Embattled Libyan dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, likes to be sorrounded by beautiful women, his former nurse, Okmsana Balinskaya, has revealed.
Muammar Gahdaffi
In an interview published in the current edition of Newsweek magazine, the Ukranian-born nurse who managed to escape from Libya said: “ Gaddafi just likes to be sorrounded by beautiful things and people.”
Balinskaya said she was picked from a line of candidates after shaking hand with him and Gaddafi looked at her eyes, stressing that the Libyan leader made his decisions about people with his first hand shake with them.
According to the former nurse to Gaddafi, she could not have access to his boss for the first three months. But later she joined other nurses in their duties of checking his heart beat, blood pressure and attending to him regularly.
The former nurse said they called Gaddafi ‘Papi’ meaning ‘little father.’ Balinskaya commended the dictator’s generosity, saying he gave each of his nurses and other personal aides a golden wrist watch yearly with his picture which opened the door of fortune to any recipient anywhere in Libya.
Balinskaya revealed that local medical staff used to envy the nurses who were recruited mostly from Ukrain because they earned $300 (about N450,000) per nurse per month, almost three times the Libyan medical team’s pay.
However, the former nurse denied any of the nurse was Gaddafi’s lover, adding “none of us nurse was his lover. The only time we ever touched him was to take his blood pressure. Gaddafi chose to line only attractive Ukrainian women, most probably because of our looks.”
His former nurse recalled some of Gaddafi’s odd habits like listening to Arab music on an old cassette player and changing his clothes several times in a day. She said he was so obsessed with changing his dress that sometimes when his guests were already waiting for him, he would go back to his room to change his outfit.
While travelling across poor African countries, the former nurse said Gaddafi used to fling money and candy out of his armoured Limosine to children who would scramble for them. But he usually avoided getting in body contact with the kids out of fear of contracting infections.
Balinskaya disclosed that she travelled in company of the Libyan dictator to the United States, Italy, Portugal and Venezuela. During such trips, she said, Gaddafi gave them bonuses for shopping.
She said her impression of the Libyan people was that at least half of the population hate Gaddafi because he has all the power, took all the decisions and all the luxury to himself.
The former nurse said when she first watched the revolution in Tunisia and Egypt on television, she never thought it could happen in Libya. But she opined that if Gaddafi had relinquished power to one of his sons, Serif, when he had opportunity, things would have been different in the country.
Balinskaya said she fled Tripoli early February this year but two of his friends were not that lucky as they were being forced by Gaddafi to stay and perhaps die by his side.
Gaddafi’s former nurse said she escaped when she was four months pregnant for her Ukrainian lover which she knew the Libyan dictator would not have approved.
She added that while his closest aides were running away from the crisis-torn country, Gaddafi forced his chilren and two other Ukrainian nurses around him to stay until their last breath.
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