ACT Alliance

by Paul Jeffrey

Misrata, Libya. Libyans in the war-ravaged city of Misrata are proud of what they’ve done. Their rag-tag rebel force drove out better-equipped troops loyal to strongman Moammar Gaddafi, and they’ve held those troops at bay for weeks. Yet they’ve paid a heavy price in both lives and property, and the war is still far from over, the city’s final fate far from certain.

So the residents of Misrata, looking to celebrate their triumphs while they can, have set up impromptu displays of war paraphernalia throughout the once-thriving port city. Stacked in front of houses and piled in city parks, everything from boxes of bullet casings to fire-gutted tanks recall their heroism.

But the monuments to courage also pose a serious danger to the people of Misrata. According to an explosive ordnance team from one of the world’s largest humanitarian networks, the museums contain a variety of items such as fused artillery shells which could easily explode and cause considerable death and injury.

“These makeshift museums are absolutely lethal. If one munition blows up, they all blow up since they are so closely packed,” said Briton Richard MacCormack, head of an ACT Alliance de-mining team working in Misrata to help Libyans make their post-war environment safer.

“It’s impossible for civilians to know which ordnance is live and which is spent,” MacCormack said.

ACT ordnance disposal technician Fred Pavey said he understood the sentiment behind the museums but described them as equivalent to “the worst-case scenario in a course on explosive ordnance disposal”.

While many of the displays are on the street in front of homes, some are in city parks that fill with families in the evening. One huge display is located in a public building right beside a large Misrata mosque that often draws hundreds of people to come and pray.

The ACT Alliance team has visited several sites and urged people to separate the weapons from the public. As a result, many displays now have a rope around the perimeter. Mostafa Jalul put up a second rope barrier after the ACT Alliance team visited his pavement museum on Tripoli Street and complained that parents were posing their children for photos right beside live ammunition.

“We've fought so long with this stuff that we’re used to it. Maybe sometimes we forget how dangerous it is. We’re fighters, revolutionaries. We live with risk. But we don’t want our children to suffer,” he said.

Jalul’s display also includes photos of fallen fighters in a shrine-like setting. Another museum includes old photographs of Libya’s war against Italy in a section called Defence of the Grandfathers, while the war paraphernalia of 2011 is in a section called Defence of the Grandsons. The displays, which are all free, are a popular destination for families late in the day when the air begins to cool. In a city where the mobile phone service is non-existent and most restaurants are closed, the museums become a hub of social networking.

After months of having to abandon the city-centre and hunker down away from bullets and rockets in the homes of friends at the edge of town, Misrata’s residents are finding it liberating to walk freely through the middle of town. The museums celebrate that freedom, and honour those who died achieving it.

Along with other groups, the ACT Alliance team has started a database of the museums’ locations like some dark tourist guidebook. Pavey said they’re hoping to begin the process of neutralising the dangerous items soon. Yet it won’t be easy.

“We’ve got to disarm whatever is there, neutralising it without any risk to the operator or threat to the surrounding property. We would normally blow up some of these items where we find them, but I’m not sure we can do that in some of these settings,” he said.

“Once we’re finished, there’s enough spent ordnance lying around to allow us to replace items we’ve had to remove or destroy. People can still have their monuments, and feel pride at what they’ve accomplished. We’re just going to help them make it a little safer,” Pavey said.

ACT is one of the largest humanitarian and development networks in the world, consisting of 111 faith-based organisations that work together for justice for the world's poor and oppressed. As a global coalition with strong local roots in 140 countries, ACT mobilises US$1.6 billion annually in humanitarian assistance, development and advocacy work. The alliance has over 33,000 people working for it globally.