BBC NEWS/A mass grave
believed to contain up to 1,270 bodies has been found in the Libyan capital,
Tripoli, says the National Transitional Council (NTC).
The remains are
thought to be those of inmates who were killed by security forces in 1996 in
the Abu Salim prison.
The uprising against
Col Muammar Gaddafi began as a protest to demand the release of a lawyer who
represented families of the Abu Salim inmates.
Excavation at the
site is expected to start soon.
The NTC said it had
discovered the site - a desert field scattered with bone fragments within the
grounds of the Abu Salim prison - by questioning prison guards who had worked
there when the prisoners were killed after protesting against their conditions.
Several bone
fragments and pieces of clothing have already been found in the top soil.
'Grenades
and gunfire'
Some family members
visited the site, among them Sami Assadi, who lost two brothers in the
incident.
He was told they had
died of natural causes only five years ago. He told the BBC how it felt to be
at the place where his brothers may be buried.
"Mixed feelings
really. We are all happy because this revolution has succeeded, but when I
stand here, I remember my brothers and many, many friends have been killed,
just because they did not like Muammar Gaddafi."
Until recently,
little was known about the circumstances in which the prisoners died, says the
BBC's Jonathan Head who went down to the site.
A few eyewitnesses
have talked about the fact they were killed in their jail cells by grenades and
sustained gunfire after a protest.
Officials in the new
government say they will need foreign forensic help to determine exactly what
happened there
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