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SALEH SNOUSSI I will accept it from you this time. If you bring the same thing another time, you must say to me before I open the box: ‘Have a happy and blessed day,’ to remind me not to open the box and create problems for myself in front of the others. But don’t tell anyone.” He made separate deals like that with a large number of the visitors and each one thought that Chief Corporal Sahban al-Gamoudi had generously granted him a boon no one else had received. An old woman dressed in black, whose face was lined with sad wrinkles and tattoos, approached him and pointed to a cardboard box she could not carry, asking him to give it to her son.The Chief Corporal looked at the box and then told her: “This box doesn’t have anyone’s name on it. The prisoner’s name must be written on it.” One of the visitors volunteered to help her and wrote down what the old woman dictated. Then, the Chief Corporal ordered one of the guards to carry the box away but first asked her peevishly: “Didn’t anyone come with you to carry the box?” The old woman replied: “Son, the person who would have carried the box for me was my boy’s late brother, who died two months ago in a traffic accident on the road from Ajdabiya. He was on his way here, bringing some necessities to his brother.” Chief Corporal Sahban al-Gamoudi shook his head in a way that expressed sorrow, at least superficially. He placed his hand on the old woman’s shoulder. “Fine, fine, Hajja! I’ll see that the box gets to your son. No problem.Trust in God.” This response reassured the old lady of the Chief Corporal’s good nature and in her simple soul maternal feelings stirred, undiminished by old age. She stepped closer to him and whispered plaintively: “May God reward you, son. Let me see him, if only from a distance.” She meant her son who was incarcerated. Chief Corporal Sahban replied: “Hajja, I’m only in charge of parcels. The prisoners aren’t my responsibility. Trust in God.” The old woman was slow to leave, believing that the Chief Corporal’s heart might soften and that he was actually capable of uniting her with her son. But the Chief Corporal had had enough and pushed her away, saying: “Out, Hajja! God bless you. Let us do our work.” Another visitor reached out his hand and drew her toward him to spare a simple, miserable old mother further insult and to shield her from the Chief Corporal’s anger, which could spill over and affect all the visitors that day. Some of those present still remembered one 72 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
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SALEH SNOUSSI day, more than two years earlier, when Chief Corporal Sahban alGamoudi had thrown all the visitors out and locked the door of the prison, after refusing to receive the goods they had brought.This was after a quarrel had erupted between him and the visitors because he had treated some of them poorly. The visitors did not realize that things had changed over the last two years. Once the prison administration had hit on the idea of splitting the goods equally with the prisoners, it was no longer in the best interest of the Chief Corporal to refuse them, since he would receive a share of the total. Moreover, his accomplices in the prison administration – Colonel al-Jibali and Sergeant al-Hadi Ammar – would not allow him to make such a silly decision. The visiting period ended and the items were unpacked from their boxes, sorted and the portion for the prison administration was set aside, ready for loading and transferral to the distribution networks. Meanwhile Colonel al-Jibali and Sergeant al-Hadi Ammar sought to reconcile their lists with the goods remaining in the storeroom.There were many different items, in great quantities, brought from all areas of the country. Sergeant al-Hadi Ammar gazed with relief at the amount that had accrued to them following the massacre and declared: “My God, that’s a huge amount that we would have lost beforehand.” Colonel al-Jibali ordered: “Chief Corporal Sahban, keep up the good work.All the stock must be out of the storerooms before morning.” The Chief Corporal continued receiving the goods the visitors brought and then selling them in the markets. As the visits continued and the months passed in succession, new ideas began to germinate in his head, as temptation goaded him to increase his share of the proceeds in his partnership with Colonel al-Jibali and Sergeant alHadi Ammar. It seemed to him that all the country’s affairs were conducted according to a hierarchy of gangs. Each gang reported to another superior to it and from which it derived its existence and its legitimacy. In exchange for this, the lower gang offered the higher one the services it demanded, yet preserved its own freedom to act in its own best interests. Chief Corporal Sahban al-Gamoudi thought the relationship between him and his accomplices should also follow the laws of this system, which prevailed throughout the country. He decided to organize a brotherhood of his confederates to acquire a BANIPAL 43 – SPRING 2012 73

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SALEH SNOUSSI

I will accept it from you this time. If you bring the same thing another time, you must say to me before I open the box: ‘Have a happy and blessed day,’ to remind me not to open the box and create problems for myself in front of the others. But don’t tell anyone.”

He made separate deals like that with a large number of the visitors and each one thought that Chief Corporal Sahban al-Gamoudi had generously granted him a boon no one else had received. An old woman dressed in black, whose face was lined with sad wrinkles and tattoos, approached him and pointed to a cardboard box she could not carry, asking him to give it to her son.The Chief Corporal looked at the box and then told her: “This box doesn’t have anyone’s name on it. The prisoner’s name must be written on it.” One of the visitors volunteered to help her and wrote down what the old woman dictated. Then, the Chief Corporal ordered one of the guards to carry the box away but first asked her peevishly: “Didn’t anyone come with you to carry the box?”

The old woman replied: “Son, the person who would have carried the box for me was my boy’s late brother, who died two months ago in a traffic accident on the road from Ajdabiya. He was on his way here, bringing some necessities to his brother.”

Chief Corporal Sahban al-Gamoudi shook his head in a way that expressed sorrow, at least superficially. He placed his hand on the old woman’s shoulder. “Fine, fine, Hajja! I’ll see that the box gets to your son. No problem.Trust in God.”

This response reassured the old lady of the Chief Corporal’s good nature and in her simple soul maternal feelings stirred, undiminished by old age. She stepped closer to him and whispered plaintively: “May God reward you, son. Let me see him, if only from a distance.” She meant her son who was incarcerated.

Chief Corporal Sahban replied: “Hajja, I’m only in charge of parcels. The prisoners aren’t my responsibility. Trust in God.”

The old woman was slow to leave, believing that the Chief Corporal’s heart might soften and that he was actually capable of uniting her with her son. But the Chief Corporal had had enough and pushed her away, saying: “Out, Hajja! God bless you. Let us do our work.”

Another visitor reached out his hand and drew her toward him to spare a simple, miserable old mother further insult and to shield her from the Chief Corporal’s anger, which could spill over and affect all the visitors that day. Some of those present still remembered one

72 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES

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