Ukrainian doctor Andrei Novoseltsev: "In Libya, if your house has not yet burned down, then it was ransacked."
51-year-old Andrei Novoseltsev, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Alchevsk, Luhansk region, returned from Libya, where he worked for eight years. Together with him in this Arab country in the city of Misurata, his family lived: his wife Marina, who worked as a nurse in a hospital, and two children - 18, the son of Peter, and a seven-year-old daughter, Masha.
About how the family of physicians lived abroad and how they managed to get out of the country engulfed in civil war, Andrei told FACTAM.
“The main demand of the opposition is that there is no police and the prohibition was abolished”
In the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, or more simply, to Libya, Andrei Novoseltsev went to work in 2002 for the first time.
- Not from the good life of our physicians are served for the cordon, - he says. - There, salaries are roughly commensurate with the Ukrainian, slightly higher or slightly lower, only in dollar terms. I do not know how to live on the salary of a nurse in 800-1000 hryvnia. Especially at such prices as in Ukraine. In Libya, not only are the prices for everything much lower, so are the hospitals that hire employees, most often provide them with housing and transport, which they take from the house in the morning and from the hospital in the evening.
You work and you feel like a man. You can pay enough attention to the patient, and not fill out endless papers, calmly conduct a reception, and not guess at the time of inspection, did the patient bring you something.
Andrei mastered the Arabic language quite quickly. And most of the medical staff in Libyan clinics either studied in Russian-speaking countries, or have been working with doctors from the CIS for a long time, so they more or less understand Russian.
The first contract in the Jamahiriya Novoseltsev concluded for five years. After that, he returned home, but stayed in his native Alchevsk for just a year. The impoverished salary of a doctor in the clinic, a young wife who works as a nurse and also receives a penny, two young children ...
“In 2008, we decided to change something,” recalls Andrey. - It was necessary to somehow solve the housing problem. It was impossible to live the four of us in a one-bedroom small-family family. To buy an apartment for salary alone in Ukraine is unrealistic.
This time the Novoseltsevs decided to go to Libya as a family. We signed new contracts, arranged children for school and kindergarten at the Russian consulate. The employer rented a comfortable apartment for them in Misrata. On his second trip to Libya, Andrei worked in two cities at once - Misrata and Zlitene.
“I had the main contract with the Misrarat private clinic,” says the doctor. - But the local population has such a mentality that a woman will go to a male doctor, especially a gynecologist, only as a last resort. Therefore, having a lot of free time, I agreed with the owner of this clinic that I would still find work for myself. I was admitted to the state educational hospital in Zliten. There I was on duty two days a week.
Life Novoseltsev in Libya flowed safely and measured for three years. But earlier this year, a wave of popular protests erupted in the Middle East and North Africa. When unrest occurred in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, Libya also had its own opposition.
- It looked like this: in the evenings, men bring chairs on the street, TVs and watch football, smoke hookah, talk. They have such a nightly tradition in general, - explains Andrei. - So, when the neighbors started the revolution, the Libyans sat behind a hookah and decided: maybe it is worth changing something and, probably, this requires its own opposition. At first they simply argued whether it was good that Gaddafi had been in power for so many years. Then they began to hit each other's physiognomy.
As soon as the first unrest began, Andrei Marina’s wife became afraid to leave the house.
“The Libyan neighbors began to ask where Marina is and why she doesn’t appear, whether she is ill,” recalls Andrei. - I replied that she was afraid. They zapomonili, they say, in vain, no one in offense will not give. “You are ours, you live with us on the same street and help us, we will protect you,” the neighbors said.
In the local ambulance station, where they created something like a help point, Andrey was given a dry ration just in case.
“The neighbors said they needed food,” he says. “I came there, they gave me boxes of macaroni, canned food, butter, and sugar. It was supposed to everyone who lived in the area, and no one said that since I was a foreigner, they would not give me anything. On the contrary, the manager remembered that when they did not have a doctor, I helped them, and gave me an extra ration. In addition, the government ordered that all of us be put on the mobiles, first via the 50 dinar, then via the 100, and later the connection was completely free.
