Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 588
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
http://basantipurtimes.blogspot.com/
Qadhafi vows 'long war' after US, allies strike!India silent on Yet Another Oil War and Zionist Monopolistic Aggression on MUSLIM World all on the name of Democracy and Human Rights!Since India is Ruled by Zionist Brahaminical Hegemony and Global Hindutva is alligned under Nuclear strategic Realliance led by USA and ISRAEL, since Indian Economy is based on Mass EXCLUSION and ETHNIC Cleansing of Non Brahaminical Mulnivasi Bahujan Indigenous Aboriginal Population of SC, ST, NT, DNT,BC, OBC and Converted Minorities and ECONOMIC Reforms do support Black MONEY Rule, FDI and Foreign Capital Raj and LPG Mafia Governemnet, Indian Diplomacy Fails Miserably to Address any Global ISSUE as Policy Making and Legislation are decided by Washington!
However,the CPI(M) on Sunday termed as a "dangerous act of aggression" the aerial strikes in Libya by U.S-led coalition forces and said it was a "calculated intervention" in an internal conflict.
The party asked all democratic and progressive forces in India to strongly protest yet another military aggression by America and its allies on an Arab-African country.
India on Sunday regretted the air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition forces in Libya and called upon all the parties to abjure use of force and resolve the differences through peaceful means.
"India views with grave concern the continuing violence, strife and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya. It regrets the air strikes that are taking place. The measures adopted should mitigate and not exacerbate an already difficult situation for the people of the country," Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement here "Spoke to Ambassador (M) Manimekalai in Tripoli a short while ago. She is cool and calm. Harrowing Saturday night though with jets screaming above, she says the Ambassador," Foreign Secretary, Nirupama Rao said in her tweet.
Further more, the Ministry said India hopes that the air strikes would not harm innocent civilians, foreign nationals and diplomatic missions and their personnel, who are still in Libya. "India calls upon all parties to abjure use of or the threat of use of force and to resolve their differences through peaceful means and dialogue in which the U.N. and regional organisations should play their roles," it added.
The U.S.-led military coalition today hit Libyan defence targets with cruise missiles and launched air attacks as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed to open his arms depots to the people to retaliate against the Western aggression. French jets fired the first shots in 'Operation Odyssey Dawn', the biggest international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles in eastern Libya, Al-Jazeera reported.
They were joined by the U.S. and the U.K. who fired over 110 Tomahawk missiles from American and British ships and submarines, hitting about 20 Libyan defence targets in the capital Tripoli and along the Mediterranean coast, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral, William Gortney said at a Pentagon briefing.
The U.N. Security Council had on Thursday adopted a resolution, calling for an immediate ceasefire and authorised all necessary measures for protecting civilians in Libya from Gaddafi's forces.
In a statement by CPI(M) Polit Bureau, the party said "The military strikes by the forces comprising France, Britain and the United States is a dangerous act of aggression.
"They are now repeating what they did in Iraq, which led to deaths of millions of people and large scale destruction. Already forty eight people are reported dead in the attacks on the first day," it said.
Despite the rhetoric about protecting the Libyan people, it said this act of aggression is a "gross violation" of Libya's sovereignty and a "calculated intervention" in an internal conflict to bring about a change of regime.
"The hypocrisy of the Western powers can be seen in their connivance with the Saudi military intervention to crush the popular and peaceful revolt in Bahrain. The West has no compunction in resorting to force to secure its interests in oil-rich Libya and the Middle East," it said.
The party said the UN Security Council resolution on Libya has been utilised by these military forces for this attack.
"The five members of the Security Council, which includes India, who abstained on the resolution should immediately demand a review of the resolution. Till then there has to be a halt to the military action," it said.
The U.S-led military coalition today hit Libyan defence targets with cruise missiles and launched air attacks as Muammar Qadhafi vowed to open his arms depots to the people to retaliate against the Western "aggression".
French jets fired the first shots in Operation Odyssey Dawn, the biggest international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles in eastern Libya, Al-Jazeera reported.
They were joined by the U.S. and the U.K. who fired over 110 Tomahawk missiles from American and British ships and submarines, hitting about 20 Libyan air and missile defence targets in the capital Tripoli and along the Mediterranean coast, US Navy Vice Adm William Gortney said at a Pentagon briefing.
French jets have begun a second day of operations over Libya to enforce a no-fly zone against Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces. The 15 planes patrolled Libyan airspace but did not open fire because they met no resistance, a spokesman said.
The U.S. and European nations targeted Muammar Qadhafi's forces with airstrikes and dozens of cruise missiles, shaking the Libyan capital with explosions and the sound of gunfire early on Sunday. The Libyan leader vowed a long war "with unlimited patience and deep faith."
State television said 48 people had died in the strikes, which marked the widest international military effort since the Iraq war. They were aimed at enforcing a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone in support of rebels who have seen early gains reversed by the regime's superior air power and weaponry.
In Benghazi, the rebel capital and first city to fall to the uprising that began Feb. 15, people said the international action happened just in time. Libyan government tanks and troops had reached the edges of the city on Saturday.
"It was a matter of minutes and Qadhafi's forces would have been in Benghazi," said Akram Abdul Wahab, a 20-year-old butcher in the city.
In the phone call to state television, Mr. Qadhafi said he would not let up on the rebel-held city and said the government had opened up weapons depots to all Libyans, who were now armed with "automatic weapons, mortars and bombs."
The U.S. military said 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from American and British ships and submarines at more than 20 coastal targets to clear the way for air patrols to ground Libya's air force. French fighter jets fired the first salvos, carrying out several strikes in the rebel-held east, while British fighter jets also bombarded the North African nation.
President Barack Obama said military action was not his first choice and reiterated that he would not send American ground troops.
"This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought," Mr. Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."
Thousands of regime supporters, meanwhile, packed into the sprawling Bab al-Aziziya military camp in Tripoli where Mr. Qadhafi lives to protect against attacks.
Explosions rocked the coastal cities, including Tripoli, where anti-aircraft guns could be heard firing overnight.
Libyan TV quoted the armed forces command as saying 48 people were killed and 150 wounded in the allied assault. It said most of the casualties were children but gave no more details.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "deeply concerned" about civilians and called on all sides work to distinguish between civilians and fighters and allow safe access for humanitarian organizations.
