The City of Derna

My city Derna is located on the mediterranean sea, on the eastern shore of Libya, about two hundred miles from the Egyptian border and 900 miles from the capital, Tripoli! The city of the prophet Muhammad's companions (Sahaba) is famous for its waterfall, generosity and jihad!

For many centuries now, It is also known as “the city of curiosity” as a result of its people’s innate intelligence and their thirst for knowledge!  

Derna became, lately, famous as the capital of terror and assassinations! This is truly unfortunate and it is the result of the Islamist groups, who made from Derna their north African capital, to export the young Jihadists...They fought “their holy war” all over countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and lately in Syria. It is no surprise that Newsweek Magazine named the city of Derna as “ The Martyrdom factory”!

The origins of the people of Derna are from the west of Libya. They came, as fighters, from Tajura, Zliten, Misrata, Warfalla and other western tribes, many centuries ago. They came to support their brothers, the "Obeidat” and the “Murabitins” who asked for help in their war against the tribes of “Awlad Ali”. After fierce battles, they prevailed and the enemy (Awlad Ali)  had no other choice than to retreat to the northern Egyptian shores, which were Libyan lands at that time but they were lately changed by the British and Italian occupiers, who transformed the borderline to the separating line between the city of Emsaed, Libya and Al-Salloum, in Egypt, to the south until the Sudanese territories.

During the Qaramanli era, Derna was the second main city in Libya, after the capital Tripoli. However, it became third during the second Turkish era, after Benghazi. It kept that rank  during the Italian occupation, the days of the independence and the era of king Idris. However, under Gaddafi’s rule, because of the repetitive revolts and riots,the city was intentionally marginalized, to force its people to abdicate (surrender), therefore, it became the eighth city in Libya! 

No matter how much I write, I will not give my city, Derna, justice! Yes, It is a small city; the number of its inhabitants is currently less than a hundred and fifty thousand people. However, if we take into consideration the “Drawnas” (That’s how Libyans refer to the people who are originally from Derna) all over Libya and outside the country, the number would be half a million people, which represents 10% of the whole population of Libya!

Unfortunately, since the era of the kingdom, there are no viable (trustworthy, reliable) statistics in Libya! The city is still put on the side and marginalized, even after the 17th of February 2011 revolution, as if there’s an evil curse on the city, to stop it from thriving!

There are many reasons that led Derna and its people to this situation. The main one is that its people are naturally rebels and would oppose any ruler who would rule unfairly.

The people of Derna are not opportunists or power-hungry! At the opposite of that, they are very generous and think very highly of themselves. Instead of monopolizing the wealth, they prefer to see it spread all over the homeland, Libya!, and this can be easily demonstrated!  Many people, who are originally from Derna, reached the highest ranks and decision making positions  and they could use their positions to the benefit of the city...But they have never done that! Others have taken advantage of their positions for the benefit of their cities or tribes, either to build or construct their cities or to send their young people to study abroad, depriving other young people, especially those from Derna, from taking advantage of those opportunities! That was done upon recommendations and orders from the tyrant Gaddafi or his criminal agents. Wasn’t that a horrible crime???

People of Derna are civilized and they inherited the knowledge and the education from their fathers and ancestors, which made them always distinguished, either in the field of knowledge and culture/education or in bravery and the defense of the homeland!  Since many decades, Its brave young men have participated in many battles. The first one was in Egypt, when a group of around 500 men, led by an officer named Al-Kilani, volunteered to join the Army of Ahmad Urabi Pasha in its ultimate/ final decisive battle against the British occupiers. They bravely fought and only few of them made it back home and very unfortunately their memory was not celebrated, until now!

The Darawna are known as wonderful warriors for their homeland. In 1805, a small group of Darnawi sailors succeeded to detain the U.S Marines Ship “Philadelphia” with its crew, which was the pride of the U.S Naval forces, at that time. The Americans were unable to recuperate it and they had no choice other than destroying the ship, by a special deployed force, so that the Pasha would not be able, within his fleet, against them!

This is a long story but nothing was written about it, to tell the world about the Darawna heroes, who succeeded to take over the ship and detain it The American commander had no choice other than surrendering, instead of going to a fierce battle that would have killed all his soldiers and sailors. Unfortunately, nothing was written in the history about this memorable event or to commemorate Derna and this was done by the former regime in Libya, on purpose, to erase any honorable contribution of the city in the national libyan history! which is, obviously, very ungrateful and truly sad. Something has to be done, definitely, by the Libyan post-revolution authorities, such as building a monument, to keep the memory of Philadelphia episode alive!

