Tripoli, 15 November 2015:Two people involved in commemorating the second anniversary today of the Gharghour massacre were seized by gunmen after a small group of relatives and friends of the victims had gathered nervously in Quds Square, the scene of the carnage.
Last year’s attempt to remember the slaughter of 43 demonstrators in a hail of gunfire from Misratan militiamen had been quashed by Libya Dawn forces, who had warned against a plot by “infiltrators and terrorists”.
A similar warning was issued this year but the handful of protestors went ahead anyway. They displayed boards with pictures of the dead and stood in silent protest at the massacre. It is understood that the two men were seized when they were putting away the boards.
Two years ago, hundreds of Gharghour residents, fed up with the Misratan militias’ use of villas near the square as a base and prison, advanced on the position demanding they quit the capital. It was part of a wider protest against militias who had come to dominate Tripoli. As the crowd approached the base, they were shot at.
There were reports at the time that a few demonstrators had been armed.
The massacre was the biggest single loss of life since the Revolution. It generated widespread shock and outrage.
Three days later, the Misratans pulled out of Gharghour and went back to Misrata, where they did not receive the normal warm welcome given other returning fighters. Indeed there were small demonstrations in the city condemning the massacre.
Other than the small protest in Al-Quds Square, the only place in Tripoli where the anniversary was marked was in Fashloum. There, protestors demanded that those responsible for the events two years ago be brought to justice.