TRIPOLI: Since the rebel takeover of Tripoli, evidence has been mounting that Muammar Gaddafi may have lied about the death of his adopted baby daughter Hana in a 1986 American airstrike.
The strike hit Gaddafi's home in his Tripoli compound, Bab al-Aziziya, in retaliation for the Libyan-sponsored bombing of a Berlin nightclub earlier that same year that killed two US servicemen. At the time, Gaddafi showed American journalists a picture of a dead baby and claimed it was his adopted daughter Hana - the first public mention that she even existed.
Diplomats almost immediately questioned the claim. But Gaddafi kept the story alive through the years.
Then, when investigations into the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing pointed to a Libyan hand in the attack, some theorised that Gaddafi had ordered it to avenge Hana's death in the US airstrike.
But when Libyan rebels took over Tripoli and Bab al-Aziziya last week, they found a room in Gaddafi's home with Hana's birth certificate and pictures of a young woman with Hana written on the back, possible indications that she lived well beyond infancy. A Tripoli hospital official surfaced, saying Hana worked for him as a surgeon up until the rebels came to town.
And today, Swiss officials confirmed that Hana's name had briefly appeared earlier this year on a Swiss government document listing the names of senior Libyan figures targeted for sanctions.
Many Libyans believe Hana was never killed and talked about her existence openly.
Adel Shaltut, a Libyan diplomat at the UN in Geneva, said it was common knowledge that Hana Gaddafi wasn't killed in the airstrike.
“All Libyans knew from the very beginning that it's a lie,” he said, claiming Hana was married and had children.
However, some in Libya believed that after Hana's death, Gaddafi adopted another daughter and gave her the same name in a memorial tribute.
Adding to the mystery, two AP photographs from the 1990s show an adolescent girl identified in captions as Gaddafi's daughter Hana. In one of them from 1999, she is standing next to South African President Nelson Mandela, with his arm around her, during a family visit to Cape Town. Gaddafi's only biological daughter, Aisha, stands on Mandela's other side and Gaddafi's wife Safiya is next to the girl identified as Hana.
In another AP photo from 1996, Gaddafi is seen wiping the face of a girl identified in the caption as his daughter Hana Gaddafi.
Despite these sightings of Hana, in 2006 Gaddafi organised an event called the “Hana Festival for Freedom and Peace” to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. Performers reportedly included Lionel Ritchie and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras.
Last week, after rebels stormed the Bab al-Aziziya compound where Gaddafi and family members lived, journalists saw a room in his home filled with stuffed animals, photos of a young woman with the name Hana written on the back in Arabic and a birth certificate of “Hana Gaddafi”.
Rebels touring the room said everyone in Libya knew that the daughter who the world thought was dead was in fact alive.
Hana's current whereabouts are unknown. Her mother, sister Aisha and two brothers fled to Algeria yesterday, with their spouses and children. She was not named among those who had left the country. Her father and brother Saif al-Islam, once the heir apparent to rule Libya, are believed to still be in Libya.
Gassem Baruni, head of the Tripoli Medical Center, said Hana worked for him as a surgeon before she disappeared last Friday.
“She was very tense and nervous as soon as the revolution started,” Baruni said. “She told me not to treat the rebels, but I told her: 'If we don't treat everyone, it would be a crime.'”
The doctor said he used her influence to stock up the hospital with supplies and medicine, keeping the fact he was coordinating with rebels secret from her.
“I pretended that we needed the stuff to treat the Gaddafi troops,” Baruni said.
The British Council confirmed that someone named Hana Gaddafi studied English at the British Council in Tripoli in 2007, and again in 2009.
“We can confirm that a student by the name of Hana Gaddafi did study English with us in Libya. However, we don't have access to any documents as we don't have access to our Tripoli office, which we had to leave earlier this year,” a spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.
“Our Country Director in Libya did query this, given reports of Hana Gaddafi's death,” he said.
“The widely held belief in Libya at the time was that this was a different daughter, adopted by Colonel Gaddafi after Hana's death, and given the same name as a tribute. This is, in fact, a common practice in Libya as a memorial to a dead child.”
A Swiss government document earlier this year listed the names of senior Libyan figures that were to be targeted for sanctions briefly included Hana Gaddafi's name, but it was quickly removed, Swiss officials said today.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Adrian Sollberger, said the list was revised to conform with sanctions imposed by the United Nations. He declined to say why someone with the name Hana Gaddafi had featured on the original sanctions list, and whether Switzerland had evidence the Libyan leader's daughter was alive.
Libyans said Gaddafi wanted to drum up sympathy for himself and hatred toward the west by claiming Hana was killed in 1986 and Gaddafi's son Saif al-Arab was killed in May during a Nato airstrike.
Mohammed Ammar, a Tripoli resident who said his cousin graduated with Hana from medical school last year, was among those who believe the death of Hana was a myth. - Sapa-AP