Davis Man Celebrates Death of Libyan Dictator
DAVIS (CBS13) -- A Davis man escaped Libya 36 years ago but hasn't been allowed to go back home or even speak to his family. Thursday he was celebrating the death of fugitive dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
"I cried a lot," Jamal Buzayan told CBS13's Ben Sosenko. "I cried the equivalent of 36 years."
The phone was ringing all morning at Buzayan's house, since the news of Qaddafi death was
a victory for Buzayan, who suffered indescribable pain at the hands of the dictator.
"There is a huge reward when you wait for something for 36 years and then history shows you've been on the right side the whole time," he said.
It's was Buzayan's opposition that almost cost him his life. At 18 years old he was drafted into the army and openly spoke out about the regime.
"They didn't like what I said so they gave me a lot of torture," he said. "And they rubbed the skin off my knees, and I ended up in bad physical shape."
With the promise never to return and never to call, Buzayan was able to escape to the U.S.
He settled in Davis, eventually earning his PhD in bio chemistry.
And this past February, one day after the revolution in his home town began, the phone rang. It was a call from his brother, the first call from Libya since he left in 1975.
"He called me and I said 'what's wrong, I want to hang up, he said 'no, don't be afraid now. We can call,'" Buzayan recalled.
Buzayan is now retired and began a non-profit to help the wounded children of Libya. In August he returned for the first time to offer his help and finally be reunited with his family.
When Buzayan left Libya in 1975, his youngest brother was just a year old. He's now 36 and has five children of his own.
And Thursday, with the death the Qaddafi, Buzayan says this long, dark period of his life is over.
"All of this time I believed the end was near," he said.
Once they all get the schedules worked out, Jamal, his wife, and four children will all finally get to go back to Libya to see relatives they've never met before, in Tripoli, Mozrata and Benhazi.
