The Qawalish Tree Farm Massacre: The Victims, Exhumed

September 19
last edits October 4

This follows on the Qawalish Tree Farm Massacre, and specifically on my previous analysis of its 34 victims. It seems their remains were recently located - just outside al-Qawalish - buried under earth but exhumed and for the most part identified - perhaps accurately - as abducted rebel sympathizers.

34 Bodies Recovered and Identified

MSN reports:

The International Red Cross said it has discovered 13 mass graves in different sites around Libya's capital Tripoli, and one in the western part of the country during the past few weeks and is handling the remains carefully, the international body said on Wednesday.

It added that 125 bodies were discovered around Tripoli and 34 have been recovered in al-Qala'a, in the Nefusa mountains in western Libya.
[...]
'This week we dispatched two forensic experts to the field to support our colleagues already involved in the management of human remains,' said Carole Pittet, an ICRC staff member in Tripoli.

As far as the Tripoli victims go, these graves weren't suddenly discovered until after the rebels took over. We can be fairly sure they are responsible for those, totaling another 125 victims I'll need to add soon to the Tripoli massacres masterlist. As for the find "in al-Qala'a," the Tripoli Post quotes a bit more from the ICRC:

[Pittet] went on to say: "The newly established National Council for the Missing quickly turned to us for technical support. There have been reports of improvised exhumations, which carry the risk that remains could be mishandled. Important information needed for proper identification of the dead could be lost."

It is particularly important to preserve any available proof of identity when no family member has come forward to claim or identify a set of remains, ICRC said in tis statement.

The ICRC has helped to ensure that the remains of 125 people found at 12 different sites in and around Tripoli have been handled properly. It has also provided support for the recovery of the remains of 34 people in Al Qala'a, in the Nafusa mountains.

The ICRC is not involved in collecting evidence that could be used in any legal proceedings, it said.

The big find on this development is from Human Rights Watch, September 14, who did an exhaustive bit of talking to possibly shifty people and called it an investigation. By what they say and show in photos from the site, someone had later filled over the mass grave with dirt, from which the bodies had to be exhumed by the Red Crescent. The report said in part:

Thirty-four bodies exhumed from a mass grave near the town of al-Qawalish in western Libya seem to be those of men detained by pro-Gaddafi forces in early June 2011, Human Rights Watch said today.

The evidence strongly suggests the detainees were executed at that time, before the pro-Gaddafi forces fled from the area, in the Nafusa mountains. The bodies of another three who seem to have been executed by the same perpetrators have also been discovered nearby. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch the victims had been detained from or near their homes or at a major checkpoint in the area, and included at least nine men aged over 60, including an 89-year-old man. The majority were from the nearby town of al-Qal’a.

“The mass grave at al-Qawalish contains further evidence strongly suggesting that Gaddafi loyalists carried out mass executions of detainees as they struggled to suppress the uprising,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “These victims included some very old men, some executed together with their sons.”

During a visit by Human Rights Watch to the region shortly after pro-Gaddafi forces had fled the area on July 6, the new authorities in towns near al-Qawalish furnished the names of 173 missing men, including 81 from al-Qal’a. Villagers and investigators from the ad hoc regional council for the Nafusa mountains said the fate of the missing was not established until rebels captured a Gaddafi loyalist whose mobile phone contained a video clip showing the bodies of men, bound and blindfolded, lying in a forest clearing. Relatives of many of the missing from al-Qal’a told Human Rights Watch they recognized some of the dead in the video, and recognized the location as a forest behind a Libyan Scouts base on the western edge of al-Qawalish.

On the location given - the sources and images I've looked at have Gaddafi forces at check points near Qawalish. Two of them have forested areas right behind, either of which could fit the video. One is a smaller patch of trees I haven't mentioned much, due south of town, behind a check-point. One is a couple miles east of town, and apparently a site the rebels loathed - the Almliab Scouting camp, with an extensive tree farm behind it. The third possible match nearby, actually named by some sources as the exact location, is west of town. But the Alumblyab tree farm is about two miles from the nearest check-point rebels have identified(which is on the western edge). Thus it has none of the implied access control (in June) of the other spots. So this point remains muddled - it's not being made clear where this happened. But a bunch of people were just there, and might be able to provide more details (I'll try and find out).

HRW shared some photographs of the bodies during exhumation. Their positioning matches the Tree Farm massacre victims to a T - number 8's index finger is a dead giveaway. Here at left is the span from victims 4-8, before and after burial. This helps me realize #5, a teenage boy it seems, like 4 and six flanking him, was wearing sandals. That wasn't clear before.

Note that the corpses are badly decomposed, dessicated, and collapsed. #7 in particular looks almost fully skeletonized. He's also had his arms kicked or tugged to a different position. Predation, perhaps.

Per what HRW heard, the Libyan Red Crescent, with NTC approval of course, had started the dig around August 20. "An investigative team from the Nafusa mountains regional council was also present," they reported. Between them and bereaved locals, who had put out calls for nearly 200 missing loved ones, "twenty-seven of the 34 bodies were subsequently identified."

The exhumed bodies were blindfolded with hands tied. The discovery of bullet casings at the site suggests the captors shot the men with automatic gunfire before burying them in a shallow common grave. Near the mass grave is a separate grave containing three more bodies that have not yet been exhumed, but have been tentatively identified based on footwear and other physical evidence.

The confirmed 85-year-old man is now a confirmed 83-year-old and an 89-year-old, per their list of 27 names. There are a lot of names given, and talk of family members identifying nearly all the dead, even with their faces rotted away and little left but clothes and bones on some. Our friend Algelawy2009 had already cited among the dead in the video he re-posted "my uncle and his name Emahmed Soliman and his son next to him." HRW sort of confirms this, again via locals tapped into the rebel network, with the names of victims Ali Emhammed Al-Baden, 34" and his father, "Mohammed Suleiman Al-Baden, 71" (see first link at top). If this is to line up, the son was not the kid with the hole in his head, as I thought, but likely the man with his pants down. The name jumble of a close relative is a little more mysterious.

The identities were verified by family members, on verbal authority with no proof required, one presumes. Even someone who knew the footwear of the loyalists he helped kill could just say his uncle was wearing that kind of sandal and HRW might call it confirmed and identified. We can't rule out that this was done here

More from the Witnesses
Some witnesses they spoke to had details of the camp and who was there. One man, a physics teacher, says he was briefly detained at the check-point and saw about half of the eventual victims, still alive, and was allowed to witness a certain boy badly beaten in the presence of his father, and himself, for some reason. Yet another was detained and beaten just for being from Qala'a, which Gaddafi people just hated (perhaps as much as the rebels hated Qawalish). He too "witnessed the beating of one detainee, Yusef Mohammed Ajal," as well getting to see "the Gaddafi forces took away the lifeless body" of the same man, "who remains missing."