Mr. Qadhafi, who has ruled Libya for 41 years, said in a telephone call to Libyan state TV that he was opening weapons depots to allow his people to arm themselves in defence.
He said the international action against his forces was unjustified, calling it "simply a colonial crusader aggression that may ignite another large-scale crusader war."
His regime acted quickly in the run-up to the strikes, sending warplanes, tanks and troops into the eastern city of Benghazi, the rebel capital and first city to fall to the rebellion that began Feb. 15. Then the government attacks appeared to go silent.
Operation Odyssey Dawn, as the allied assault has been dubbed, followed an emergency summit in Paris during which the 22 leaders and top officials agreed to do everything necessary to make Mr. Qadhafi respect a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday calling for the no-fly zone and demanding a ceasefire, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff, told reporters in Washington that U.S. ships and a British submarine had launched the first phase of a missile assault on Libyan air defenses.
Mr. Gortney said the mission has two goals- prevent further attacks by Libyan forces on rebels and civilians, and degrade the Libyan military's ability to contest a no-fly zone.
Defence officials cautioned it was too early to fully gauge the impact of the onslaught. But a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the mission was ongoing, said the Americans felt that Libya's air defences had been heavily damaged given the precision targeting of the cruise missiles.
Mohammed Ali, a spokesman for the exiled opposition group the Libyan Salvation Front, said the Libyan air force headquarters at the Mateiga air base in eastern Tripoli and the Aviation Academy in Misrata had been targeted.
About 20 French fighter jets carried out "several strikes" earlier Saturday, military spokesman Thierry Burkhard told The Associated Press.
"All our planes have returned to base tonight," he said, and denied a Libyan TV report that a French plane had been hit.
He would not elaborate on what was hit or where, but said French forces are focusing on the Benghazi area and U.S. forces are focused in the west.
The U.S. has struck Libya before. Former President Reagan launched U.S. airstrikes on Libya in 1986 after a bombing at a Berlin disco -- which the U.S. blamed on Libya -- that killed three people, including two American soldiers. The airstrikes killed about 100 people in Libya, including Mr. Qadhafi's young adopted daughter at his Tripoli compound.
The rebels said earlier that they had hoped for more, sooner from the international community, after a day when crashing shells shook the buildings of Benghazi and Gadhafi's tanks rumbled through the university campus.
"People are disappointed, they haven't seen any action yet. The leadership understands some of the difficulties with procedures but when it comes to procedures versus human lives the choice is clear," said Essam Gheriani, a spokesman for the opposition. "People on the streets are saying where the international forces are? Is the international community waiting for the same crimes to be perpetrated on Benghazi has have been done by Qadhafi in the other cities?"
Saturday's fighting galvanized the people of Benghazi, with young men collecting bottles to make gasoline bombs. Some residents dragged bed frames and metal scraps into the streets to make roadblocks.
"This city is a symbol of the revolution, it's where it started and where it will end if this city falls," said Gheriani.
Russia voices regret over military intervention in Libya
Russia has voiced regret over foreign military intervention in Libya and denounced "indiscriminate" use of force by Western nations in the North African country."Moscow regrets this armed action launched with reference to hastily passed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement posted on the ministry's website on Saturday evening.
"We are convinced that for the internal conflict in Libya to be settled credibly it is necessary to stop bloodshed and launch dialogue among Libyans themselves," Mr. Lukashevich said.
In another statement issued on Sunday Moscow called for a halt to "indiscriminate" use of force in Libya.
"We strongly urge the countries concerned to stop indiscriminate use of force," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
He added that it was "impermissible" to use the "controversial" Security Council resolution for achieving aims that "clearly go beyond its mandate of taking only steps to protect the civilian population."
Russia, along with the other BRIC countries and Germany, abstained in the vote on Resolution 1973, which called for imposing a no-fly zone over Libya.
"My fear is that the West's military operation in Libya would push all parties to the conflict in that country to re-unite and fight the invaders," said Margelov, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament.
Hindu rulers miss opportunities of Middle East revolution
OUR CORRESPONDENTBangalore: The series of revolutions in Arab countries in Middle East, so spontaneously greeted by the peoples all over the world, did not please India's anti-Muslim rulers. So much so the Hindu rulers have suffered yet another setback with revolutionary Iran emerging as the leader of the entire Muslim world.
Rise of Islam: Look at the power of the mighty "Forces of history" which we have been talking about.
The Middle East revolution is a big defeat for India.
The rise of Iran, so much hated by the Jews and the "Jews of India" right in the middle of the world, and also of China, fast emerging as a world leader, proves the total failure of the "Khatri Sick" foreign policy which is manufactured by his zionist masters in Washington and sold to India.
Even as the sole super power, USA, is itself fast sinking, India's Brahminical worms are not ready to read the writings on the wall. Along with USA, its blue-eyed boy, the zionist Israel, will also sink.
World War-III: Already Israel is surrounded by all anti-zionist countries. With Iran becoming a nuclear power, and the entire Middle East Muslim countries baying for the zionist blood, we will not be surprised if an explosion takes place in this region.
May be the arrogant Israel may attack Iran inviting quick retaliation which will instantly lead to the World War-III.
China as major gainer: The European Union and even Britain may not quickly come to support Israel. China of course will be the major gainer as it will be automatically catapulted as the world leader of the oppressed.
India isolated: Which side the "Hindu India" will be? What will the "India shiningwalas" then do? When they are already hostile to Muslims and China, who will trust them?
Fall of Saudi: Another major development of the Middle east revolution is the fall of Saudi Arabia, already in the grip of Jews, which is misleading the innocent Muslims calling itself the "Custodian of Islam". The King of Saudi is already seriously ill and very old. Hundreds of his closest princes are waiting for his death. The fear is Saudi Arabia will plunge into chaos.
Role of Indian Muslims: Indian Muslims, forming about 15 to 20%, constitute the world's largest Muslim population. Indonesia may be bigger but they are not strict Muslim. Indian Muslims are controlled by its 2% corrupt religious and political leaders who will be thrown out using the current opportunity.
Many cataclysmic changes are expected. Indian Muslims must get ready.
