By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 2 November 2015:
Reports that the Christian cemetery in central Tripoli’s Mansoura district has again been attacked by vandals . . .[restrict]are untrue, the Libya Herald has been told by church members. It was reported yesterday in the Italian media the Catholic chapel in the Italian section of the cemetery had been vandalised.
“I don’t know where they got this story from,” a church member said, “but it did not happen.”
The cemetery has been attacked by vandals on at least three previous occasions, most notably in January last year when a guard was reported killed.
Most previous attacks, however, are thought to have been carried out by thieves intent on robbing graves rather than by religious fanatics, although crosses and other Christian symbolism were smashed. On one occasion, thieves who had destroyed a series of modern Christian mosaics then tried to steal four bronze lions that stood outside the chapel. They were subsequently moved elsewhere for safe-keeping.
On another occasion, vandals searching for valuables broke into the ossuary boxes housing the bones of some 8,000 Italians, scattering the remains all over the ground. [/restrict]