Another HRW witness said he was transported from the check-point to Tripoli by intelligence officers who said, within his earshot, that they belonged to the “Main Operations Room of Abdullah Sanussi,” Libya’s intelligence director. Further, "one of the detainees and two persons who witnessed arrests said foreign African mercenaries were present, both at the Scouts base and during arrest raids. They said they knew they were foreigners because of their tribal scars and foreign accents and names."

Veeeery fruitful interviews, just brimming with detail. But there's an odd aspect of this camp I wasn't aware of before:

Although it remains unclear which forces were in command of the Scouts base, former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said the majority of the soldiers at the base belonged to the “Civil Guard” (Haras al-Sha’bi). Graffiti around the base identified their unit as the “Storm Forces.” The Civil Guard is a paramilitary group with a relationship to the revolutionary committees of the Gaddafi government.

So there's unspecified evidence rebels might have been in charge of, for example, who was buried there. And countering it is rebel-supporting locals and their graffiti to make clear it was the government forces. And that makes sense, back in early June, when these people were allegedly taken and killed. And we're to presume there's no way the massacre happened later, like in July, after the rebels took over and started dumping their loyalist victims outside of Qawalish.

Coffin Display

part of the giant image of the dead
displayed near the coffins

I've been alerted to available footage of a funeral - or public showing of the coffins - for the tree farm massacre victims. After being retrieved finally, they were trucked up to Qala'a, where it's said they're primarily from. The seceneray, stark and mountainous with a great view of other great views, looks right, and the number of coffins seems about right.

These videos were posted by Youtube user Qalaa17Febon September 11 and 13, more than a month after the discovery, but just as the Red Cross/Red Crescent were announcing the news.
(Raw footage of the coffins, version with other footage mixed in). 

There are six rows of coffins, six coffins per row except the last which has five. This makes 35 coffins total to 34 victims. That's slightly odd. There were the extra three, but it was said they weren't yet exhumed. All but eight, I believe, of the coffins have pictures attached, and there's exactly one one with rebel colors attached to that, in a band across the top (visible in image below). I put these facts side-by-side on the off-chance the one extra coffin and the one marked rebel are related. Not that an absence of colors detracts from the nature of the victims claimed - those suspect enough in loyalty to be arrested at check-points.

The bodies are wrapped, so even those in open caskets give no clues. But the photos sticking up on standard blue show a consistent mix of ages, including one smiling, fair-skinned boy, and a few old men. Faces cannot be matched with the dead one-by-one from the face-down corpses, but general patterns might be considered. For example, as far as I can tell, all the displayed photos (27) show Arab faces, and none show black faces. The 27 HRW cited as identified lines up. This spurs me to re-examine the racial makeup of the dead, as shown on video. On first count I had as many as 17 possibly black victims, or up to 50%.

Race is hard to be certain with in this case, but given the rebel penchant for killing black "Gaddafi mercenaries," it remains a crucial clue. Skin tone and hair type can be quite similar between Arabs and Blacks. Facial features say it best, but again, the victims were nearly all face-down. And even at the best resolution, the low lighting and distances wreak havoc on the video evidence. On closer look, and using my victim numbering, I make this call (which could of course still be wrong):

Definitely black: victims 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 25, 26, 27 (8 total)
likely black: victims 7, 10, 13, 15, 19, 24 (6 total)

So that's possibly 14, at least 8, and more likely somewhere between the two - 10-12 is a likely range. That leaves at most 26 presumably Arab/light-skinned victims, to the 27 faces shown (aside from the extra coffin, apparently in the unidentified category). If there were any more than 8 black people there, we've got at least some body-or-identity-swapping going on here. But if the smaller number 8 is exactly right, I cannot rule this display out as the massacre's known remains, with an extra victim. But if so, all the black-skinned anti-government Qala'a villagers killed by Gaddafi's troops were exactly the ones left unidentified.

Where are their families to ID them? Or were they some of the "mercenaries" with tribal scars? Thrown in by whom? Who wouldn't claim the mercs as family? Are they calling the remaining 7/8 bodies unclaimed Arab revolutionaries, awaiting their exiled family's naming by sandal? Or will they admit the implications of this obvious disconnect?
---
Update, October 1:

An article I'd somehow missed the first time around add details. It was widely re-published too.

Libyans Find Mass Grave of Slain Detainees By Karin Laub, Associated Press, September 9.

The article also deals in some detail with 18 victims who died locked in a cargo container near Khoms, some distance away (that is, the incidents aren't related). They had reportedly been locked inside, then left there as Gaddafi soldiers transporting them either waited coldly for them to die, or were incinerated by a NATO bomb before they could re-open it, depending whether one believes the story of the convenient survivor. 

But the main issue is its treatment of the Qawalish tree farm massacre, which follows the usual lines while ading details, like a twist to the location: "As part of their deployment in the mountains, Gadhafi's troops were encamped in a center for boy scouts on the outskirts of Galaa, a village of about 7,000 people, in late spring and early summer." It's been established this is the outskirts of Qawalish, not Qala'a/Galaa. While I always thought "scouting camp" meant government scouting, not kid's stuff, it could be as she says. It alsohas a changed number of bodies, in conformity with those laid to rest, and confirming my count of them.

GALAA, Libya (AP) — In a grove of pine trees near this mountain village, residents have dug up the remains of 35 bound and blindfolded men who they say were shot at close range by Moammar Gadhafi's military.

The 34/35 discrepancy remains unexplained. Laub apparently spoke with many witnesses, including a local photographer named Kreir who recognized the area from the video and other locals who loast family. As the story goes, they soon gathered to help the Red Crescent recover the remains, starting on discovering the site August 20. It adds details to how they were identified, which make some sense, and explains the framed video stills shown at the funeral:

There were particularly painful discoveries. [Mohammed] Ajal, one of the volunteers, found his father and one of his brothers. Kamal Grada, 31, discovered a younger brother. Although the bodies were in advanced stages of decay, 28 were identified, using clothing, keys and cellphone memory cards, according to searchers and the rebels' justice minister, Mohammed al-Alagi.

After 10 days of digging, the bodies were laid to rest Wednesday in a special cemetery in Galaa, each grave marked by a gray cement block. Large photos marked the graves of those who were identified, while the other graves remained bare.

Kreir set up a memorial and photo exhibit in the cemetery, including frame grabs from the cellphone video and pictures from the dig. Grieving relatives and village residents paid their respects Thursday and clustered around the photo exhibit.

Useful images attached to that article:

Mass grave after exhumation, Sept.7 - has better clues on location-two roads visible to the south, I think.

A coffin carried to the grave site, Sept. 7 

Grave sites, Sept. 7 - with better views of the full-color photos staked at the heads of each grave.