This is also an opportunity for Dalits and Bahujans to join hands with Muslims, our blood brothers, and bring about the long awaited Ambedkarite revolution.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/march_a2011/reports.htm
Fall of Saudi will complete Arab revolution
OUR CORRESPONDENTBangalore: Thanks to "forces of history", all the corrupt and cocky tyrants groomed by the zionist Israel are dying one by one. Great. The Arab revolution, however, will not be complete until Saudi Arabia, completely in the zionist stomach, is liberated. All this indicates that the zionist Israel, the cause of the two World Wars and now preparing for the World war-III, is nearing its end.
The US, the greatest protector and financier of Israel, has allowed all the Arab tyrants to grow. In the name of beating down the "Islamic terrorism", it fostered the Arab tyrants.
The fall of tyrants started with Tunisia. But we are not yet certain about Egypt. The military rule continues.
Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco, Libya, Jordan, are all shaking. In the name of Islamic terrorism, US has been protecting these tyrants and siphoning off their oil.The Emirates are fully controlled by the Jews and have no trace of Islam.
America is keeping its stooge in West Bank. Soon revolution will pull him down also.
DV Feb.16, 2011 p. 8: "Revolution in Egypt will wipe out zionist Israel".
DV March 1, 2011 p.23: "West Asia revolution".
4 flagship schemes of UPA govt. deliberately killed
OUR CORRESPONDENTBangalore: Democracy, justice, equality, compassion are concepts unknown and unheard of under Brahminism, which hides under the name of Hinduism. A Hindu "think tank" itself has revealed that all the four UPA Govt.'s mega flagship schemes have failed because they are meant for the oppressed 85% of the non-Hindus.
The schemes are Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Rs. 1,21,861 crores), Sarva Shikhsa Abhiyan (Rs. 54, 371 crores), National Rural Health Mission (Rs. 51,417 crores), Integrated Child Development Services (Rs. 27, 384 crores).
All the four mega schemes failed because they are meant for the "rural poor", meaning the SC/ST/BCs and other non-Hindu, totalling over 85% of the population which is hated by the Hindu rulers.
A study published by the TOI (Feb.21, 2011) hides this fact but it is clear that Brahminic rulers killed the four schemes because it was meant for the benefit of their enemy whom they want to keep for ever poor and oppressed.
The "Khatri Sick" PM who is directly in-charge of all these four mega projects deliberately allowed them to die.
"Khatri Sick" PM alone responsible for India's total mess
OUR CORRESPONDENTBangalore: DV was the first in India to express utter disappointment with the "Khatri Sick" PM, and even accuse him of being solely responsible for giving a free hand to the country's less than 15% upper caste rulers to rob and ruin the 85% Bahujan have-nots.
Sole spokesman also disgusted
As an import of the Jewish-controlled World Bank, he did a neat job to further strengthen the muscles of his jatwalas — even as he was putting a show of honesty and also being praised as "god's good man".
Which god? We don't know. But this much we can say that it is the Brahminical god (or gods) whom Dr. Ambedkar called criminals.
Finally, even his own Brahminical jatwalas are getting tired of the "Khatri Sick". The country's Brahminical sole spokesman Times of India (Feb.20, 2011) said all this in a full-page write-up saying that he has messed up the whole country.
It is time we bid him goodbye.
The TOI says his much publicised "leadership skills" are all bogus.
His love for US and its Jewish controllers has made India enemy of the entire Muslim part of the world and particularly China, the rising sole super power.
Intellectually corrupt
He has given the less than 3% Brahminical super rulers more muscles to squeeze us and sharper teeth to bite us. He has also fully protected those upper caste robbers who have stored their stolen money in Swiss banks.
He may pretend to be incorruptible. But corruption does not mean money matters alone. Intellectual corruption is the most serious form of corruption. (Read our book, India's Intellectual Desert, DSA-1999, Rs. 50). And the "Khatri Sick" is the very incarnation of it.
Never before the country, already poverty-stricken, has descended to this depth of misery, surrounded by enemies all around, corruption entering every walk of life — including the voters (the common man) at the lowest level. What hope is left when voters themselves become corrupt?
Who else can be held responsible for this moral, political, economic and social crisis — except its highest executive?
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/march_a2011/reports.htm
DV theory on "Jews of India" gets world-wide support
V.T. RAJSHEKARWe have received very many valuable, informative and also most authentic documents — all fully confirming our thesis that the Brahminical "Jews of India" (2%) are cousins of the Western Jews. The Jewish holy book Torah and the Brahminic "holy" book, Veda, have many, many things in common. Both are hate-mongers, racists.
WIKIPEDIA ATTACK
Though we have been writing and talking about our theory that the Jews and the "Jews of India" are birds of the same feather, no Aryan Brahmin in India or outside had challenged except the Jewish-owned Wikipedia which works in close collaboration with "Jews of India" residing in US and Europe.Dalit Voice reproduced the whole text of the Wikipedia attack on us in our Nov.1, 2010 issue and then reprinted it for world-wide sale: "Enemy makes DV world famous".WORLD WAR - III
India's mere 2% Brahminists, however, made use of our theory and got close to the zionist Israel, the world's most hated racist country which is pushing the Western Christian world towards a World War-III against Muslims and Chinese. We had predicted that in this World War-III both the hate-mongering scum would be wiped out.Abhinav Bharat, headed by a Chitpavan Brahmin serving Army Intelligence officer, Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit, now comfortably kept in the Nasik Jail along with his fellow conspirators, has announced its plan to impose Brahminical dictatorship on India and clamp Manuwadi rule (DV Edit Feb.1, 2011: "Abhinav Bharat wants to clamp Brahminic dictatorship by imposing Manu's constitution").
MOSSAD SUPPORTS BRAHMIN DICTATORSHIP
He had visited Israel twice and met the world's most dangerous killer organisation, Mossad, which engineered the 2001 World Trade Centre attack in New York forcing the US to launch a "war on Islamic terrorism, headed by Osama bin Laden.This war is continuing even to this day in Afghanistan but to the utter defeat of America.
