Libya: Italy to Pay U.S. $5 Billion for Colonialism

Italy yesterday agreed to pay Libya US$5 billion as compensation for its 30-year occupation of the country, which ended in 1943.

AP reports that the compensation agreement was sealed in Benghazi, Libya, when the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi held a discussion with Libyan Prime Minister, Baghdadi Mahmudi.


Berlusconi and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi signed a memorandum pledging a US$5 billion compensation package involving construction projects, student grants and pensions for Libyan soldiers who served with the Italians during World War II.

"It is a material and emotional recognition of the mistakes that our country has done to yours during the colonial era," Berlusconi told reporters at the airport on his arrival. "This agreement opens the path to further cooperation."

In return, Italy wants Libya to crack down on illegal migrants turning up on Italian shores, and Italy will fund US$500 million worth of electronic monitoring devices on the Libyan coastline.

Gadhafi received Berlusconi under a big tent in Benghazi where they discussed the agreement over lunch. The Italian leader said US$200 million of the package would be for infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, including a coastal highway stretching across the country from Tunisia to Egypt.

The two leaders exchanged gifts, with Berlusconi giving Gadhafi a silver inkstand, sculpted in the form of a lion's head, with two pens inside to sign the agreement. The Libyan leader gave Berlusconi a linen suit.

Berlusconi's office said in a statement that the premier would also hand over to Gadhafi the Venus of Cyrene, an ancient Roman statue taken in 1913 by Italian troops from the ruins of the Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, on the Libyan coast.

Relations between the two countries have warmed over the last few years, with Italian leaders meeting Gadhafi several times. However, it has taken years of negotiations for the two sides to reach a deal on compensation for Italy's rule over Libya from 1911 to 1943.

Libya named Aug. 30 Libyan-Italian Friendship Day.

The Libyan success in getting monetary compensation for the exploitation of her resources by a colonial master raised the issue of whether Nigeria should also not initiate a process of demanding adequate compensation from Britain for decades of colonial subjugation spanning the period 1914 to 1960.

The only co-ordinated attempt by African nations to demand compensation from European colonial masters and slave traders was initiated in 1990 by late Chief M.K.O. Abiola who initiated discussions on reparation for Africa.

The initiative however died when late Abiola joined politics in 1993 and sought the presidency of Nigeria. He died in incarceration resulting from his struggle to reclaim his electoral mandate usurped by the military government of Gen. Sani Abacha.

While responding to the question of whether Nigeria can equally make legitimate claim for compensation from Britain her colonial master for over 40 years of exploitation, Dr. Eyimofe Atake (SAN) said: "To be able to answer that question, one needs to know exactly why compensation was paid and the circumstances in which compensation was paid. One needs to know the fact of the case between the Italians and the Libyans and how the issue for the payment of compensation arose. No two cases are necessarily similar, so in the absence of the facts and circumstances that led to the payment of compensation, it will be totally speculative to say if Nigeria could ask for compensation or be paid compensation by Britain.


"In any event, under international law, Britain and Italy are separate and distinct states. They are sovereign states. Consequently, the British government is not bound by the acts of the Italian government. The decision of the Italian government is personal to them based on their peculiar circumstance and facts, which have nothing to do with the British government and the Nigerian government," he said through a text message forwarded to THISDAY from Miami, Florida in the United States.