Oct.4: And thanks to Felix, another video of the "funeral"procession up the hill. Many people are filming it, suggesting again, as mentioned in the comments but not yet in the article, that this is more of a display for the outside world than a funeral for loved ones. For the hundreds of people observing this ceremony for killed locals, there's no visible grief or wailing anywhere in the available videos.

"The Qala'a Massacre" {masterlist}

Or More Accurately: The Qawalish Tree Farm Massacre
August 9, 2011
last update Sept 19

Note Aug 16: I just changed the title, only by adding quote marks and a by-line. The Qala'a massacre is the name I chose for this slaughter of 30-34 civilians, but also the name chosen by Shabbab Libya the same day when asking for a probe. As shown below, however, it's located much closer to Qawalish, the significance of which is accidentally explained up front. Thus I quote them on the more famous "official" title of what I'll otherwise call the Qawalish tree farm massacre.


Note August 20: I've moved the original discussion to its own dedicated post, for reference only. This post will eventually summarize the findings of this investigation and provide links to the sub-posts that cover certain aspects.

The links so far for the Qawalish tree farm massacre,
one of the most underreported war crimes of the Libyan war:

Video Postings and Posters - information on the different versions of the single video we have so far, most citing it as another Gaddafi massacre. Patterns of information management, damage control, unlikely claims of familial knowledge, and possible conspiracy emerge.

The Victims - 34 people cut off from life, all - or most - clearly civilian. Here I give each a number and a scan for clues. Who were they and who killed them? Why are so many local villagers black and dressed in sporty "mercenary"clothes? And why do some wear army fatigues?

Mass Grave Locale - A fascinating confusion of names (al-Mal'ab, Almliab, Alumblyab), satellite imagery, desert and tree farms, Gaddafi forces previously reported hiding in one possible match, not in the other. Again, rebel sources aren't helping sort this out. Only this blog and one intrepid reader (so far) are.

The Victims, Exhumed - A great update on the September recovery and supposed identification of the victims, buried in as positioned on video, and then dug back out. The location is still vague, but about where I have been saying. There's lots of talk of just how and where Gaddafi's guys did it - they had mercenaries with tribal scars, and lots of people witnessed lots of things at that "scouts base." The coffins are displayed,one too many, with all the black victims apparently left unidentified. Hmmm...

The Qawalish Tree Farm Massacre: The Victims

August 24, 2011
last updates September 19

This post in the Qawalish tree farm massacre series will analyze the victims this all about, and the crimes committed against them.

The Number of Dead: 34
First, I needed to settle the number of dead: 34 victims were given by the first postings. My first tentative count, from a low resolution copy, published Aug 9 was "exactly 30. It's not less than that, possibly a bit higher." Rebel support group Shabbab Libya said, the same day, the videos showed "more than thirty people." Until now I've been saying 30-34, but I finally re-did the count using the highest resolution copy, from Facebook (used for all images below). This final take gives me ... exactly 34 victims. Each is shown numbered, from south-to-north (left-to-right from initial camera view, I think), in the images below. That's one step forward.

General victim notes

I wouldn't be 100% sure myself, but those more knowledgeable of Arab dress have all said the victims are 100% male. They're mostly of fighting age, taken broadly (it's desperate times). The age range bottoms out around fifteen, possibly, tops out high - some say 85 (see last section below).

Nearly all of these 34 are in clear civilian clothes, barefooted, blindfolded, laid face down and bound, hands behind their backs. The material they're bound with seems to vary, most being invisible from the distance filmed, possibly wire. But some differ, and some are apparently unbound, as noted below.

Most of them show no obvious sign of the manner of their death. Compared to the gunshot executed victims of the al Baida massacre, there is little blood seen here, and no clearly exploded skulls. Some exceptions are noted, and to be fair, this soil is more absorbent, and the elapsed time since death longer, than the next-morning concrete of that rebel massacre.

Most of these are intact and look like they could just be asleep. But they are dead, and something tells me in most cases, they might've got that way by having their throats slit. Otherwise we have what, suffocation? Broken necks? The relative lack of blood suggests they were killed, by and large, at other locations, and their bodies brought here to be hidden until someone thought of a good way to explain the crime away before some pesky journalist or do-gooder found the mass grave and revealed it their own way.

There's an exceptional amount of trauma to the backs of pants, especially among the black men near the north end (#22, etc). Where behinds and thighs are visible through torn fabric, it suggests to me they were dragged by the wrists, alive or dead, for some distance. The tearing is often asymmetrical, maybe because they were dragged by one arm only for a while.

One victim at least (#1) has his pants tugged down partly, which might be significant. In Islamic culture, pulling down the pants is a way to humiliate the dead. Either side is capable of this, but it should be noted that one of the government soldiers dumped nearby (see the Qawalish water basin massacre), had been so de-pantsed by his killers, who were almost certainly from the rebel side. (another was beheaded). But these pants are not even half down, so that might be a stretch.

Whoever killed them, each of the bodies was once a person with a unique life story cut short. Each is worthy of respect and consideration at least, and for their death to be examined for the lessons that last sentence can give us.

Each Victim Considered
Unless otherwise noted, all victims are barefooted, laid face-down, hand bound behind, laid across the trench roughly east to west (facing away from Mecca) - that is, if the video was filmed in the morning. If it's sunset instead, then they're primarily facing the right way, with victims 1-27 generally in line with each other, and the remainder at various angles. If not specified, ethnicity is presumably Arab, Black, Amazigh, etc., or unsure.

The images below can be popped out in a new window for a larger, more detailed view.

#1 - A light skinned adult male, modern clothes in blue, pants partly down. He's laying face-up, apart from the others at an angle, apparently bound behind, blindfolded (a gray rag covering most of his face), mouth open as if gasping in pain. His top - a baggy, strangely fitted shirt or possibly some non-shirt covering - might be stained with blood, suggesting his throat may have been slit. The dense and dark body hair (abdomen and upper pubic) is clearer here than in the low resolution, where it might have looked like a sign of torture (burning?).



#2 - An old man, bearded, balding, tradional clothes - blue pants, off-white shirt, face-down, bound behind. His face looks very yellow, but this is probably just from being covered in dirt.

#3 - A large man, bearded, light-skinned Arab, traditional dress, dark blue in color, sandals on his feet. He lays face-down, apparently unbound, hands folded in front.

#4 - A boy, possibly 14 or 15 years old. Tradional clothing, barefoot, unbound apparently, face down. Unlike most, he has visible injuries - a sizable hole in the top of his head possibly consistent with a bullt exit wound, or a sharp tool entry wound. He was also possibly shot through the right foot.

#5 - A possible youth, age 17-21, modern clothes. Wearing sandals.

#6 - A possible youth, age 15-17, apparently black, modern dress.

#7 - Another grown man, apparently black, traditional dress, purple in color. He seems to be wearing sandals and thus, aside from race, seem to "fit"with victim #3 in some regards. 