BOMBAY TERRORIST ATTACK
Zionist Israel offered the "Jews of India" funds, arms, intelligence back up, and also assisted in the famous "terrorist attack" on Bombay's Taj Mahal Hotel to kill the upright police officer Karkare who arrested the entire Abhinav Bharat Brahminical conspirators. The latest to be arrested, Bengali Swami Aseemananda has confessed before the court all the crimes of the Abhinav Bharat which was responsible for a series of bombings on Muslims and their masjids.Though India's Brahminical Govt. was quick to arrest hundreds of Muslim youths charging them with terrorist attacks and mercilessly treating them, those "Jews of India" arrested for attack on Muslims are looked after very well —proving our charge that India's very govt. is controlled by the Jews and the "Jews of India".
WESTERN SCHOLARS SUPPORT
This in brief is the mounting proof of the Jews and "Jews of India" coming together in a big way and also upholding our thesis.In our two books, Brahminism (DSA-2002, pp.160 Rs. 50) and Weapons to Fight Counter-Revolution(2004, pp.102 Rs. 75) and many other subsequent publications we have been gradually building up the theory that the zionist Jews, the most hated racists in the West, and the "Jews of India" are the same.
Our theory alerted so many White Western Christians, experts in the West, specially in the US, which is held in the neck by its 2% Jews, and made them probe our theory. A number of scholars have found that this long kept top secret is absolutely correct. The different websites (excerpts of which are cited below) have fully supported us.
THREAT TO KILL
While some Brahminists have not only criticised but also threatened us, some criminal-minded among them instead of refuting our argument with scholarly rebuttals, have threatened to blackmail us, some made below the belt attack and some even threatened to to kill us.We want to assure our hate-mongering heroes that Dalit Voice has already crossed its record 30 years of publication riding on its high moral ground without a single charge against us. Not one prediction of our has gone wrong so far.
WHEN GERMAN JEWS WERE DECEIVED
But on the other side it is the Brahminists, the "Jews of India", who deceived their own Jewish blood brothers of which a famous French Jewish historian, Leon Poliakov, has written a scholarly book, The Aryan Myth (1977 pp.400, New American Libraru, New York, Photocopy available with DV Rs. 350). It is in this book that we for the first time (over 34 years ago) learnt the Brahminical origin of zionist thoughts.BRAHMINISTS CAUSE 2 WORLD WARS
We congratulated Leon Poliakov for diagnosing the Brahminical disease even while we criticised him for failing to cure the disease. Poliakov, himself a famous Jewish historian, said that the German Jews were taken for ride by the Indian Brahminists who sold the "Aryan myth" theory to German Christians, and Hitler, and braiwnashed them to attack the Jews.The Brahminical "Aryan Myth" theory not only deceived the German Christians and Jews but brought about two devastating World Wars.
WHY GANDHI WAS DENIED NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
We met some Christian and Jewish scholars in London during our recent visits and got full confirmation from them about the fears of Leon Poliakov. Brahminists were then waging a war against the benevolent British Christian rulers of India. M.K. Gandhi, a Gujarati Bania was an equally dangerous Brahminist swearing by the very same racist theories. It is this enthusiasm that made him to criticise the Jews for forcibly occupying the Arab land that legitimately belonged to Palestinians. The zionist Nobel Foundation became furious with Gandhi for criticising Israel and denied the Nobel Peace Prize to the "Apostle of Peace" who pushed India to perpetual violence. This is the secret of Gandhi being denied the Nobel Peace Prize, which is always reserved exclusively for those producing philosophy of hatred and violence.AMARTYA SEN'S ZIONIST LINK
The most powerful and unimpeachable evidence is being provided by the Indian state itself which discarded Soviet-China bloc and jumped into the arms of the world's most hated country, USA, which is controlled by its 2% Jews. All the top American financial institutions have taken the crooked "Jews of India" as their executives. One fellow (Pandit) is heading USA largest banking institution.DALAI LAMA AS ZIONIST AGENT
Amartya Sen, the Nobel (Economics) Laureate, married from the family of the "King of Jews" the Rothschilds, which controls Britain and practically the entire world Jewry, brought "Khatri Sick" Manmohan Singh from the World Bank to India as Finance Minister to give shape to pro-zionist policies of the super Chanakya, then Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, a Telugu Brahmin, who pushed India into the arms of the zionists.Ever since then the Jews and the "Jews of India" have been singing and dancing together and turning India against Muslims and also the rising super power China. If such a pro-Jewish tilt is moving at a supersonic speed with the Tibetan runaway renegade, Dalai Lama, whipping up anti-China hatred, on the other side the newly established alliance of hate-mongers is seriously concentrating on impoverishing and systematically killing the original inhabitants of India (65% plus Muslims 15%).
BRHAMIN KILLED GANDHI
On one side over 75% of indigenous Indians are kept poor, illiterate, unthinking and daily brainwashed to become "better Hindu" (meaning slaves). On the other, those opposed to the "Jews of India" like the Muslim, Christians and Sikhs are kicked, killed, burnt, raped and their little property destroyed — daily.The "Khatri Sick" PM is doing this job smoothly and Amartya Sen periodically visits India to supervise his subjugating road-roller drive.
The ruling Brahminists have already discarded, if not humiliated, the revolutionary saints like Dr. Ambedkar, Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy, Mahatma Phule etc. often hoisting the flag of Gandhi, the bogus Gujarati Bania who was killed by a Brahmin only.
Politically India is bankrupt, economically impoverished, socially and morally crippled and finally surrounded by deadly enemies all round — the desertification of India is almost complete. DV family members by now are familiar with our Jews and "Jews of India" theory that killed this country. As thinking itself has stopped in India, the 1,300 million strong — the second largest in the world — country is getting ready for a foreign invasion of which we have hinted in our Editorial of Jan.16, 2011: "Foreign power may take over India".
