Taking them on

Taking Them On

Not content with taking on the United States, Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi has reactivated demands, dating from the Second World War, for reparations supposedly due the Libyan government from Italy, Germany, and Great Britain. Italy, which ruled Libya as colonial territory for many years, and harshly during the Mussolini period, is the chief target of the claims. In that era, Libyan authorities say, 27,000 Libyans died as victims of Italian colonialism, including almost six thousand executed opposition guerrillas. There is a claim for minefield damage and another for damage to domestic animals killed in bombardments during the war. The Italians say they fulfilled any obligations by paying a large sum to the pre-Quddafi Libyan government in 1956. Much more recently, the Italians sent Qaddafi a set of maps showing the location of Axis minefields, with an offer to supply engineers and demolition experts to clear them. The offer was never acknowledged. Brochures distributed here also allege that at the end of the war, Great Britain simply replaced the Axis powers as the colonial authority. Britain ended all military connections with Libya when the Royal Air Force evacuated its base at El Adem in 1970.

COPYRIGHT 1986 National Review, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning