Fifteen years in the past this month throughout the Libyan civil struggle, the Welshman had a $100,000 bounty placed on his head by Gadaffi
PAUL REES (Picture: -)
Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, wearing brown Bedouin-style robes, was ranting on the TV display in our resort a few man he mentioned was “British particular forces, working for NATO and serving to the revolution”. It was April 2011, and Libya was cut up by a bloody civil struggle with rebels preventing to topple the person who had dominated the North African nation with an iron fist because the Sixties. “$100,000 on his head!” shrieked Gaddafi as he ripped up the {photograph} of the alleged insurgent sympathiser and tossed it over his head.
The person within the picture was me, and I’d simply had a bounty placed on my head by a ruthless madman who was intent on crushing the revolution by each violent means potential. “I’m a Welshman, not British”, I assumed, “and I’m price greater than that”.
We use your sign-up to supply content material in methods you have consented to and to enhance our understanding of you. This will embody adverts from us and third events primarily based on our understanding. You may unsubscribe at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
I used to be watching Gaddafi put a value on my head within the Uzu Lodge in Benghazi, a metropolis that was a revolutionary stronghold within the rebel-held east of Libya. Insurgent, or fighter, in Libya is Thuwar, and unbeknownst to Colonel Gaddafi, he had simply given me the nickname that has caught with me to this present day. “We will get $100,000 for you, Thuwar,” laughed the revolutionaries, sharing the foyer of the resort the place I used to be staying as safety and security advisor for Al-Jazeera journalists overlaying the struggle.
Learn extra: ‘New Gaddafi’ fears as Libya on the point of civil struggle
Stills of Paul Rees (L) from video footage captured throughout a Libyan authorities ambush of the rebels in 2011 (Picture: SUPPLIED)
Shut safety contracts had been my bread and butter in Libya, and after 9 years within the 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards regiment, seeing the issues I had seen in Bosnia, Kosovo, and the second Gulf Conflict, I knew a factor or two about methods to defend myself and others. The rationale Colonel Gaddafi was ranting and waving an image of me was that simply 24 hours earlier, we had been nearly blown to smithereens within the desert, and it had all been caught on digicam.
We had been filming on the port in Benghazi. I used to be with the senior correspondent Abdul Adim, a cameraman from Lebanon known as Issam, and our driver Hamid. We had been heading for the entrance line once more close to Brega after I seen one thing unusual on the horizon, a convoy of black SUVs coming straight for us at velocity. I moved the group off the street to some “lifeless floor” as troopers name it, which is an space sheltered from any direct fireplace ought to it occur.
As soon as the black SUVs had roared to a halt, Basic Abdul Fatah Younis, the top of the insurgent forces on the time and who had defected from Gaddafi’s regime, emerged from the automobile. Our cameraman and correspondent acquired arrange prepared for the interview, and I sat there with my driver, Hamid, in our van. Hamid mentioned the final was from the identical tribe as him, the Obeidi tribe, and requested me if he might go and say hi there, regardless that the drivers had been meant to remain within the car. I agreed. He left his AK-47 within the footwell subsequent to me.
At that second, I heard a voice in my head telling me to get out. I grabbed the AK-47, took two steps from the van and an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) got here in from the entrance, went straight via the seat I had been sitting in and detonated on the rear of the car. I didn’t have time to drop to the bottom.
Mortar shells began raining down, and small arms fireplace erupted in what was clearly a authorities ambush of the rebels. Everybody was dashing for his or her automobiles. Operating ahead, I grabbed the correspondent, and we ran about 600 metres from the van earlier than I pushed him down into the sand.
Hamid was injured by shrapnel, and I ran again and dragged him to security subsequent to the correspondent. Once I appeared up once more there was Issam the cameraman nonetheless filming, however behind him I noticed a head pop up behind a small hump within the sand. It was one of many attackers firing at us, so I cocked my weapon and despatched him a couple of messages.
Paul Rees left this van simply moments earlier than a missile struck (Picture: Equipped)
I managed to information us to security following the desert pylons again to the coast earlier than we acquired picked up by pleasant forces.
I used to be again within the resort once more in Benghazi when the place erupted with shouts of “Allahu Akbar”, that means God is nice, and I appeared up and there was the footage Issam had filmed displaying me operating to get Abdul Adim. Just some minutes later, Gaddafi was on TV calling for my head.
That is the place my new title, Insurgent Rees, caught, my yellow Labrador is known as Insurgent, and for my work as a pastor, I’m often known as the Insurgent Reverend.
There was elation in our group within the resort at this level, however little did I do know I used to be about to expertise the darkest chapter in my life. I had been set to move out with a brand new group and look ahead to the incoming reporter in a few days however we had been driving via Benghazi within the van when out of the blue two vehicles reduce us off, entrance and rear.
Everybody was ordered out by armed males and bundled into vans with hoods put over our heads. It felt like we had been driving round for six or seven hours, and I used to be apprehensive we could be heading to the Islamist extremist metropolis of Derna. Al-Qaeda was operating rampant in North Africa and the Center East.
Lastly, we stopped, and I used to be pulled out of the van. There was an engineer with our group whom I had met within the resort that morning. He’d solely been in Libya for every week or two.
They pulled his shirt off and reduce his throat in entrance of me.
I simply thought “that is al-Qaeda, and so they’re going to kill me”, however I used to be taken right into a constructing and shoved right into a small room like a retailer cabinet, nothing in it, grime on the ground, with a tiny window in regards to the dimension of a cell phone.
The door slammed, and I don’t understand how lengthy it was, however when it opened once more, they piled in, kicking and punching me until I used to be knocked unconscious.