Overnight, checkpoints of both oppositionists and government troops appeared on the roads.
“When the rebels stopped the car for inspection,” says Andrei, “mostly young people from the area where we lived, I asked them what they wanted. They answered about the following: “We want Gaddafi to leave, he has ruled 42 for the year, this is too long (this is despite the fact that Muammar Gaddafi does not have an official post in Libya and does not hold any position. - Auth.). We also want no police and prohibition. ”
“How could Gaddafi carry out air strikes against oppositionists if they mostly sit in cities?”
“Gaddafi, having created prosperity in the country after the revolution, spoiled his people,” said Andrei. - There, gasoline is cheaper than water - 15 geshey (kopecks) per liter, 10 buns are worth 25 geshey. All sorts of social benefits - for a child when they marry, for starting a business. Even housing loans are interest free. And if a person does not return the debt, this money is not collected from him. This new generation has grown in prosperity and in laziness - they are used to the fact that all the work is done by foreigners. There are six million Libyan population as much foreigners. But at the same time, Libyans have quite strict restrictions compared to neighboring countries. In Libya, there are no cinemas and theaters, there is a dry law, and prostitutes do not walk the streets, as in Tunisia or Egypt. Old people are satisfied with such orders, they even advocate a ban on satellite television. But the younger generation wants to relax the prohibitions. In Libya, for example, if the police see a drunken man in the street, they put him in jail. Alcohol is sold only from under the floor and at frenzied prices - for a liter of vodka "Absolute" they ask for a 100 dinar (approximately $ 90. - Auth.). That wants youth of freedom in the Western style. The only question is whether such freedom is good.
The situation in Libya escalated after NATO intervened. According to Andrew and most of his colleagues who worked in Libya, the provision of a “clear sky” was just a pretext.
- Gaddafi Aviation he didn’t raise it at all, he didn’t want the blood of his people, says Andrei Novoseltsev. - We have not seen a single plane. As Colonel Gaddafi, he could carry out air strikes against the opposition, if they mostly sit in cities. This is how many victims would be! He would never allow himself that. Although he is called the bloody dictator and the like in the West, he is a deeply respectable person in relation to his people. The colonel just waited - let them make a little noise at the demonstrations, that’s all over. So it would be, but support went from abroad and not only from the air ...
When they started shooting at Misrata at night, it became scary. In the city the battles did not seem to go, but they bombed the airport. "Tomahawk" hit the hostel doctors on the outskirts of the city. Doctors began to be afraid to leave hospitals. The owner of our clinic took all the foreign women to his house. It became clear that something needs to be addressed.
First, Andrei sent his son home. In Tripoli, the Belarusian side was preparing to fly out - and the Belarusian embassy agreed to pick up the Ukrainian youth.
“From what I saw at Tripoli airport, I was shocked,” recalls Andrey. - There once was a beautiful area - lawns with flower beds, ornamental shrubs, all well-groomed. And then thousands of Africans rushed to the airport from the depths of the continent. Confusion complete, place this horde was simply nowhere. So in the flowerbeds they pitched tents made of plastic bags and blankets and became a camp at the airport. Sanitary sanitation is complete - right in the ground dug shallow trenches that served as a latrine. Immediately, special vehicles constantly drove, which all of the feces were watered with a disinfecting solution to prevent an epidemic. The stench was unbearable.
Son, thank God, handed over to the Belarusian diplomats. I learned that the plane was about to be served, and drove home. Calmly drove away Angry, but in Misurata traveled a few days. By this time, the oppositionists have already equipped their posts according to all the rules of wartime - they blocked one side of the road, grabbing sand mountains with a grader, installed shilings and anti-aircraft guns in the direction of the government troops.
At home, Andrei and his wife collected the most necessary things and moved to Furious with their colleagues and countrymen - the family of doctors from Lugansk Sergey and Svetlana Anistratenko.