THIRD WORLD WAR
The crazy "Jews of India" enjoying their intoxicating power, wealth and arrogant insolence have become blind, deaf and also dumb-driven. That means they will be digging their own grave into which they only will fall and bury themselves alive even before their brother Jews are finished in the fast approaching Third World War — a war that will end all future wars — which we welcome and wait with bated breath.THUS SPAKE PERIYAR
Gandhi as Brahmin agent: His fast-unto-death are stunts
Fasting: The next important thing that attracts the attention of the general public is the second world war. We are getting day by day good news. We are happy and contented. So far as we are concerned we are prepared to make all sacrifices. In fact we have already sacrificed a lot. As such we need not be worried much about the war.The other matter that is drawing the attention of the public is the fast by Mr. M.K. Gandhi. His fasting is not a new experience. He has fasted many times for a few days and after breaking the fast he recouped good health. He once underwent fast unto death and succeeded in his aim. This time his fast is drawing more attention. The doctors are of the opinion that his condition is bad. The British government is negligent. But I feel that this fast is against our interests. That is the reason why the government is lethargic. We are demanding the separation of Dravidanaadu. Mr. M.K. Gandhi is against it. The government does not want to interfere. They want the matter to be settled within ourselves. Mr. M.K. Gandhi says that the British should "Quit India". His idea is to let us down afterwards. That is Mr. M.K. Gandhi's motive. It is for this that he is now fasting. What are we to do? If others are concerned about us, we will be concerned about them. It is reciprocal and quite natural.
We are today Sudras. We are degraded. We have no right to enter the temples or eating at houses of Brahmins. We are considered as low Untouchables. In the government we are given menial jobs. Those who betray us are caressed by the government and the Congress Party. We remain as downtrodden people today. We are being exploited by the Brahmins and by the people of other states.
Did Mr. M.K. Gandhi feel for a moment about our pitiable lot? Did he express a word of sympathy? Now many people are worried about the fast by Mr. M.K. Gandhi. Did any one of them care to express sympathy towards our cause? One will have to think over the after effects of his fasting. Could it be said that our low status would be changed to the better status or equal status with others? How to sympathise with Mr. M.K. Gandhi without considering all these factors? His fasting is a mere farce. How to sympathise with Mr. M.K. Gandhi?
Now an all-party conference is convened. The convenors of the conference have practically ignored us. They do not even think of us. Under these condition what help could we render to them? My friend Rajaji is the man behind the screen to all these. Yet he is not at all worried about his own state. Moreover, the participating leaders of various parties were strictly instructed not to talk about party politics. They were asked to speak only about the release of Mr. M.K. Gandhi. How could any self-respecting person agree to partake in the conference?
Those who exploit the name of Mr. M.K. Gandhi for their own selfish ends participated in the conference. They passed a resolution in favour of Congress Party. Only 200 delegates attended the conference. About 309 people attended as visitors.
Rajaji himself accepted that the conference was not largely attended. It seems there were loud speaker arrangements also. They call it an All India All-party conference. There is no limit for their deceit and fraud. They say that 100 telegrams were received from the South. Atleast 88 would be from Brahmins. Newspapers in the hands of vested interests, being dominated by Brahmins made a big fuss about the conference. None seemed to worry about the people of South India. How is it right to decide the social, economic and political problems of the people from the fasting of a single individual? Is it a wise thing? Moreover it is mere barbarity to depend on fast to solve problems. It is utterly barbarous to be afraid one man fasting. If we are to submit to this sort of threat, I do not know where it will lead us to.
Hooliganism: The next item that drew the attention of the public is the enormous country-wide sabotage in consequent of 1942 "Quit India" movement. It is somewhat losing vigour now. The Congress Party is responsible for the heavy damage caused to the public property. (To be continued)
[Collected Works of Periyar , (pp.160 to 162) (4th edn. 2007), The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution, Periyar Thidal, 50-EVK Sampath Rd., Vepery, Madras - 600 007.]
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/march_a2011/articles.htm
French jets resume Libya sorties
Anti-Gaddafi rebels have welcomed the air strikes and no-fly zone over LibyaFrench jets have begun a second day of operations over Libya to enforce a no-fly zone against Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
The 15 planes patrolled Libyan airspace but did not open fire because they met no resistance, a spokesman said.
France also says Qatar is to about to deploy four planes to the operation.
The move would make Qatar the first Arab country to play an active part in the campaign against Col Gaddafi, who has been battling a month-long revolt.
Spain, Italy, Denmark and Norway have also committed more military assets, after more than 120 missiles were fired overnight against Libyan targets.
Arab League criticismThe head of the Arab League appears to have criticised the severity of the bombardment.
His comments are significant because the Arab League's support for the no-fly zone was a key factor in getting UN Security Council backing for the resolution authorising the move.
"What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians," said Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Cairo, says this looks like a worrying crack in the coalition. Western governments are counting on at least symbolic participation by the air forces of some Arab states, he adds.
US military chief Adm Mike Mullen said the initial raids had been "successful".
US fighter planes and B-2 stealth bombers were involved, Pentagon officials said.
Cruise missiles hit at least 20 air-defence sites in the capital, Tripoli, and the western city of Misrata, they said.
After an attack by French planes near the rebel-held city of Benghazi, some 14 bodies were lying near destroyed military vehicles outside the city, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the build-up of forces to enforce the no-fly zone continues. The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle has left the Mediterranean port of Toulon for Libya.
Denmark and Norway are each sending six planes, though Norway has said it will take at least five days before its aircraft can join operations. Spain has sent at least three planes, plus a refuelling aircraft, while Italy also has jets ready to deploy.
Col Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam called Saturday's attack a "big mistake".
"Believe me, one day you will wake up and you will find out that you were supporting the wrong people and you had made a big mistake in supporting those people," he told Christiane Amanpour for ABC This Week. "It's like the WMD [weapons of mass destruction] in Iraq. It's another story."
Libyan TV has broadcast footage it says showed some of the 150 people wounded in the attacks. It said 48 people had been killed.
There was no independent confirmation of the deaths and UK Finance Minister George Osborne told the BBC that such claims should be treated with caution as the military was striving to avoid civilian casualties.
Adm Mullen also said he had not received any reports of civilian deaths or injuries.
A rebel spokesman in Misrata told the BBC that pro-Gaddafi forces had launched fresh attacks on Sunday with heavy shelling in the city.
Inch by inch"We promise you a long, drawn-out war with no limits," Col Gaddafi said in a phone call to Libyan state TV on Sunday morning.
He said Western forces had no right to attack Libya, which had done nothing to them.
"We will fight inch by inch," he said while a sculpture of a golden fist crushing a US jet was being shown.
He earlier said he would open arms depots to the people to defend Libya and described the attacks as "crusader aggression".
Western forces began their actions on Saturday after pro-Gaddafi troops attacked the main rebel-held city of Benghazi.
