gaddafi's compound. They also found a zoo
Sofa so good: A rebel fighter poses for a photo as he sits on a two-seater couch
Luxury: Rebel fighters and civilians stroll around the huge swimming pool
One group of young men chose to tour the Bab al-Aziziya compound in the dictator’s preferred mode of transport – the very same electric golf buggy he rode in to rest his 72-year-old legs. Even as they made their way through the shattered buildings, they could see for themselves sufficient remnants of the bizarre Michael Jackson-style Neverland park, complete with fairground and zoo, that Gaddafi constructed in the heart of the capital city.
At the centre of the compound is the ‘House of Resistance’, Gaddafi’s former residence which was partially destroyed by a U.S. bombing raid in 1986. Now it is a mausoleum, its furniture preserved untouched for 25 years within glass casing as a reminder of the attack. If there was any morsel of sympathy to be gleaned for Gaddafi, it was from the ghostly bedroom of his adopted daughter Hana, who was only a few months old when she was killed in the raid.
Smashed: These glass cases protected the bed of Gaddafi's adopted daughter Hana, whose bedroom was a shrine following her death during a 1986 U.S. air strike
Not far from a cluster of buildings used by Gaddafi’s family as sleeping quarters was a cinema where he would join his family to watch the latest western movies. The most outlandish sight in this whole bizarre fantasyland was the fairground in the gardens. It featured an old-fashioned carousel, with children’s seats on chains, and a roundabout decked out with a cartoon-style teapot and spinning cups for youngsters to play in. Some rebels could not resist posing for pictures in the giant teacup rides and laughing with incredulity that the dictator had taken flight from his own compound. But one could only stare in disbelief at this theme park within a warzone.
He snorted: ‘Libyan children have no childhood, their lives are destroyed by Gaddafi. But his children, his family, have everything.’
As if all this wasn’t enough, Gaddafi had also used some of the estimated £300billion he has plundered from the country to build a zoo, stocked with animals supplied by fellow African dictators. Amid chaotic scenes, as snipers loyal to Gaddafi took pot shots at the looters from high buildings around the compound, people grabbed at anything they could get – sheets, bedding, curtains and whatever else was once owned by Gaddafi.
Rebels at the gate implored them not to pillage or destroy the palace, saying it should be kept for the Libyan people. But they could not resist stripping the compound of everything they could carry, including Gaddafi’s home cinema system, his table football games and a stereo. Others proudly held aloft the dictator’s ‘blingy’ artefacts, including jewellery and a gold-plated gun.
They also tore down a massive Bedouin tent, where the tyrant liked to sleep during the hot summer months (and before Nato started raining bombs on his compound). It had been erected in world capitals during trade visits after supposedly renouncing violence in 2003. While one tent was torn down, another – even bigger in scale – was set on fire and razed to the ground.
Not alone: Rebels also went through the belongs of Gaddafi's daughter Aisha yesterday, as well as posing for photos inside her home
Looting: A pair of rebels go through the book cases of Aisha Gaddafi at her home in Tripoli
Say cheese! A rebel poses for a photo on an ornate chair inside Aisha Gaddafi's home
Relaxed: The rebel fighters have made themselves at home
Picture perfect: Rebel fighters take a closer look at Aisha Gaddafi's photographs
Some spat on the ground as they entered the previously-forbidden zone, but others simply wanted to rejoice at their symbolic victory over a man who had brutally controlled their lives for so long.
Taking a look round: This group of Tripoli residents could hardly believe their eyes when they entered Gaddafi's compound yesterday
Try these for size: These two rebels examine clothes they want which belong to members of the dictator's family
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