“And here the wounded from Misrata began to arrive in Evil,” continues Andrei. - At first it was the opposition. Gaddafi did not want fratricide, so the convoy, bringing the wounded, blindfolded them. And everyone was injured in the legs - the military order was to shoot only on the legs. The security of the hospital was strengthened: the police first appeared, then the troops entered. In general, Sergey and I decided that it was time to take the families away.
Andrei wanted to go to Misurata to pick up things. But his friend Saleh advised not to.
“He asked where my house is,” recalls Andrei. - I explained. Saleh told me that this street was burning. “Even if your house is not burned down, then Masri looted it” (as the Libyans call the Egyptians. - Author). He also said that Masri marauders not only in abandoned apartments, but also attack Libyan families - they knock the door to the apartment and demand five thousand dollars. If they do not give money, they demand to give the girl, one of the older daughters.
A week later, the Novoseltsevs and Anistratenko loaded their belongings into Andrei’s car and moved to Tripoli. There, like them, the refugees were not considered.
“They asked for housing for 50 dinars per day,” says Andrey. - Fortunately, I know the city well, I have many friends. I phoned and we were received in Tojur, 20 kilometers from Tripoli. There lived a military expert Belarussian Sasha with his wife Tanya.
And there are military warehouses, repair shops of military equipment and radar stations (RLS). Therefore, the town is closed. They did not want to let others in, but Tanya told the guards that her relatives lived there, and they let us in.
Here, on the radar stations, the NATO members began to hammer. When we arrived, the bombing had already passed. We decided that it would be safe. Like, if the station was smashed, then why further throw bombs? It turned out that we were wrong.
The refugees quietly lived a day. Andrei traveled to Tripoli, changed money, visited the embassies of Ukraine and Russia, where he left applications for evacuation, and returned to Tozhuru late in the evening.
“We sat down to have supper, and then it began,” he recalls. - Let's go process “Tomahawks” workshops. At first there is such a nasty rustle, then an explosion is heard. They even went out to see - the Europeans said that all bombing would be targeted. But when the explosions began to approach, we were all thrown to the ground, and the house almost did not work out. The houses of the specialists, though comfortable, are knocked out of drywall, so the shock waves from the explosions almost wiped the military town off the face of the earth.
In the morning, Andrei and Sergei went out into the garden and realized with horror that the site was resting on the concrete fence of the military warehouse.
“And then I thought: once they bombed not only the radar station, but also the workshops, then is there any guarantee that they won't bomb the warehouses next night?” - admits Andrey. - Then from this house and from all those who are in it, nothing remains. Sasha came up to us and said: guys, let's wind up. We loaded onto cars and drove to Tripoli.
Andrey and Sergey went to the Ukrainian embassy. They were allowed to live in an apartment from which someone from the diplomats left.
“We knew that either“ Olshansky ”had already come out of Ukraine, or was just going to,” says Andrei. - Therefore, when the Russians said that in a day or two there will be a plane from Tunisia, we signed up for it. Russians took 31 Ukrainians and as many Belarusians.
At first, the Russians planned to land the plane at Tripoli airport, but NATO did not provide an air corridor. Therefore, they decided to carry out the evacuation through Tunisia. All the refugees were put in three buses, and accompanied by diplomatic vehicles, the convoy went to the Libyan border.
I don’t know how the Russians managed to negotiate a corridor through half of a warring country, but I admire them - they made every effort to get them out of their danger zone.
At night, the convoy arrived in Tunisia, and in the morning on March 31 the plane flew to Moscow. Novoseltsev were in Alchevsk already 1 April.
“There are still a lot of Ukrainians left in Libya — there are only 70 people in Misrata alone. I was lucky to get out with my family because I had my own car and managed to leave the east of Libya a little earlier. Getting to Tripoli alone is extremely dangerous right now - looters are rampant on the roads. Our government and the embassy should do everything to get people out of the war. Now, when the West intervened, it is unknown how long it will last ...
Despite the horror he experienced, Andrei Novoseltsev, like most of his colleagues, said that as soon as the situation in Libya improved, he would return there again.
Information