Former Gadhafi stronghold slow to embrace revolution

• Gadhafi died at the hand of the rebels Oct. 20, 2011
• Bitterness lingers among some who were forced to flee
• 'People were living in animal pens'

SIRTE, Libya — Huge splotches of white paint mark numerous walls in the coastal city of Sirte, trying to cover up Moammar Gadhafi's slogan — "Allah, Moammar and Libya."

Even so, the walls of Gadhafi's hometown still lack the graffiti glorifying the 2011 revolution or the caricatures of "frizz head" that grace those of other Libyan cities.

That is because a year after the Gadhafi's death, Sirte still hasn't embraced the revolution. Residents here try to hide their support for Gadhafi and their nostalgia for the days under his rule, when they say order reigned and the streets weren't pockmarked by war.

"Before, the Libyan people weren't divided like they are now," said Imal Al-Gaddafa, a member of the late dictator's clan and a student at Sirte's university. "I wouldn't say that everything was perfect but it was 75% better."

The revolution culminated in Gadhafi's death at the hand of the rebels Oct. 20, 2011, and left a heavy toll on his stronghold here on the Mediterranean. The fighting destroyed 80% of the buildings and the city is peppered with craters and the steel and stone skeletons of homes and offices, the result of shells dropped during NATO bombings last year.

And one year after the start of a new era here, reconstruction still isn't on the agenda because of a lack of money, local community representatives say.

"We need billions of dollars to rebuild Sirte but we've only received (a fraction of that)," said Ali Labaz of Sirte's unelected city council. "Just after the revolution, we had to share the one remaining pen among the members of the council."

The council, which is governing the city until local elections can be held at some undetermined future date, has taken over one of the few buildings still intact at Ouagadougou, Gadhafi's famous opulent conference center.

On its marble floors in the shade of green he favored, Gadhafi hosted world leaders and Africa Union summits in hopes of making Sirte the capital of Libya and the center of the continent.

Today there is little of Ouagadougou left. The city was the scene of fierce clashes between loyalists and rebels toward the end of the revolution. Because of the destruction of more than 10,000 buildings in Sirte as well as 23,000 refugees that came to the town of 75,000 toward the end of the war, there is a housing crisis, says Abduljalil Saoush, who represents Sirte at the Libyan National Congress.

"People were living in animal pens," he said.

Bitterness lingers among some who were forced to flee and can't go home because their towns were demolished.

"The people of Misrata bombed us — we walked 70 kilometers on foot in the sun to arrive here," said Moktar Mohamed Al Dabouh, who fled his town of Tawarga when rebels destroyed the city in revenge for its support for Gadhafi. "The tribes are kind to us but it's not our home here."

Sirte's inhabitants come from four main tribes — the Firjanis, the Warfallahs, the Gaddafas and the Misratas — the latter the only one to oppose Gadhafi from the start. Tensions continue to flare between the Warfallahs and the Misratas.

In Bani Waled west of Sirte, another Gadhafi stronghold, the two clans faced off in the town's center on Oct. 11, and again on Oct. 17, when five locals were reported killed. Locals said some of the Warfallahs shouted "Allah, Gadhafi and Libya!" and "the Warfallahs will never forget Gadhafi."

"There are those nostalgic for Gadhafi, like everywhere else in Libya," said Labaz in Sirte. "They miss the safety that there was back in Gadhafi's day.

"I respond, 'So it was better when there were executions broadcast over (the Muslim holiday of) Eid, then?' "

Sirte will forever be Gadhafi's city say many who live here. Many of the cars here feature license plates with the inscription, "Jamahiriya," as Gadhafi's "Socialist People's Libyan Arab state" was named. In Tripoli or Benghazi, displaying that name is taboo and locals paint over it or hide it with stickers featuring the revolutionary flag.

In the few schools that are open in Sirte (they were high priority targets of NATO bombings because Gadhafi's forces used them as arms depots) staff complain that the classes are one-third larger and children still draw the destroyed buildings, flaming cars and NATO planes.

In one of those pictures, a woman tries to hold her home in place as it crumbles.

"We asked for help but the government hasn't done anything," said Bin Noura, a welfare worker at Talaee Al-Nassar, the only elementary school in operation in Sirte's second district. "I would have rather have died than see Sirte like this."

As she wiped away tears, two bracelets jangled on her wrists: They were green, for Gadhafi.