#8 - A light-skinned victim in traditional dress, off-white in color. He's laid at an angle to the rest, lower in the trench. 

#9 - Traditional clothes, white top, light blue pants.  Apparently unbound.

#10 - Little can be told looking from the west. From behind, however, his hands and feet look fairly brown, sports pants with a stripe down the side. Likely a black man.


#11 - Traditional garb, apparently shot in the back of his right thigh at some point.

#12 - at an odd angle along the bottom of the trench. Bound behind, but arms at an awkward angle. Possible bag over head.

#13 - possibly black, by his hands and feet. His jacket is of a roughly military shade. 

#14 - Clearly black, a bit beefy, modern dress - blue pants, bright blue shirt. He lays perpendicular to the rest, laid on his back, knees bent, at the bottom of the trench.

#15 - Apparently black, traditional dress, purple pants and black top, bound with white rope, hairless legs (?), blindfolded with a white cloth.  Laid far up the slope from the rest but in line.

#16 - Possibly black, apparently traditional dress, all bright white. Seems to have a bag or stocking over his head.

#17 - A black man in modern dress - black pants, black sweater. White blindfold.

#18 - Black, modern dress - light striped shirt, black pants with running stripes down the side. He's laid at an angle to the rest, curled on his side, at the bottom of the trench, behind in the air, head in the dirt.

#19 - Possibly black, modern clothes - beige shirt, gray pants, bound with rope. He's apparently got a bag over his head - this is often done with head-shot victims, as with several at al Baida. No blood visible, however.

#20 - Light-skinned Arab man, long-sleeved checkered shirt, dingy gray blindfold. No sign of shooting visible, but his head is at an unnatural angle. Partially disconnected neck perhaps?

#21 - Modern clothes - black, hooded sweatshirt with white lettering, and sports pants.

#22 - A black man, white blindfold, modern clothes, face down but apparently unbound, right arm bent out. This victim seems to have been shot at the site, in the back of the head, staining the soil with his blood and perhaps collapsing his face.

#23 - Apparently Arab/caucasian, modern dress, formal-looking long-sleeved shirt. Also seems to have darkened soil around the face, and a chunk of white (skull?) visible, plus an apparent lack of facial structure leaving his head resting "too low," suggesting he too was shot right there.

#24 - Apparently black, and another head-shot victim, it seems. Light blue shirt, no blindfold.

#25 - Possibly black, dark blue shirt. Apparently wearing shoes or sandals.

#26 - Apparently black. Light blue or gray shirt, black pants, white blindfold.

#27 - A black man, somewhat beefy, modern clothes, blue striped shirt, black pants, badly torn on the right thigh.

#28 - Possibly black, modern clothes - light shirt, light blue pants. He's laid perpendicular to the rest, bound behind, face down.

#29 - Possibly an old man, slender, traditional clothes, a sort of cylindrical hat tipping off. He's laid at an angle, knees bent, on his side, bound in front or possibly unbound.

#30 - Traditional dress, possibly bald, apparently shot in the back of the head in this position - his face situated against 29's behind - judging by the apparent blood splatter there.

#31 - Is that Libyan army green fatigues? It might be a little too light for that. He's not barefoot, wearing either dark socks, or possibly some flimsy boots.

#32 - skinny, light-skinned adult male, entangled with 31.

#33 - Apparently an old man, white hair, white clothes, brilliant white. Blindfolded, bound behind, laid on his side, curled up.

#34 - Adult male, beefy, laid face-down, unbound or bound in the front. Wearing what looks like a green army jacket and blue pants. He's halfway covered with a thin foam mattress.

Extra Thoughts (more coming)
A number of interesting and perhaps helpful clues can be gleaned from the commonalities and differences of the victims. For example, that the (apparent, possible) black men - and there are quite a few - in modern dress are lumped together, the head-shot victims mostly in one spot, the young ones together, an old man near each end, capped by a man set apart at an odd angle, and so on. But a few interest me right off.

Are there soldiers in there? #31 and #34 at the north end, after the negroes, have clothing clues. And in that context, #32 between them has clothing that looks arguably military, of the under-clothes type, and then there's victim #13.

Why is there a mattress? I propose someone slept here at least one night to guard the stash, ready to rise and chase off anyone snapping twigs - or pictures - nearby. It was laid across this man #34 for some unclear reason. The guy at the odd angle on the other end is the one that could use some covering up, but that was rejected by the inhumane organizers of this slaughter and cover-up.

Something tells me this area is not "heavily mined," as Shabbab Libya said of the al-Mal'ab creek area 45 miles to the north.

More victim details alleged
All rebel sources agree these victims were at least primarily from Qala'a or around it, and some specify they were farmers, which matches the traditional clothing (shalwar kameez?) of some of them. Shabbab Libya was able to add this to their August 9 press release, "According to some sources, the men and boys were arrested by Gaddafi Regime troops on June the 2nd 2011." One wonders who their source was.

Algelawy2009, Youtube comment:

It is in Algalah [Qala'a] in the area called” Almlaeb” I am from Algalah and I know this area very well because i recognized the first face of the first body in the queue and it is my uncle and his name Emahmed Soliman and his son next to him and they kidnapped since 4 months ago and other people they recognized the some bodies by their clothes they are clear some of them are children as he say the photographer and all the family of these bodies think they are in the prison of Gadafi

See here for the findings about this forest "in Algalah." But within this tree farm by Algawalish, he says, were the very uncle and cousin of this brilliant internet warrior for freedom. What are the odds, huh? He has them kidnapped back in early April or so. I'm not quite buying it, even with the bad Engrish.

The latter victim, his young "cousin, "is likely the notable boy with the hole in his skull (#4), and his uncle perhaps #1, with his pants down. Or perhaps #2, the old man, who isn't the first seen, or next to the boy, but he is old. And a Youtube posting by Libyanm, which may be the channel of Shabbab Libya, added:

Families of these farmers are still being informed of their death. Investigations into the details of this horrific incident are still underway. It has been confirmed that one of the farmers was 85 years old.

It was probably confirmed by Algelawy2009, giving him power of confirmation of the shockingly young and the shockingly old among these victims, all known as simple peasant folk, but close relatives of a major internet freedom fighter. And who were the families being alerted when the bodies hadn't even been found or identified? Just one self-described member of Emahmed Soliman's clan?

In contrast, there's the information Libya S.O.S. attached to their posting of the video, with a source and credibility that's no more clear to me than the other side's:

Rebels crime in the Western Mountain at Al Qala'a area! They killed all the civilians from Almeshashia tribe who refused to join them!

Nonetheless, whatever this specific explanation is based on, something tells me it's closer to part of the truth than what the original posters claim.
---
Update Sept.19:
The bodies were buriedafter being filmed and have since been found and exhumed-34 of them, plus three others nearby. 27have been identified (perhaps accurately)as rebel sympathizers taken away by the regime. The rebel story is looking good finally, on paper. These details were toomuch to add here, and instead have their own post now.

