Reply #19: Fear of crackdown, conscription haunts Libyan capital

[joshcryer]

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE74524H20110507?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0">Fear of crackdown, conscription haunts Libyan capital
TRIPOLI, May 7 (Reuters) - Green bunting and pictures of Muammar Gaddafi festoon a Tripoli district where two months ago protesters marched in the streets. Locals whisper on corners, youths avert their gaze. Men watch passersby from unmarked cars. The fear is palpable on Tripoli's streets, fear of speaking out and fear of conscription as NATO air strikes hit Gaddafi's forces and fighting rages in Misrata and the Western Mountains.

More than two months after an uprising against Gaddafi's 41-year rule saw rebels seize the eastern part of Libya, the army has crushed dissent in the capital and its crack down on opponents elsewhere in the west is spreading fear.

"No one wants him. If the people in Tripoli were not so scared they would rise up. They did in February, in Tajoura, in Fashloom, in Souq al-Jumaa, but he crushed them," said one shopkeeper, changing the subject when other customers came in.

In the Fashloom district, a tent flanked by a big picture of Gaddafi stands a few metres from the charred offices of the local revolutionary council, set alight during the unrest that spread briefly in late February and early March before fizzling out.

It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable. - Eric Hoffer