Although this may be the most far-reaching crackdown in Qaddafi’s 41-year rule, he has long crushed dissent in Libya – sometimes using brutal tactics. In the 1990s, Qaddafi suppressed a student uprising by deploying an Army brigade against them. Many were killed; many others were put in jail.
In 1996, prisoners in Abu Salim Prison (many of them imprisoned during the previously mentioned crackdown) launched an uprising that was harshly quashed – according to Human Rights Watch, 1,200 prisoners died. Groups opposing Qaddafi’s regime have come together over the incident in the past. The first protests of the current uprising began on the anniversary of the 1996 massacre.