The Qawalish Tree Farm Massacre: Original Investigation

August 9, 2011

last update Aug 20

Note Aug 20: I've split off this original, rambling post from what I want to be the main hub for numerous cleaner posts regarding this serious and mysterious crime. This is for reference, for anyone who wants to see how my invesigation started. Please see the original post for links to how it shaped up afterwards.

First, the Confusion (optional reading if you know of the Qawalish water basin massacre)

I recieved this comment yesterday from Peet73 at my post Rebel Atrocity Videos:

There was a hint from the facebook-group "British Civilians for Peace in Libya" on Saturday concerning a new atrocity video from the Nafusa Mountains. But it was immediatly deleted on Youtube before I had oportunity to watch it. Libya S.O.S. has a copy now:
http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/08/battle-for-libya-rebels-fab17-demonic.html

We can only presume (perhaps?) this is the same video being talked about and shown here. Either way, the video at that link is the main subject here, covered below. But first, the commentary added at the posting mentioned a "propaganda machine" that "delete[d] this video" because "they describe this like murder by Libyan Army BUT you can see on 0:23 there is not Libyan army!"

I'm not sure what this means. The whole video, that spot included, shows civilian victims only, going by clothes, and nothing shows whether it was the army or anyone else who killed them. Although ovbiously rebel forces are the natural suspect by a long shot.

It might be that the confusion is about the victims, not the killers - was this massacre of soldiers or civilians by the "machine's" narrative? Clearly this video shows the latter, but there have been many reports in recent weeks mentioning a "mass grave" of "Gaddafi loyalists" who were also, apparently, soldiers.

But this isn't news, really. I happened to catch a Russia Today broadcast that I thought might be a hit. The re-post I saw was from July 26, but in fact, it's from July 22, and the anchor spoke with Sukat Chandan of British Civilians for Peace, who’d been, for the last couple of days, re-breaking a story from a week or so earlier. The anchor's understanding was of:

Mass grave of alleged pro-Gaddafi soldiers has been discovered in a rebel-controlled area of the country, according to British newspaper the Telegraph. The location was swiftly bulldozed after the discovery, suggesting an attempt to cover up the killings. The bodies were reportedly mutiliated, adding to recent concerns of human rights abuses by Libyan rebels.

This sounds a bit like the Qawalish massacre first revealed by its discover, C.J. Chivers, on about July 12 (undated). The grave, while improper, wasn't very massive - five dead soldiers dumped in a deep water basin, one buried under an olive tree next to it. I wrote about this on June 21, having caught it a couple of days late. Chandan spoke to Russia Today the next day so, for all I know, I was his source.

But alas, I was already looking for a Telegraph story from that time, and I only now am aware of it. It ran on July 20 and is worth a read:

The headless corpse, the mass grave and worrying questions about Libya's rebel army 

The five corpses floated disfigured and bloating in the murky bottom of the water tank. Wearing green soldiers' uniforms, the men lay belly down, decomposing in the putrid water.

Actually it sounds like exactly the same massacre. The body Chivers said "appeared to have been beheaded" was “cleanly decapitated.” The other with "his pants bunched down around his ankles" is confirmed with "the trousers of another had been ripped down to his ankles, a way of humiliating a dead enemy." There is a photograph attached to the article of some men standing around looking, with only one of the victim’s hands visible in the foreground. There are some other additions I'll have to update my post with. I had no idea they beat me to it by a day! And like Chivers but unlike me, they were there and seeing it first-hand.

But it's not the same as what we're looking at here. I hope someone thought there was confusion, or else that was all a waste and a distraction.

However, Peet cites Saturday, August 6 I presume, for this video mention by Chandan's crew, and feels what Libya SOS has - posted Sunday the 7th and noting a deletion - is or might be the same. So again there might be a connection worth finding there, but I didn't find it. Their Facebook page didn't let me see wall posts older than yesterday, and I don't know where else it would be. If anyone reading can help me find more info on this new video, I’d be happy to hear it.

The New Video

All I have so far is what it shows and what Libya SOS added, aside from an unrelated but interesting Fox News article:

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 2011
Battle for Libya: Rebels #Feb17 - the demonic animals kill 34 people

WHO CAN STOP THE TRUTH!
Rebels crime in the Western Mountain at Al Qala'a area! They killed all the civilians from Almeshashia tribe who refused to join them! Propaganda machine delete this video - becoouse they describe this like murder by Libyan Army BUT you can see on 0:23 there is not Libyan army! They will not stop TRUTH - never!

It’s hosted through Youtube in the unusual Libya SOS way, where I cannot find it on Youtube, cannot save a copy, and cannot embed it here, since the video ID code isn't displayed. It was there both before and after my work shift, but since its alleged previous postings have vanished, I saved a lot of stills. Here is the title screen, in Arabic, using “Indian numbers” to indicate 34 victims.

I can't vouch for that number. Some spots aren't too clear, but I was fairly thorough, and counted exactly 30. It's not less than that, possibly a bit higher. The still at left gives an idea of the layout. It looks like someone made a slight effort to dig a trench. Very slight. There's certainly nothing proper about these burials.

For what it's worth, I think this is filmed early morning, not late afternoon. By their long shadows and the few observers viewed, this is filmed by armed rebels.

I suspect these victims were not killed here. The lack of visible blood anywhere, and the uneven dispositions of those killed - some bound, some not, for example - and the haphazard arrangement suggests they were killed in various places around Qala'a or Yefren, and then dumped here.

The victims are varied, including young and old, fit and fat, apparently  all male, but I'm no expert on Libyan attire enough to venture the few I'm not so sure about. Three victims of special interest are clustered at the near end in the above view.

In fact, the odd one with his pants half-down I focused on at right. If pants down is an insult, what's this? A half-insult, one half-revoked by someone later on, or an accident in dumping? We may never know. He seems to be bound, hands behind his back. As for his face, it's just a dark blur. Is this some burning-related torture, a dark rag, some added blur for decency, or what? I'm not sure. Several of the faces seem strangely blurry, in fact.

It's a bit the same but less so with the apparent old man at left. We can see his hair and short beard are white, his head mostly bald. His hands seem to be bound behind his back, but how exactly he was killed isn't clear. His face seems strangely yellow, even for being covered in the yellow soil. It's probably nothing but the dirt, however.

Another victim looks a bit small to me - quite likely a boy aged about fourteen. He's one of the few with an injury that's obvious at this resolution: a solid hole in the top of his skull, as clearly visible at right. Brain matter seems to be visible inside. A couple of the others look a bit small, perhaps not full-grown. But there don't seem to be any small children present.