The BBC's Kevin Connolly, in the rebel-held eastern city of Tobruk, says that once the air-defence systems are taken out, combat aircraft can patrol Libyan airspace more widely. It will then become clear to what extent they will attack Col Gaddafi's ground forces.
This will determine the outcome of the campaign, he adds.
Russia and China, which abstained from the UN Security Council resolution approving the use of force in Libya, have urged all parties to stop fighting, as has the African Union.
Col Gaddafi has ruled Libya for more than 40 years. An uprising against him began last month after the long-time leaders of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt were toppled.
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US Says International Forces Control Skies Over Libya
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen (File Photo)
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America's top military commander says a United Nations-authorized no-fly zone over Libya has effectively been achieved.
The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, is calling the initial phase of a multi-national effort to take control of Libyan airspace a success. Mullen says Libyan command-and-control centers and air defense installations have been struck, and that leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces effectively are grounded.
"We have had a very significant impact very early in establishing this no-fly zone and supporting the mission, which is to protect civilians and also to be able to provide corridors and create the conditions for humanitarian relief," he said. "So I would say the no-fly zone, which we were tasked to put in place, is actually in place."
Speaking on the Fox News Sunday television program, Mullen stressed that the current U.S. objective in Libya is well-defined and limited.
"The focus of the United Nations Security Council resolution was really [the rebel stronghold of] Benghazi, specifically, and to protect civilians," he said. "And we have done that, or we have started to do that. This is not about going after Gadhafi himself or attacking him at this particular point in time."
Mullen added that it is impossible to know right now what the ultimate outcome in Libya will be.
Some U.S. legislators believe the United States should have intervened sooner in Libya, and should now focus on ending Mr. Gadhafi's rule. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also appeared on Fox News Sunday.
AP
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. take part in a news conference, on Capitol Hill in Washington (File Photo)But Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island says the United States should not act unilaterally beyond the U.N.-authorized mission. He responded this way when asked if he favors U.S. ground forces in Libya:
"Not United States forces," said Reed. "I think the president [Barack Obama] has rightly ruled that out. But there are many forces that are capable of helping."
Many doubt Moammar Gadhafi will give up power unless he is forcibly removed. Ali Suleiman Aujali has served as Libya's ambassador in Washington, but now backs anti-Gadhafi rebels in his home country. He spoke on ABC's This Week program.
"There is one thing on the mind of Gadhafi: that he will not step down," he said. "He will fight. He has no other choice. He will never give up"
With air attacks against rebels a thing of the past, Aujali predicts anti-Gadhafi forces will regroup and begin a march towards the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where he predicts they will mount a siege to end the leader's rule.
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Mike Mullen says ousting Gaddafi is not the goal of the military operation in Libya, but a no-fly zone is now in place. Last Modified: 20 Mar 2011 16:56 | |||||||
| Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, has said the military operation in Libya called for by theUN Security Council is not aimed at regime change - adding that a "stalemate" could well exist, leaving Muammar Gaddafi in power. The 64-year-old admiral also said that no-fly zone had "effectively been established", as Gaddafi's planes had not taken to the skies following Saturday's overnight shelling of dozens of targets in northern Libya. "In the first 24 hours, operations have established the no-fly zone. French air planes are over Benghazi as we speak and will do that on a 24/7 basis. The operations have taken out some ground forces near Benghazi, taken out air defences, some of his control nodes, some of his airfields, I don't have all damage assessments, but so far [it's been] very very effective," he said. Gaddafi "was attacking Benghazi and we are there to stop that ... we are ending his ability to attack us from the ground, so he will not continue to execute his own people." Mullen, the most senior officer in the US military, denied that any civilians had been killed in the bombardment, which saw some 110 cruise missiles being shot from American naval vessels in the Mediterranean sea. Libyan state TV has reported that death toll from the air strikes has risen to more than 60. It's understood that 20 of 22 Libyan targets were hit in the overnight assault, "with varying levels of damage", a military source told Reuters. Mullen also said the US would be handing command of the operation to "a coalition" of militaries, with support coming from the Arab world, as well as NATO members.
"There are forces, airplanes in particular from Qatar, who are moving into position as we speak. There are other countries who have committed - I'd rather have them publicly announce that commitment. "It was a significant point when the Arab League voted against this guy. This is a colleague [of theirs], and we've had a significant number of coalition countries who've come together to provide capability." Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, said on Sunday that when the organisation endorsed a no-fly zone "what we wanted was the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians". Gaddafi defiant Hours after the international coalition launched air attacks on his forces, Muammar Gaddafi, the longtime Libyan leader, responded pugnaciously, vowing to defeat foreigners who he said had no right to interfere in the North African nation's internal affairs. In a roughly 15-minute address on Sunday, his second since the air raids began and during which he never appeared on screen, Gaddafi promised a "long war" that his forces would win. The promise to fight came after Libyan foreign minister Musa Kousa responded to a United Nations resolution authorising force to protect civilians by promising to institute a cease fire. "We will fight for every square in our land," Gaddafi said. "We will die as martyrs." Gaddafi, the de-facto leader of the country for more than four decades, declared that Libyan "people are behind me and ready for all-out war", and repeated his claim that his regime had "opened the depots" and distributed weapons among the populace. He drew allusions to other US-led wars, including Vietnam, as well as the Crusades, saying that air attacks by French, US and British forces amounted to a "cold war" on Islam. He also promised retribution against Libyans who sided with the foreign intervention. "We will fight and we will target any traitor who is co-operating with the Americans or with the Christian Crusade," he said. Gaddafi mentioned the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as the bloody US intervention in Somalia and the ongoing campaign to capture or kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. All, he said, were examples of the kind of defeat the US was about to endure in Libya. "You don't learn," he said. "You're always going to be destroyed." | |||||||
