Gadhafi's Ukrainian nurse speaks out

MOGILNOYE, Ukraine, April 11 (UPI) -- Moammar Gadhafi is obsessed with his health and appearance but has no harem, said his Ukrainian nurse, who fled Libya.

In an account published in Newsweek Sunday, Oksana Balinskaya said: "None of us nurses was ever his lover. The only time we ever touched him was to take his blood pressure."

Now back in her homeland, Balinskaya, 24, describes an eccentric but generous employer who "just liked to be surrounded by beautiful things and people."

Working for "Papik" -- "little father" in Russian -- "I had everything I could dream of: a furnished two-bedroom apartment, a driver who appeared whenever I called. But my apartment was bugged, and my personal life was watched closely," she writes.

Thanks to his nurses' devoted, round-the-clock attentions, Gadhafi "had the heart rate and blood pressure of a much younger man," Balisnkaya said.

The dictator "was so obsessive about his outfits that he reminded me of a rock star from the 1980s" and changed his outfits several times daily, she said.

Balinskaya said she fled Tripoli as the uprising began and her pregnancy became apparent. She also feared Gadhafi would not approve of her boyfriend.

Now, she said, she fears for her friends left behind.