Farther down are about a dozen fighting age men in more sporty clothing. Quite a few are clearly black men, and this stretch is more likely to be civilian loyalist fighters of some sort. Others are in traditional gowns and such. You can fight in those. At the end is at least one fairly obese person, and someone halfway covered with what looks like a heavy thin mattress. All but a few are laid face-down.

Location, Location, Location...

With no detailed sources available, we can't be certain this even happened when and where it's said to have. But short of certainty, I can say the topography is a nice fit. The Qala'a area has gentle but tight ridges lined with trees, sandy soil in narrow valleys between. This may be at the narrow end of any of these couple dozen small gullies. It might be possible to identify an exact spot, but I won't bet my precious time on finding out.

As I said above, I suspect the rebels filmed this themselves, and posted it online. Why? Did they think their own discovery on video would make it possible to claim loyalist forces were responsible? Was it just one rebel faction running across the work of an allied network? What was their motive for filming it? Political or ethical? We may never know.

Do they perhaps film these things to cause terror among those whose neighborhoods they'll be in next? Perhaps. Are we the water carriers for this operation? Do they even watch Youtube closely in Qala'a and Yefren? If they do, will they run away or just get more pissed off and arm themselves to drive out the vermin? Can even NATO get away with bombing Libyan civilians defending themselves from eggregious human rights abuses like this seems to be?

I look forward to seeing where this story goes.

Where its Gone

August 10: Peet73 alerts me in a comment below that there is a new postings, and a Googlesearch gave me another. The resolution of both seems a bit better, they're able to be saved my way, and they're posted by rebel-affiliated accounts. which I can save.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8iLkPQiv4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvOMMbIEixk

And, as both Peet73 and a Google search revealed, another rebel group/site, Shabbab Libya (Libyan youth) is calling for an investigation! It's the different twist they add that makes that make sense.

http://shabablibya.org/news/press-release-august-9-2011-al-qalaa-nafusa-mountains-libya

Libyan Organizations demand the investigation of Nafusa town massacre Al-Qala’a, Nafusa Mountains, Libya, 9th of August 2011 – Following the discovery of video footage stored in mobile phones of captured Gaddafi regime troops, local Nafusa Mountain associations, ShababLibya, The Libyan Youth Movement and The Libyan Link, call on the Libyan National Transitional Council to shed light on the massacre of over thirty men and children in the area of Al-Qala’a, Nafusa Mountains.

The footage found on captured Gaddafi loyalist mobile phones shows the corpses of more than thirty people, local men and boys, lying face down, hands tied and visibly executed. According to some sources, the men and boys were arrested by Gaddafi Regime troops on June the 2nd 2011. The bodies may be located in the Al-Mal’ab Forest area, however, this location is heavily mined and it is impossible to search. It is imperative to allow for the families of the victims to retrieve their loved ones so that they may be given a burial according to Islamic practices.

The broad network of Libyan associations including the Al-Qala’a Civil committee and the families of the victims, supported by Libyan organisations abroad demand that the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) activate all possible channels to initiate investigations of war crimes and Human right’s abuses. In parallel, the network of Libyan associations requests assistance for the demining of this area, to allow for the recovery of the bodies.

So now it was allegedly filmed by Gaddafi forces and therefore, by implication, carried out by them. They have some specifics that are hard to double-check - an abduction date and some names, making them seem to know what they're talking about. And perhaps it's so.

I'm glad they get the same impression the ones filming are sympathetic to the crime. I thought they seemed like rebels, but I still haven't had the time to study closely, and I myself can only read so much from this kind of evidence. Nonetheless, I'm working on it, and have some analysis half-done. I will wait to post it until after I finish my new video, hopefully tonight.

In the meantime, what I could use is anyone able to provide a transcript of what the observers are saying. Arabic-speakers? The best is an Arabic transcription of actual words spoken, then translated and available for reference. One valuable clue as to who's filming can be heard at 2:15, about seven seconds after the cameraman seems to spit in disgust: the man behind him in a camo jacket mentions "Muammar Gaddafi," I think. In what context?

Aug 11:Video Timing:

"Al-Gala massacre, 34 men executed including one child." Posted by user misratapost, August 5.

MUAMMAR Gaddafi's forces have committed "crimes against humanity and war crimes on a large scale" Torture, mass executions , using humans as shields and banned cluster bombs, rape...
Here is another evidence from the town of Al-Gala -- Libya

Then, "Footage of Gaddafi forces murdering farmers in Al-Qala, Nafusa Mountains." Posted by Libyanym, August 6. Adds details.

Farmers who stayed behind to tend to their animals after their families fled to Tunisia were arrested by Gaddafi forces on June 2, 2011.

This video is the footage of their corpses after their arrest, torture, and murder.

Families of these farmers are still being informed of their death. Investigations into the details of this horrific incident are still underway. It has been confirmed that one of the farmers was 85 years old.

The brutality of the Gaddafi regime knows no bounds, these are viscous crimes against humanity. Gaddafi terrorizes innocent civilians and continues to do so. The Libyan people call for their basic human rights and that Gaddafi be brought to justice.

Then Libya S.O.S. re-post, August 7, referring to previous deletions. Which posting was pulled? That's not clear. IF there was a version up first that Libya S.O.S. and the British Civilians saw in the context of a rebel crime, that would be quite relevant. Conversely, if the rebels put it up first, it would go a ways towards illustrating their case - that this video was just now discovered by their forces. As it stands, it seems like the rebel version went up first.

Does that mean real Gaddafi soldiers filmed this? Not necessarily. If so, does that mean they did it? Not necessarily. If they did, does that suggest a government order? No. Would it be right to demand the overthrowof the Johnson regime following the My Lai massacre? Probably not. We have as possibilities:

1) crimes against humanity by Gaddafi, alleged for the millionth time.

2) the actions of a rogue unit, a side-effect of loss of command and control, what happens when the central authority is removed as NATO's tried to do.

3) a rebel atrocity, like the others we know of in that immediate region.

Asking for an investigation: This is something I don't recall seeing rebels do before. The truth is always clear, and the solution is always more weapons and help getting rid of Gaddafi. Would a TNC probe would mean a damn thing as far as discovering the truth? Or just provide confirmaton with some "authority?" The request does however seem to show their openness to an "investigation" as opposed to their earlier bulldozer work. They fear the truth, I suspect, hence the show of not seeming to fear it.

The MO: Feels like Islamist-tinged, cocky, rebel work to me. Even the cartoon ruler all rebels know doesn't fit the bill. These are all males 12 and up, when everyone knows Gaddafi is either indiscriminate, or goes for women and small children first.

