Week 3: 8 May, 2012

Dear Friends and Family, 

My colleagues who were away on vacation came back this week, which made a huge difference to me mentally.  It helped to know that everything wasn’t all on my shoulders, so I felt a little less stressed out. I don’t have a huge amount to report this week.  There were two highlights: 1) a visit to what will become the UN mission Headquarters; and 2) a visit to the city of Misrata. 

As mentioned before, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) is currently operating out of a complex called Palm City.  This is a high-end residential community, and definitely not designed to house UN offices.  As a result, most UNSMIL staff work out of villas and apartments, and there is very little separation between work and ‘home’.  My ‘office’ is actually the dining room of the villa where two of my colleagues live.  In my case, at least I live in a separate villa (1 minute walk away), but some colleagues live and work in the same villa.  Obviously, these are not ideal conditions. 

My future office

The mission has already identified a complex that would eventually become Headquarters.  It’s about 20 minutes away from Palm City, and this week, I had a chance to visit the place.  The place is still a bit of a mess and requires a lot of work (I managed to upload one photo of my future office).  We’ve been told that we would most likely start working there in July or August.  Once that happens, UNSMIL staff would continue to live in Palm City but would commute to the new Headquarters.  It would be great to get the separation between work and living quarters, as it’s so hard to switch off at the moment. 

The other highlight this week was a daytrip to Misrata.  This was not part of work but a personal trip I took, along with two other colleagues. One of the local drivers had told us about an exhibit regarding the revolutionary fighters in Misrata, and recommended that we visit.  Misrata is about 2.5 hours by car and to the East of Tripoli.  There was heavy fighting in Misrata during the ‘revolution’ and reported deaths in the city range from 1,000 to 1,500.  As we got closer to Misrata, we started to see more and more buildings with heavy damages.  The main street of the city, Tripoli Street, is still full of buildings that show signs of shelling. 

Misrata

The exhibit on the revolutionary fighters is on the main street, in the midst of many ruined buildings.  Outside, there were many weapons and spent artillery on display.  They also had a statue of a hand grabbing and crushing a plane, which used to be in Qadhafi’s compound in Tripoli (he had commissioned the statue following the 1986 bombing of Libya by the US).   Inside a small building, there is an exhibit commemorating the revolutionary fighters.  All along the wall, there were hundreds of photographs of martyrs who died or went missing during the fighting last year. I don't have any photos of the inside, as taking pictures was prohibited.  

Interestingly, there was a fairly large section on the ‘wanted’, which listed the photos and IDs of individuals who were accused of fighting alongside the Qadhafi forces.  The vilification of the former regime and anyone who supported it is very strong in Libya.  In fact, this past week, the National Transitional Council passed a new decree that criminalizes the ‘glorification’ of the former regime and bans criticism of the revolution.  International and national human rights groups have criticized this decree, as it restricts freedom of speech.  Some have also pointed out that ironically this kind of restriction is reminiscent of the former regime. The political culture here has definitely been shaped by the 42 years of autocratic rule.  It's going to be a major challenge for the country to move beyond this and develop and embrace a new approach.  In my job, I will be working closely with colleagues in the mission who are working on transitional justice and reconciliation.  I’m looking forward to learning more about what can realistically be done in this area.

On a different note, Arabic classes have started.   I’m in the beginner class, and there were about 15 students.  We learned 5 letters of the Arabic alphabet today, just how to write them and how to string them together.   We didn’t learn how to speak, however.  Actually, during our road trip to Misrata, our local driver, Wael, taught us a few words.  We were randomly yelling out words – Donkey! Sky! Fuel! Hospital! Port! I’m sure they will come in handy one day…..

That’s it for this week.  Until next time!

For more photos: http://eikoikegaya.kodakgallery.com/