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Angry reaction from town singled out by Libyan ruler as harbouring terrorists he says are behind country’s revolution It’s not the caricatures of Muammar Gaddafi that mark the crumbling Mediterranean town of Derna as unusual. Nor is it the messy graffiti cursing his 42-year-rule, which can be seen in cities across the east of the country in the so-called Free Libya that has existed since the revolution in February. Instead it is the neatly stencilled messages, appearing in English on walls and placards, that hint at how Derna is fighting two battles: one to rid the country of Gaddafi and the other to shed the town’s reputation as an outpost of Islamist extremism. “Yes to pluralism,” reads the slogan outside the port. “No to Qaeda [sic].” A banner outside the Sahaba mosque is more wordy, and more adamant. “We refuse to be linked with Al Qaeda & other terrorist groups,” it says. Derna’s rudimentary PR campaign, apparently led by university students, is clearly aimed at foreign journalists arriving in the town to seek evidence of claims made by Gaddafi’s regime. Tripoli has repeatedly said Libya’s revolution is being spearheaded not by people desperate for freedom but rather by al-Qaida militants seeking to create an Islamist state. As proof, it has pointed to Derna in the far east of Libya, much to the disgust of residents. “Gaddafi is using al-Qaida as a bogeyman, a scarecrow, to make western countries afraid,” said Abdulkarim Bentaher, an English professor who is a member of Derna’s local transitional council. “He wants to stop the west supporting us, and in some way he has succeeded. [But] there is no such thing as al-Qaida in this town.” While a day’s visit is not enough to verify this, or to understand the true motives and aspirations of people, there was nothing to suggest Bentaher was anything but sincere. The difficulty for the people of Derna is that Gaddafi’s argument has been boosted by the town’s history as a fertile recruiting ground for Islamist groups, and suicide bombers in particular. Along with other cities in eastern Libya, Derna supplied militiamen for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an anti-Gaddafi movement that sprang up in the training camps of Afghanistan in the early 90s. Even more damaging were the revelations that emerged after coalition forces, operating near the Syrian border with Iraq in 2007, recovered records of about 600 foreign fighters who had entered Iraq the previous year. Analysis of the information by the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point in the US found that of the 440 fighters whose hometowns were listed in the data, 52 were from Derna – the highest of any town or city listed. On a per capita basis the statistic was even more remarkable. Derna’s population is around 100,000, while the Saudi capital, Riyadh – which provided 51 fighters – is home to several million people. In addition the Libyans appeared to have been especially fervent, with 85% of them listing their desired “work” as being a suicide bomber. Residents openly acknowledge that scores of young men from Derna fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that some of those who returned are now helping the rebel cause. “People here saw what was happening in Palestine and how America was supporting repressive regimes. So when they saw US in Iraq, a Muslim country, some people felt it was a reason for jihad,” said Mohamed El-Mesori, a lecturer in power mechanics who heads the executive arm of Derna’s council, which is dominated by secular figures. “But that does not mean they supported Bin Laden.” Yet similar anti-western sentiment would have been felt across much of the Arab world. So why did so many young people from Derna in particular choose to seek martyrdom? The answer to that is not easy. The town may be more religious than many others in Libya, but still appears to be fairly moderate. Indeed, many people here say the radicalisation had less to do with religion than Gaddafi’s oppression and deliberate neglect of the town. “There were no jobs for young people, no money, a lot of men in jail. People thought there was no future under Gaddafi so they started to get other types of thoughts,” said 34-year-old Faraj al-Faitory. Others said Gaddafi, who was one of the world’s biggest sponsors of terrorism in the 80s and 90s, actively encouraged young people from Derna to join jihad, helping them obtain the necessary travel documents. There is no way of proving that. What is certain is that there has long been opposition to Gaddafi in Derna – dating back to 1970, a year after he took power, town elders say. In turn, the town has been punished. Despite its beautiful location, sandwiched between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jebel Akhdar, or Green Mountains, Derna’s apartments and office blocks are shabby compared with elsewhere in the country, and sewage leaks on the main streets. One of the few well-maintained buildings is the Sahaba mosque. One of its halls has been turned into a sort of shrine for the hundreds of local victims of Gaddafi’s regime over the years. There are photographs of the five demonstrators killed on 17 February, when the town rose up against the regime. Other pictures date to the mid-90s, when several dozen political prisoners from Derna were among the 1,200 people massacred at the Abu Salim jail in Tripoli. Around the same time Gaddafi’s forces staged a brutal crackdown on the LFIG, conducting house-to-house raids in Derna. One the survivors of the regime’s brutality, Ati al-Mansoury, 60, a former army lieutenant who was jailed from 1975 to 1988 for plotting a coup, sat outside the mosque. “We in Derna don’t have a problem with anyone in the world,” he said. “Except Gaddafi.” Asked whether anyone in the town wanted an Islamist state, his friend Abdelwhab Sary, a 57-year-old teacher, blurted out: “No, no! We want freedom only, and democracy. Al-Qaida is rubbish for us.” In trying to prove the rebels’ terror links, Gaddafi’s regime has pointed to Abdulhakim al-Hasidi, a Derna native who went to fight in Afghanistan before 9/11 and was captured by US troops and held for several months. Now he leads a unit of rebels that has seen action in Ajdabiya and the western city of Misrata. He has denied any links to al-Qaida, and to people in town he is just another revolutionary – albeit one with useful skills. “He’s a good friend of mine,” said Bentaher, the English professor. “He is not a dangerous person at all.” Indeed, to people In Derna the biggest danger to Libya is the man still clinging to power in Tripoli. In the town’s training camp, Siraj Abidi, a 28-year-old farmer, was learning how to clean and reassemble an anti-aircraft gun. “Gaddafi is the terrorist man,” he said. “We are just ordinary people.” Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Middle East Africa al-Qaida Xan Rice guardian.co.uk