We can certainly add to these honorable stories tens or hundreds of other stories that happened during the sinister occupation of Libya by the Italians, which started, obviously without any legitimate reason, in October 1911.Hundreds of martyrs have fallen for no reason and hundreds of others were sentenced to spend jail time in the Italian islands. Most of the detainees did not make it back to the homeland, obviously because of the inhuman conditions of the detention: No medication for the sick, not enough food or covers during the winter cold days, as well as inhuman and degrading detention conditions where they were treated worse than the savage beasts!

Many of Darna’s young men have joined the Senussi Army, in Egypt, during the 40’s of the last century. They played a major role in the incursions behind the enemy lines (The German and Italian troops). They destroyed, thanks to the explosives, many jet fuel tankers and storage facilities, as well as the enemy jets on the tarmac. They also saved the lives of many of the allies’ pilots, ejected from their cockpits after being hit by the enemy and they use their parachutes to land in the green mountain or in the desert. Thanks to the valuable and fast help from the locals, they could easily disappear, which made the axis soldiers lose a valuable time searching for them, in vain!

The young people of Derna, who were classmates, in the Turkish military academies with the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal,  also fought for Turkey when it was invaded by the allies and many of them made the ultimate sacrifice defending the Turkish lands. The ones who stayed alive were promoted in the ranks! Some of them even reached the top ranks of the Turkish army, like the General Omran Al-Jathra, the General Hassan Kassar (My father’s uncle) as well as many others from Derna and its region who were, unfortunately, forgotten!

Many other heroes from Derna made the ultimate sacrifice fighting the Gaddafi regime. While he was in power, thousands have died in Libya and outside of it! Among these martyrs, more than three hundred have passed, in Abu Slim jail massacre, in Tripoli, during the nineties of the last century, which demonstrates the brutality and the cruelty of the blood-thirsty regime of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi!

That is Derna, the city where I was born, grew-up and then left for many years, before coming back to it! I will, definitely never forget it because Libya is the mother land and the city of Derna is like the pearl ornamenting its crown!

No matter how my city has been marginalized and forgotten, it will come back!

Derna, God willing, will retrieve, one day, its prestige and it will, definitely, shine all over again!

God bless!

Ragab Zatout

The Adventure 2

    Ranked third among the major cities in Libya (after Tripoli and Benghazi), the city of Derna, due to the deliberate marginalization planned by many forces at the time, who  managed to deceive  its  clever but naive people, who were always accustomed to dealing according to honor and tradition and within inherent morality, was demoted during Gaddafi’s era to the eighth place. The city was supposed to maintain its upper position for it was always the forerunner in political affairs, in the past until the present, with its enthusiastic men and youth, always ready to scarify their life for their cause. They were always considered as role models for others in that field throughout history. They proved their patriotism and courage a long time ago, when they were able to dissuade the French fleet led by the famous emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. This happened when the French fleet arrived at the shores of Derna to obtain food and water supply for its sailors. The people of Derna showed solidarity by gathering on the beach causing a commotion which made Napoleon rethink taking over the city and decided to continue on his way to Alexandria, Egypt.

There were, also, many other heroes who have fallen in Palestine, in 1948, when they tried to help their Palestinian brothers. Many families from Libyan origin, especially from the city of Derna, are living in the occupied territories, as well as in many cities of the West bank and Gaza. Also, there were other young men and heroes who have fallen martyrs in the Algerian national liberation war, who offered their lives, out of conviction, to help their Algerian brothers in their legitimate fight for freedom and dignity, from the French occupiers. Unfortunately, their memory was almost hidden from the Algerian national history, to the exception of some families, like ours The Zatouts, who lost many of its members!

I still remember that in the beginning of the sixties, during the royal era, the Algerian ambassador, upon instruction from his government, presented to my cousin, Haj Mohamed Zatout (who was at that time a representative of the city of Derna in the Libyan parliament) the official condolences, of the Algerian government, for the martyrdom of two heroes from the Zatout family, who have fallen in the battles of the mountains against the French occupiers! Isn’t this a great pride for the Zatouts?

