The Martyrs of Zawiya.

Protesters in Zawiya atop captured tank, 3/5/11.

Zawiya today is a crime scene, a crime scene in the possession of the criminals, who are busily cleaning the place of evidence, eliminating the witnesses and terrorizing the victims into silence. It was once a symbol of Libyan resistance in the West, critical in countering the Gaddafi narrative that the rebellion was regional in nature. It became instead the first crime in the Gaddafi clan's bid to retake the country. And as with all serial killers, the Gaddafis were emboldened by the relative ease with which it was accomplished and the indifference it met among the community of nations. It has become the model for the current campaign against Misurata and the cities of the East, including Benghazi.

Zawiya (also Az Zawiya) is a city about 50 km west of Tripoli along the coast of the Mediterranean, and before the uprising it was home to over 300,000 people. It is the fourth largest city in Libya, after Tripoli, Benghazi and Misurata.

There is a long history of protest against the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi in Zawiya, but the most recent round dates from the week leading up to the "Day of Rage" on February 17, 2011. These protests were repressed with increasing violence, and protesters responded essentially by running Gaddafi's security forces out of the city. The following videos document this process, which culminated in the taking of the city by demonstrators a week later.

This video is dated February 18th.

 

 

This video is dated February 19th.

 

 

This video of protesters burning a huge portrait of Gaddafi in Zawiya, was posted on Youtube February 22nd.

  

Demonstrators fired on by security forces, February 24th.

(To be continued)