The Location: I think I was wrong to be so sure that area is a match with Qala'a. User "Antinazi Hippy" questions the location in comments at Misratapost's posting. He cites a topography mismatch, and suggests it was actually filmed in Zlitan, making all three postings - all claiming specific knowledge of the circumstances - wrong. That's a hefty thing to propose, but as I said, I'm not seeing it like I did at first. Basically that was "there's trees and a gully." But it's pretty flat, there's no gully really, just the ditch. And the trees just go on in all directions, like they do in very few spots around Qala'a. Or so it seems now. Will come back with images and semi-final thoughts.

Also, the cameraman's shadow stretching across the trench makes clear the trench itself runs roughly north-south, whatever clue that is. By this, the trees - bushy evergreens - are present in large numbers in all four cardinal directions. Hundreds. The dots around al Qala'a are single trees that can be counted in the dozens at most in any one patch. Right? Will look closer ...

The party filming is no more than four, I'm pretty sure. The cameraman has a rifle, and a gaurd standing back is armed. The other two, not clearly armed. I'll be back with stills and thoughts. The best clues will be in the audio track - what the two men who speak say, when, and how. Until find a friendly Arabic translator, I have nothing but the words at the bottom of the screen of misratapost's posting. I'll be back with those and anything else I find in the meantime.

Aug 12:  The layout/scenery, best views I could find, rotated to upright. Directions given are if this is sunrise. If not, it's sunset and all directions are reversed.

So it's not really flat - there's a decent slope to the west/northwest, or else the trees there are all slanted. It's not as obvious in the west view, but the trees further back are progressively higher. (We don't ever get a view of due east, or into the sun, that I caught.) Too many trees. I don't think it's Qalaa, immediate area. Looking closer at the Google maps imagery, the slopes there are steeper, and terraced in a funky way I don't see here. An image search shows photos of imposing slopes, desert soil, rocks, dust, few trees. The soil between them blows and drifts like dunes. Here we have a veritable forest, leaves from something like olive trees, wispy dry grass (visible in the better views I'm seeing), a cover of greenish grass in spots.  There could be lichens or moss in there somewhere, in an extra-shady spot.

Other things I'll need to figure out - what was going on in early June and in the time since. I need a feel for the temporal topography as well.

More video links, and a possible original:

"Civilians 34 from the city of Qalha executed by soldiers of Gaddafi." Posted by user algelawy2009, August 5.

"MASSACRE IN QALAA LIBYA." Posted by ibnomar2005, Aug 5. This one may have the best resolution yet. 

Another posting, CCTV prince, August 5. This one gives: 

An original link from Facebook, a large format video posted in HQ on August 5 at 6:50 am. Definitely a tie or a winner for best clarity, apparent original. I'm using this for future screen grabs, and will see about saving a copy.

---

Aug 13: A clearer view of the victim with his pants down. It's not obvious if his arm is really tweaked back, missing, or what. The dark patch beneath him is I think a shadow of a rock ledge there. He's clearly blindfolded here, it just slipped out of place.

The "Gaddafi soldiers" on video:

Soldier #1 walks up, seen in shadow, armed and filming. The smaller inset shows the shape of his camera - not an iphone. #2 and #3 walk up behind, in that order I think, pass to his left and cross the trench. #4 stays behind standing guard.

#2 manages to avoid being filmed really, crossing back to #1's side as he turns the camera their way (see inset). He's wearing dark jeans, a light civilian shirt, and sandals. He makes an interesting comment (see below).

# 3 wears sandals as well, but a military jacket. His face is covered (to avoid smelling, or to avoid being seen?) but he seems fairly young, and seems to be filming on a smaller device. I'm not an expert on the different camo styles, weapons, etc. typically used by different parties. Do Gaddafi soldiers wear sandals? I suppose they could.

#4, standing off to the north,  wears a striped shirt. He's got a chubby face, looks black (or is that just the shade? He doesn't seem any more professional in stance or attire than the others. He also seems to be recording the scene, making me guess that #2 is possibly doing the same.

Subtitles via Misratapost - no guarantee it's what's actually said. Subtitles in quotes, speaking party in [square brackets].

1:25 - "34 bodies." [#3, faint, saying more than this]
1:34 - "This is the fate of rats." [#3, clearly saying more than this]
1:48 - [#3 question, no subtitle]
1:52 - "This is the fate of the dirty rats - dogs." [#1, cameraman]
1:56 - "They smell very ill." [#3]
2:04 - "See the dogs, see the dogs." [#1, spits]
2:09 - "This is the fate of rats." [#1]
2:11 - "This is a child. Show the child." [#3, where he says something just like "Muammar Gaddafi," with a slight "eh" at the end. is there a way of saying "show the child" that sounds like that?]
2:20 - "This is the fate of the dirty rats. These are old men." [#3. voice muffled by jacket]
2:46 - "See the rats." [#3]
3:07 - "This is a child. Dig a grave for him." [#1]
3:13 - "This is from Pakistan? No. I thought so. Dig a hole for him." [#2, apparently, and #1 speaking]

The last line sounds like what's spoken, the Pakistan part anyway. It's an odd side-track, but I presume they're referring to the boy with the hole in his head, wearing the outfit I think is called a shalwar kameez, like several others are. It's popular in Pakistan, and wherever conservative Muslims live. The guy in jeans just didn't get it. Is he even Libyan?

The "fate of rats" part is repeated, and the sound is about the same each time the cameraman says it: a bit like "muslaida jirdat." This isn't really impressive I suppose, but Google translate lets your hear various translated words. What it gives me for rats isn't in there. Nor the words for rodents, dogs, fate, destiny, end, death - none of them is a match. What am I doing wrong, I wonder? Getting too literal?

---

Aug 14: I've been over and over the area in Google maps, and still can't find a good match. It's hard to be sure, but the area in question is only a nook of hospitability a few miles wide, surrounded by tangled tectonic masses that just look bizarre - plus barren and treeless - from above. For anyone who wants to help, here again is the satellite imagery you can zoom way in on. If the spot can be found there, I want to know.

Since I've heard Zlitan mentioned as an alternate, I tried to look there, but Google maps imagery is clouded over in that spot. It could provide some matches if visible, but I was also pulled to the area just north of Dafiniya, a few miles east of there as an area that makes sense. Either would put the heat on Misrata rebels instead of Zintan/Nafusah ones.

We also have the supposed men making at least three recordings of the scene. They're said to speak like Gaddafi soldiers, calling the dead "dogs" and "rats." If that's a well-known thing they're supposed to do, wouldn't that make it a well-known thing to do if you were trying to act like gov't soldiers? I'm pretty sure I've caught rebels impersonating wicked soldiers in a few fake videos before. They act stupidly brutal, possibly drunk, demanding allegiance to Gaddafi, extracted with fake-slap and fake-kick force, and insulting the overly-cowed and helpless-looking people at every chance.  Apparently Arabs don't do subtlety very well.

This ... if fake it's more subtle. Maybe even the Pakistan line was designed to show how ignorant of Islam the regime's western-dressed soldiers and mercenaries really are.  But that's a ways ahead of where we're at.