The Zatout family, nowadays all over North Africa and most of the Arab  countries, is originally descendant from the Balawi tribe, from Medina, the city of the prophet, Muhammad (sala Allah alahi wa salem). Some of them have resided in Spain, for many centuries, before being forced to leave it under the threat of the investigation courts, trying to force them to convert to catholicism, after the fall of Granada. They settled all over north Africa and a part of them chose Derna, the city where I was born and raised.

Bravery  and martyrdom are not unknown concepts to the men of Derna. Many of its young men have   made the ultimate sacrifice, supporting the right causes all over the world and currently in Libya, in the different fronts. They are contributing with their fellow freedom fighters, to defeat the regime of ignorance, with his Gaddafi brigades and the fifth column, well infiltrated within the Libyan people. They want to cleanse the homeland, whatever the sacrifice could be and defend their principles. They have a deep conviction and a strong will that they will at the end prevail and victory, God willing, will be theirs!

Whatever I say won’t be enough to talk about Derna, the city where I was born and grew up. I know it like the palm of my hand and I have lived in it the most beautiful days of my life. Then, came the pressure of the Gaddafi regime and the nationalization ( confiscation) of my assets, which started the bad days in my life.

I was forced to live through years of psychological and financial pressures and being forced to live away from the city where I was born, in the United States. Whatever I say about Americans won’t be enough to describe how much I owe them and how grateful I am toward them. The Americans did their best with me and my family. Not only they accepted my petition, with my loved ones, as political refugees but they also provided us with all the facilities for the legal residence. The United States government provided me, and my loved ones, the political refugee status, which protected us from any extradition procedure, unlawfully intended by the Libyan authorities through the Interpol. The Americans also protected me and my loved ones from the evil revolutionary committees, who were snatching the free honorable Libyans all over Europe. Comparing to that firm American attitude, the European authorities were quite tolerant with the assassination of many Libyan opponents residing on their territories. Many investigations about those murders came to a dead-end, in exchange of financial interests and big bribes for the European decision makers, who did not really care as long as the victims were not their own citizens, because the media and the public opinion would not tolerate such abuse.

The European governments tolerated the crimes targetting the honorable free Libyan refugees, who were fleeing the injustice and let them being assassinated, as if they were rats and not human beings. Isn’t this a horrible tragedy?

At the opposite of that, the attitude of the American authorities was very clear and firm, against any attempt coming from the Libyan authorities to threaten the safety of the Libyan opponents residing on the U.S soil.

For example, during the President Reagan era, in the eighties, Gadhafi agents cowardly tried to assassinate our friend Faisal Zaglai, in Colorado. Faisal fiercely defended himself, catching the pistol aimed at him and he miraculously saved his life, losing one eye though! The criminal was arrested and was sent to jail. As soon as I heard about it, I flew from the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, on the gulf of Mexico, where I was living at that time, to Boulder, Colorado, to visit him in the hospital where he was going under surgery. He was under heavy security measures and I tried to see him but I couldn’t. Finally, he made it and I was very happy to see his wife, Dr Farida Allagui, and congratulate her for the survival of her husband from the coward attempt on his life.

The second time the Ghaddafi agents were trying to assassinate me was is Virginia Beach, VA in 1985. I was informed about it by the FBI agents, while I was totally unaware of it! I fully cooperated with the federal agents, who made a trap for the assassins and caught them red handed! They went to trial and they were sentenced to jail and I got my life safe!

I deliberately chose the migration to avoid any submission to the Ghaddafi regime. I opposed him with all what I could afford: money, time and efforts and I made a tremendous sacrifice, while my kids needed me the most! My children were young and needed my presence, while I was all the time traveling for the sake of the national politics and the opposition and challenging the Ghaddafi regime face to face and not behind curtains! My wife, Hajja Sophia, the noble woman and militant, became the mother and the father for our kids and she took good care f them!

In 1991, I challenged the regime and took a tremendous risk by coming back to Libya! It was during the worst era of the abusive regime in the country, under the authority of the revolutionary committees! The almighty made it easy on me, despite many events during 19 long years of my life. During those years, I was under a heavy load of pressure from accusations to investigations, with a lot of stress and even imprisonment from time to time and interdiction from traveling abroad, as well as the withdrawal of my Libyan passport for seven years!