Source: Al Jazeera, agencies | |||||||
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Libya
| Libya ليبيا Lībiyā (Arabic) | ||
|---|---|---|
.svg) | ||
| Capital (and largest city) | Tripoli طرابلس1 32°52′N 13°11′E | |
| Official language(s) | Arabic2 | |
| Demonym | Libyan | |
| Government | Disputed (See below) | |
| Independence | ||
| - | Relinquished by Italy | 10 February 1947 |
| - | From United Kingdom &France under United Nations Trusteeship | 24 December 1951 |
| Area | ||
| - | Total | 1,759,541 km2 (17th) 679,359 sq mi |
| - | Water (%) | Negligible surface water, reservoirs of water underground. |
| Population | ||
| - | 2010 estimate | 6,420,000[1] (105th) |
| - | 2006 census | 5,670,6881 |
| - | Density | 3.6/km2 (218th) 9.4/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) | 2010 estimate | |
| - | Total | $96.138 billion[2] (68th) |
| - | Per capita | $14,884[2] (56th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2010 estimate | |
| - | Total | $76.557 billion[2] (64th) |
| - | Per capita | $11,852[2] (48th) |
| HDI (2010) |  0.755[3] (high) (53rd) | |
| Currency | Dinar (LYD) | |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | |
| Drives on the | right | |
| Internet TLD | .ly | |
| Calling code | 218 | |
| 1 | Though both governments disputing Libya agree Tripoli is its capital, the de facto administrative centre of the Libyan Republic is currently Benghazi. | |
| 2 | Libyan Arabic and other varieties are the spoken languages, while literary Arabic is the official written language. | |
| Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الإشتراكية العظمى Al-Jamāhīriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah al-Lībiyyah aš-Šaʿbiyyah al-Ištirākiyyah al-ʿUẓmā (Arabic) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
| Anthem: Allahu Akbar God is great | ||||||
| Government | Jamahiriya | |||||
| - | Leader and Guide of the Revolution | Muammar Gaddafi | ||||
| - | Secretary General of the General People's Congress | Mohamed Abdul Quasim al-Zwai | ||||
| - | Secretary General of the General People's Committee | Baghdadi Mahmudi | ||||
| Libyan Republic الجمهورية الليبية al-Jumhūriyya al-Lībiyya (Arabic) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Motto: Freedom, Justice, Democracy | ||||
| Government | Provisional government | |||
| - | Chairperson of the National Transitional Council | Mustafa Abdul Jalil | ||
| - | Head of Executive Team | Mahmoud Jebril | ||
.svg)
Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībiyā, Berber: Libya) is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya faces Egypt to the east, Sudan to the south east, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.
With an area of almost 1,800,000 square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world.[4] The capital, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania,Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. Libya has the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa as of 2009, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. These are largely due to its large petroleum reserves and low population.[5][6] Libya is one of the world's 10 richest oil-producing countries.
Name
The name Libya (
i /ˈlɪbiə/; Arabic: ليبيا Lībyā 
listen (help·info); Libyan Arabic: Lībya listen (help·info), Egyptian: R'bw, Punic: 𐤉𐤁𐤋 lby, Ancient Greek: Λιβύη Libúē, Latin: Libya) originally derives from the Libu Berber tribesmen[citation needed] (Ancient Greek: Λίβυες Líbues,Latin: Libyes). The land of the Libu was Λιβύη (Libúē) and Λιβύᾱ (Libúā) in the Attic and Doricdialects respectively, entering Latin as Libya. In Classical Greece the term had a broader meaning, encompassing all the continent that later (2nd century BC) came to be known asAfrica, in antiquity assumed to make up one third of the world's landmass, besides Europe and Asia.
During the Islamic Middle Ages, Ibn Khaldun recorded that the Libu were known as theLawata.[7]
The name Libya was resuscitated in 1903 by the Italian geographer Federico Minutilli, [8] who in 1903 used it as first in today's meaning in his work "Bibliografia della Libia", and later adopted by the Italian government in its "Regio Decreto di Annessione" (Royal Decree of Annexation) of the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica dating November 5th, 1911. [8]
Libya gained independence in 1951 as the United Libyan Kingdom (al-Mamlaka al-Libiyya al-Muttahida), changing its name to the Kingdom of Libya (Arabic: المملكة الليبية (al-Mamlaka al-Libiyya) in 1963. [9] Following a coup d'etat in 1969, the name of the state was changed to theLibyan Arab Republic.
In 1977 the title of the state was changed to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Arabic: الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الاشتراكية العظمى al-Ǧamāhīriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah al-Lībiyyah aš-Šaʿbiyyah al-Ištirākiyyah al-ʿUẓmā listen (help·info)). Jamahiriya (Ǧamāhīriyyah) is anArabic term generally translated as "state of the masses". The term, a neologism coined byMuammar Gaddafi, is intended to be a generic term describing a type of state: a "republic ruled by the masses" or "people's republic". Within the United Nations and the Olympic movement, Libya has, under Gaddafi, been known as the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.[10][11]
The National Transitional Council established in 2011 refers to the state as the Libyan Republic[12][13] (Arabic: الجمهورية الليبية al-Jumhūriyya al-Lībiyya).
History
Prehistoric Libya
Tens of thousands of years ago, the Sahara desert, which now covers roughly 90% of Libya, was lush with green vegetation. It was home to lakes, forests, diverse wildlife and a temperate Mediterraneanclimate. Archaeological evidence indicates that the coastal plain of Ancient Libya was inhabited by theNeolithic Berbers from as early as 8000 BC. These peoples were perhaps drawn by the climate, which enabled their culture to grow; the Berbers were skilled in the domestication of cattle and the cultivation of crops.[14]
Rock paintings and carvings at Wadi Mathendous and the mountainous region of Jebel Acacus are the best sources of information about prehistoric Libya, and the pastoralist culture that settled there. The paintings reveal that the Libyan Sahara contained rivers, grassy plateaus and an abundance of wildlife such as giraffes, elephants and crocodiles.
Pockets of the Berber population still remain in most of modern Libya. Dispersal in Africa from the Atlantic coast to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt seems to have followed, due to climatic changes which caused increasing desertification. It is thought that the indigenous Libyan civilization of the Garamantes, based in Germa, originated from this time, or may have done so even earlier when the Sahara was still green. TheGaramantes were a Saharan people of Berber origin who used an elaborate underground irrigation system, and founded a kingdom in the Fezzan area of modern-day Libya. They were probably present as tribal people in the Fezzan by 1000 BC, and were a local power in the Sahara between 500 BC and 500 AD. By the time of contact with the Phoenicians, the first of the outside civilisations to arrive in Libya from the East, the Garamantes and other local Berber tribes that lived in the Sahara were already well established.
