Thursday, February 04, 2016

Gaddafi's gun, Lybia and the Western connection

Gaddafi's golden gun bears the words "Made in Belgium" - an engraving that points to another story. Three years ago, arms experts spotted a single advanced Belgian rifle in the hands of militants in Gaza. But how had a group listed by the EU and the US as a terrorist organisation obtained the weapon? Arms expert Nic Jenzen-Jones and the BBC's Thomas Martienssen tracked its journey and traced it back to a 12m euro shipment of Belgian arms to Libya agreed in 2008.
When Libyan rebels celebrated the death of Muammar Gaddafi, the colonel's gold-plated pistol was held up as a symbol of their victory - I watched as they passed it among themselves. Four years on, I've been back to Libya to find the man with the golden gun.
BBC

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