Gadhafi's Nurse: Why I Left Him

Libyan leader changes clothes several times a day like 'a rock star'
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 11, 2011 8:50 AM CDT
Gadhafi's Nurse: Why I Left Him
Moammar Gadhafi's former nurse Oksana Balinskaya says the Libyan strongman likes to change his outfits several times a day, like "a rock star from the 1980s."    (Getty Images)

Moammar Gadhafi's Ukrainian nurse Oksana Balinskaya is still talking about her infamous former employer. This time, she tells Newsweek about how Gadhafi liked to listen to Arab music on an old cassette player, would throw money and candy out of his car window while traveling through poor African countries, and changed his outfits several times a day like "a rock star from the 1980s." "I got the impression that at least half the population of Libya disliked Papik," she writes, referring to Gadhafi by his nickname, saying he ruled Libya "like Stalin."

"When I first saw television pictures of the Egyptian revolution I thought, nobody would ever dare to rise against our Papik," says Balinskaya. "But there was a chain reaction after Tunisia and Egypt." Balinskaya also says that she was inspired to leave Libya because she was four months pregnant and thought Gadhafi would not like her Serbian boyfriend. "I got out of Tripoli at the beginning of February, just in time," she writes. "He is forcing his children and our two remaining Ukrainian colleagues to stay and die by his side." (Click to read about Gadhafi's favorite foods.)

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