And some points from Peet73:

Some remarks by the moment: There maybe a dirt track passing by in north and east (the guy with the AK47 at 0:23 stands perhaps in the middle of that track)
Moreover the garbage gives a hint on a nearby road or frequently used track, that's quite typical for north african roadsides.
I think a plane is passing by (starting at 0:40). But this last point will not be very helpfull according to the number of NATO sorties.

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Aug 15, and it’s coming together: We have a location! Thanks again to Peet 73, we have a complete possible fit just outside the area I was searching. As he just explained in comments below, the Arabic comments beneath the posting by algelawy2009 gives a location of مزرعة المليعب which translates "the farm Alumblyab" (using Google translate, and I double-checked, it cites an "apparent mass murder in the farm Alumblyab"). This in turn turns up a match he found on Wikimapia, which shows a dense patch of trees in the desert conveniently spelled-out as the Amlumblyab forest. The term "farm" being used is likely from this being a tree farm, not a real forest. The flat-packed, rutted, trenched, randomly worked-looking soil here fits the idea and what I see in the video. It all clicks. For reasons I'll explain later, I suspect it was near the edge of the "forest."

It’s outside the immediate area I was searching, but not by much. It’s about 10 miles south-southwest of the Yefren nook, a short truck ride, and closer yet to other places. Like al-Gawalish/Qawalish; no more than three miles down the road is the town where rebels are known to stash their dead just outside of town. In fact, it's edge probably no more than five miles, and perhaps just a few hundred yards, from where Mr. Chivers made his chilling discovery. (I'm trying to pin that area down now, separately). But calling this the "Qawalish tree farm massacre” just doesn’t have the right ring, for some reason. So it's in the "Qala'a area," in a vaguely-named forest, and the reason will become clear below.

For what it's worth, there is another tree farm area just barely south of Qawalish that could fit the video, if not the named locale, just as well. The distiction of which tree farm it was is important. The one named in the recent Shabbab Libya PR gives a heavily-mined "Al-Mal’ab Forest area," which is ... similar. And earlier, they had mentioned possibly the same area (as Peet73 again noticed), with a spelling somewhere between the two that I now prefer - as a place where government force massed for evil.

In a June 3 press release, the kids announced the opening of a supply line to Yefren and al-Qala’a from Az Zintan, to bring “humanitarian” supplies to this front line, and asking for NATO air support to protect it. They also gave specific co-ordinates of government forces that "threatened [...] the region of Yefren and the Nafusa mountains." Among the precise spots "threatening" (otherwise, defending) Qala'a and its civilians was "Almliab forest (VERY IMPORTANT)," which housed a "large force including at least 4 tanks, grad, ammunition, personnel, etc. It is the main army supply to the area (substation) for forces heading west." Beyond this, they assured NATO that "command and control is highly suspected to be in one or more of the 4 buildings given."

This makes enough sense, using the sparse tree cover available, at a government facility no less, to keep their weapons relatively safe from bombing. This is surely what the rebel "investigation" will find, and the inference will be clear enough to them, and perhaps most people, by the time they put it together. So we can start considering it early, here's the narrative:

Gaddafi forces based in the Almliab tree-farm-base take 34 captives from the town in early June, kill them wherever and for whatever reason, and then dump their bodies in this ditch within their forest, unburied, left in the open. They then come back after some time has passed, and film themselves gloating over their prey. The soldiers come, all four of them, mostly in civilian clothes and sandals, and one stands guard at the north end of the trench, in their own forest-base.

This happened perhaps in early June, perhaps July or August. The whole area's been under rebel control since mid-July. But they kept the video to themselves, making one wonder what it was for, until whenever the rebels captured the same soldiers. Only then, possibly as they finally took the forest, that this pointless admission video was shown to the world. Rebel sleuths in Benghazi will put two and two together, and prove they're a real government who can investigate things.

Case solved, right?

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Aug 16: Another Twist: I hate to re-inject complexity, but the locale is not so clear. We have wooded areas near the Qala'a / Qawalish area - one identified "Alumblyab Forest" per Wikimapia, and a "farm" of the same name given as the location on one video. We also have an "Al-Mal’ab forest" given, and an earlier reference to "Almliab scouting camp and agriculture centre." Considering tree farm covers the farm/forest difference, one would presume the name differences, at least between the two that have the 'm' and 'l' in the same order - are irrelevant. It's probably the same place - the tree farm southwest of Qawalish.

However, the PR citing Almliab had coordinates I decided to double-check using Earth Tools. I used their number for the forest itself (31°58’38.03″N, 12°40’26.62″E), and the first of the four buildings listed (31°58’59.04″N, 12°40’30.84″E). I got it as close as I could (within tens of feet), and both came out right next to each other, but not on top of or even next to the area we were looking at. Rather, the dots came out about the same distance (3-4 miles) southeast of Qawalish, and further yet - about 20 miles by road - from Qala'a.

What's there, to my surprise, is another, third forested area - smaller and harder to spot than "the farm Alumblyab." This one is more elongated, less level, and more spread out, fanning over natural ridge tops. It's like a cross between the woods by Qala'a and the other tree farm. It's a good match for this video as well, though I'm not sure if it's a better or worse fit. I'll come back to that later. The red circles are approximately the spots they identifed with the coordinates. The northern one clearly means that small complex of small buildings next to the road.

This is a bit confusing, but here are the possibilities, not all mutually exclusive:

- There are two tree farm areas flanking Qawalish with very similar names - Almliab and Alumblyab.

Or:

- The places are considered the same, with one name, just in two sections five miles apart.

Or:

- Some other kind of mix-up.

And:

- The dumping was actually NOT in the forest the government reportedly used.

Or:

- It WAS where the June PR indicates, but the video posting got the name mixed up.

Or:

- Wikimapia had it wrong (who plugs this info in and updates it?)

Or:

- ?

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Aug 17: Not much to add. I checked the pronunciation of "Show the child" in Google translate, and the "child" part sounds like "toffle," or in fact a bit like the "daffi" part of the "Gaddafi" I thought I heard. The first part isn't quite right, it's still uncanny in its similarity to the leader's name, but I'm not so sure this is the clue I thought before.

No plan yet to sort out just which tree farm this discovery was inside of. I'm leaving it for now as one or another of these wooded areas just south of Qawalish.

For what it's worth as a clue, there is a different type of tree visible, for only a frame or two, in only one direction - to the northeast as I have it, nearest "soldier" #4. I can't identify it yet. It doesn't look like an olive tree or a few others I considered. Anyone?

It might be nothing but some mixed plating, or the start of someone's orchard blending a bit into the edge of the evergreen factory, helping set the location. Does the lighting pattern suggest the area in that direction is more open, with smaller trees? I think it might.