Former soldier Paul Rees particular forces man discovered god after returning to civilian life and is now a pastor (Picture: Callum Moffatt/Every day Categorical/Attain Plc)
These fixed beatings continued for days. I might get dry rice or couscous, perhaps a few times a day, and a cup of water they’d spit or urinate in. They might additionally urinate on me. Typically they’d take me out of the room with a hood over my head and a rope round my neck and make me stand on a stool with my palms tied behind my again and begin nudging me. This might occur seven or eight occasions a day,
If I fell asleep, they kicked me within the face, and I suffered a damaged eye socket. I had all my fingernails pulled out and at one level they even tried to burn off my tattoos.
Someday, they tied me down to 2 benches; it appeared like a bit of carpenter’s bench with a niche within the center. They pulled my left arm throughout it, and one in every of my captors jumped on it, tearing my rotator cuff, and one thing known as a scalene muscle, which holds up your neck – I nonetheless wrestle with the ache to this present day.
After he jumped on my arm, he raped me.
I’ve solely not too long ago advised anybody about this for the primary time prior to now few weeks throughout a podcast for the Veterans for Veterans group, which helps former servicemen and ladies. My spouse knew when it got here out throughout a counselling session a few years later. However till this 12 months, I had advised nobody else.
Even now, saying it right here on this web page, I don’t really feel ashamed anymore. When it occurred, I used to be clearly in turmoil making an attempt to course of what had been completed to me: “Did that make me homosexual? What does it imply?” It sounds odd in a option to assume amidst that horror, my thoughts was making an attempt to compartmentalise one thing so traumatic, nevertheless it was how I survived on the time, placing issues in a field, though that may’t final eternally.
After the rape, the beatings continued, after which, out of the blue, after two weeks, they stopped. The meals stopped too, and I knew I wasn’t going to be stored alive for much longer. I had been anticipating somebody to search out me, and even for Gaddafi to show up together with his ransom, however now I knew nobody else would get me out.
Colonel Gaddafi positioned a bounty on the top of British safety officer Paul Rees (Picture: Equipped)
Someday, the youngest lad got here into the room. He had his AK underneath his arm, and he was distracted, speaking on his cell to somebody. I grabbed him, put him in a sleeper maintain and squeezed till I knew he was by no means going to get again up. I took his gun and made it exterior. I keep in mind clambering over a wall. My arm was nonetheless smashed to items, my eye socket was damaged, I should have appeared like Quasimodo.
Squinting into the daylight, I used to be surprised to see I used to be in the identical road in Benghazi we had been snatched from and simply toes from a espresso store the place I had breakfast each morning. I used to be staggering over laughing and sobbing. Fousi, the proprietor, ran over to me. After utterly disappearing for weeks, he got here as much as me and kissed me on the brow, a deep signal of respect in Libyan tradition.
They known as the native press bureau, and among the rebels got here to the café. It was at this second that my navy coaching kicked into motion and we walked again throughout the street and straight as much as the entrance door of the constructing that had been my private hell for the previous, what felt like, numerous weeks.
Once I walked into the makeshift workplace, the person who had completed one of many worst issues ever completed to me, was there. I can nonetheless keep in mind the look of horror on his face when he noticed me, it was just like the blood drained utterly out of him and he turned white.
His AK was on the desk in entrance of him, he reached for his and I pulled the set off on mine. I didn’t cease till all you would hear was the ‘click on, click on’ of the empty motion in any case 30 rounds had gone. Fousi needed to wrestle the gun from my hand. Two days later I awakened in Cairo.
Returning to civilian life, I started to discover the concept of religion. Then final April, my spouse and I made a decision to attend a church service. The minister there may be an archetypal Scottish grandmother; she’s about 4’9″ with a depraved sense of humour. Over time in dialog, I advised her I would been concerned in Libya for 14 years, and he or she revealed she had delivered two of Gaddafi’s grandchildren whereas working as a midwife in Libya within the 70s and 80s.
I made a decision that day, after talking with the reverend, to develop into a pastor myself. Now I take advantage of my religion to assist veterans, and I pray each single day.
Paul Rees was chatting with Richard Ashmore
PAUL HELPS THE VETERANS FOR VETERANS ORGANISATION, FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT THE WEBSITE HERE.
Paul Rees served 9 years within the 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards regiment in Bosnia, Kosovo and the second Gulf Conflict (Picture: Equipped)
Remark from Kris Sackey, a Veterans for Veterans crew chief
Paul Rees’s story is a exceptional but harrowing account of braveness and fortitude. By means of overtly sharing his experiences, he helps create house for others to do the identical and underscores the significance of accessible assist after service.
Having accomplished a number of deployments, Paul understands the operational calls for and sustained pressures of navy service. His perspective is formed by first‑hand encounters in environments the place resilience, self-discipline, and adaptableness had been important.
This lived expertise has given him a transparent understanding of the challenges many veterans face throughout and after their transition to civilian life, enabling him to develop into a trusted supply of assist for these looking for steering. It additionally permits him to interact with veterans in a approach that’s relatable, credible, and grounded in shared expertise.
Right now, via his work as a VfV Veteran Advisor and individually as an Evangelical Pastor, Paul focuses on decreasing isolation and strengthening group networks. He does this by selling wellbeing, encouraging open communication, and serving to veterans navigate out there sources.
At Veterans for Veterans, Paul’s contribution displays our mission to make sure that no veteran feels unsupported. His ongoing work demonstrates how lived expertise could be utilized constructively to assist others and enhance outcomes for these adjusting to life after service.
Leave a Reply