Gaddafi abducted girls to rape them

That morning in April 2004, Muammar Gaddafi was visiting a school in his home town of Sirte, on the Mediter-ranean coast 350 miles east of Tripoli. The girl had been selected to present the Guide with gifts and flowers, and it was considered a privilege. Upon arrival, he squeezed her palm and gently patting her head.

She had no idea that the pat on the head, seemingly so paternal, actually signified something far more sinister.

Despite the mother’s protestations, the girl was driven away at high speed to an encampment in the desert the next day. There she was once more introduced to Gaddafi, who who raped her again and again. Fuelled by cocaine, whisky, cigarettes and Viagra, Gaddafi used sex not only as a physical weapon, but as a political tool through which he could exert his power. Rape subjugates women — and at the same time subjugates the men who are close to them.

Though the dictator claimed in public to have women’s rights at his heart, a new book, Gaddafi’s Harem by French journalist Annick Cojean reports that he had kidnapped, raped countless women.