During all that time I was suffering but I have never lost hope! I firmly believe that life is a fight and it shall be always about defending our noble goals and principles. We shall be always ready to defend those goals and ready to sacrifice for them because life is short and we cannot postpone death. Believing in the justice of our cause in very, very important and we shall always submit to the will of the Almighty and his justice.

The city of Derna was unfairly marginalized throughout all its modern history because of the dishonest, wrongful and unjustified accusations. It was a beacon of culture during the independence, as everyone can attest, and its people are famous for their intelligence and knowledge, to a point that it was nicknamed as “The City of curiosity” because everyone knew each other closely!

During the era of the kingdom, upon the assignment of the ministerial departments, while the ministers were chosen with consideration of the tribal and regional balance, there was a respected tradition of appointing a Dernawi (someone who’s originally from Derna) as the under-secretary of State, or the second decision maker in the department! This was due to the fact that the people of Derna were famous for being highly educated, especially when you compare them to the Bedouins, who did not have the opportunity to have a decent education under the Italian occupation. The people of Derna were the ones capable of organizing and managing the different administrative departments and they had the knowledge of putting things in order for the member of the cabinet, whose only responsibility was to sign. Things were going fairly and automatically, until came the black coup d’etat, when everything was changed to the worst, with the black Al-Fateh revolution, who changed all the known concepts and generalized the disorder under the rule of the stoned Satan (Al-Shaytan Arrajim) on our beloved and peaceful homeland.  

Any stranger who would come to the city would be warmly and generously welcomed. Meanwhile, the people of the city would try to know everything about the stranger, like any intelligence service! Something that might offend the stranger and consider it as unsolicited curiosity. Meanwhile, it is simply their way to know the stranger and his intentions, through the observation of his acts and most of the time they have an accurate judgement of the people.

Unfortunately, the west misjudged Derna, considering it as the home of the terrorism and the radical religious movements, because of the big number of mujahideen in Iraq and Afghanistan, who volunteered for Jihad and asking for martyrdom. These analysts and advisers forget to take many things in consideration. First, why these young men  made this difficult choice of being radical religious? The answer for this question shall be easily found: Emptiness and lack of economic opportunities, which could have generated a decent income. The second factor would be their marginalization ordered by the decision makers, who opted for the radical security policies based on the oppression, imprisonment and  torture, using barbaric technics. We shall add to that among the young men, there was a strong conviction of the absence of equality and justice between the people and the regions. All this was happening in the absence of free forums, where people could freely express themselves or hold a dialog, instead of the work behind curtains!

The young men did not even have access to decent sports club, where they could consume their energy in athletic activities and competitions. Therefore, they were brainwashed and used  by foreign fanatic leaders, who were promising them to win in both this world and in the after world. They were using scare tactics that we will explain in details in another blog, so that we can provide a deep analysis as well as a thorough explanation of this phenomenon. We will introduce these innocent victims and give further details about them, as well as the right ways to help them overcome their fear of the dictators and live happily, with honor and dignity within the happy religious society that they have been dreaming about, within decent programs.

Finally, I would like to say from the bottom of my heart and from my deep conscience that I am truly honored to be the son of Derna, the patient, rebel and fighting city! Libya is my mother homeland and I am  her loving son, whatever happens!

I will never forget, neither, America and its unforgettable favors in protecting my life and the lives of the innocent honorable men, like myself, as well as my loved ones. For many years, the United States protected us from the criminal death squads of the revolutionary committees, who were executing men of honor, without any conscience. They were brainwashed, thinking they were defending the justice and the right side. They were just ruthless mercenaries targeting brave men, who refused tyranny and injustice and who preferred expatriation rather than staying in a homeland commanded by some sick bastards like the psychotic colonel Gaddafi.

I am truly happy that I was guided by God’s will to choose the United States as a new home, for myself and my loved ones. Since day one, we felt how important it is to be living in a free society , which respects the human dignity. In America I learned to respect the humans from all ethnic background and whatever their religious convictions are. I learned to accept the different points of view and to maintain the dialog, no matter what our differences are. Over here, my children grew up and had the right education. They learned the right ways to success, based on the research, the hard work and the good faith, far away from stealing and perjury, as it happens it the third world countries. Overthere, still many pseudo-man are bragging that they have obtained their degrees as a result of their cheating in the exams. America protected us when we needed it most and provided us safety. We learned our lesson in the land of the Free. God bless!

                                                Ragab Mabrouk Zatout