Phoenician Tripolitania and the Greek Pentapolis
The Phoenicians were the first to establish trading posts in Libya, when the merchants of Tyre (in present-day Lebanon) developed commercial relations with theBerber tribes and made treaties with them to ensure their cooperation in the exploitation of raw materials.[15][16] By the 5th century BCE, the greatest of the Phoenician colonies, Carthage, had extended its hegemony across much of North Africa, where a distinctive civilization, known as Punic, came into being. Punic settlements on the Libyan coast included Oea (later Tripoli), Libdah (later Leptis Magna) and Sabratha. These cities were in an area that was later called Tripolis, or "Three Cities", from which Libya's modern capital Tripoli takes its name.
In 630 BC, the Ancient Greeks colonized Eastern Libya and founded the city ofCyrene.[17] Within 200 years, four more important Greek cities were established in the area that became known as Cyrenaica: Barce (later Al Marj); Euhesperides (later Berenice, present-day Benghazi); Taucheira (later Arsinoe, present-day Tukrah); andApollonia (later Susah), the port of Cyrene. Together with Cyrene, they were known as the Pentapolis (Five Cities). Cyrene became one of the greatest intellectual and artistic centers of the Greek world, and was famous for its medical school, learned academies, and architecture. The Greeks of the Pentapolis resisted encroachments by the Egyptians from the East, as well as by the Carthaginians from the West, but in 525 BC the Persian army of Cambyses II overran Cyrenaica, which for the next two centuries remained under Persian or Egyptian rule. Alexander the Great was greeted by the Greeks when he entered Cyrenaica in 331 BC, and Eastern Libya again fell under the control of the Greeks, this time as part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Later, a federation of the Pentapolis was formed that was customarily ruled by a king drawn from the Ptolemaic royal house.
Roman Libya
After the fall of Carthage the Romans did not occupy immediately Tripolitania (the region around Tripoli), but left it under control of the kings of Numidia, until the coastal cities asked and obtained its protection. [18]Ptolemy Apion, the last Greek ruler, bequeathed Cyrenaica to Rome, which formally annexed the region in 74 BC and joined it to Crete as a Roman province. During the Roman civil wars Tripolitania (still not formally annexed) and Cyrenaica sustained Pompey and Marc Antony against respectively Caesar and Octavian.[18] [19] The Romans completed the conquest of the region under Augustus, occupying northern Fezzan("Fasania") with Cornelius Balbus Minor. [20] As part of the Africa Nova province, Tripolitania was prosperous, [18] and reached a golden age in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, when the city of Leptis Magna, home to the Severian dynasty, was at its height.[18] On the other side, Cyrenaica's first Christian communities were established by the time of the Emperor Claudius, [19] but was heavily devastated during the Kitos War, and from then started its decadence. [19] Anyway, for more than 400 years Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were part of a cosmopolitan state whose citizens shared a common language, legal system, and Roman identity. Roman ruins like those of Leptis Magna and Sabratha, extant in present-day Libya, attest to the vitality of the region, where populous cities and even smaller towns enjoyed the amenities of urban life—the forum, markets, public entertainments, and baths—found in every corner of the Roman Empire. Merchants and artisans from many parts of the Roman world established themselves in North Africa, but the character of the cities of Tripolitania remained decidedly Punic and, in Cyrenaica, Greek. Tripolitania was a major exporter of olive oil, as well as a centre for the gold and slaves conveyed to the coast by the Garamantes, while Cyrenaica remained an important source of wines, drugs, and horses. The bulk of the population in the countryside consisted of Berber farmers, who in the west were thoroughly "romanized" in language and customs.[21] Until the tenth century the African Romance remained in use in some Tripolitanian areas, mainly near the Tunisian border.[22]
The decline of the Roman Empire saw the classical cities fall into ruin, a process hastened by the Vandals' destructive sweep though North Africa in the 5th century. The region's prosperity had shrunk under Vandal domination, and the old Roman political and social order, disrupted by the Vandals, could not be restored. In outlying areas neglected by the Vandals, the inhabitants had sought the protection of tribal chieftains and, having grown accustomed to their autonomy, resisted reassimilation into the imperial system.
When the Empire returned (now as East Romans) as part of Justinian's reconquests of the 6th century, efforts were made to strengthen the old cities, but it was only a last gasp before they collapsed into disuse. Cyrenaica, which had remained an outpost of the Byzantine Empire during the Vandal period, also took on the characteristics of an armed camp. Unpopular Byzantine governors imposed burdensome taxation to meet military costs, while the towns and public services—including the water system—were left to decay. Byzantine rule in Africa did prolong the Roman ideal of imperial unity there for another century and a half however, and prevented the ascendancy of the Berber nomads in the coastal region. By the beginning of the 7th century, Byzantine control over the region was weak, Berber rebellions were becoming more frequent, and there was little to oppose Muslim invasion.
Arab Islamic rule 642–1551
_-_The_Mosque_of_Atiq.jpg)
Tenuous Byzantine control over Libya was restricted to a few poorly defended coastal strongholds, and as such, the Arab horsemen who first crossed into the Pentapolis of Cyrenaica in September 642 AD encountered little resistance. Under the command of 'Amr ibn al-'As, the armies of Islam conquered Cyrenaica, and renamed the Pentapolis, Barqa. By 647, an army of 40,000 Arabs, led by Abdullah ibn Saad, the foster-brother of Caliph Uthman, penetrated deep into Western Libya and took Tripoli from the Byzantines in 643. From Barqa, the Fezzan (Libya's Southern region) was conquered by Uqba ibn Nafi in 663 and Berber resistance was overcome. During the following centuries Libya came under the rule of several Islamic dynasties, under various levels of autonomy from Ummayad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates of the time. Arab rule was easily imposed in the coastal farming areas and on the towns, which prospered again under Arab patronage. Townsmen valued the security that permitted them to practice their commerce and trade in peace, while the punicized farmers recognized their affinity with the Semitic Arabs to whom they looked to protect their lands. In Cyrenaica, Monophysite adherents of the Coptic Church had welcomed the Muslim Arabs as liberators from Byzantine oppression. The Berber tribes of the hinterland accepted Islam, however they resisted Arab political rule.
For the next several decades, Libya was under the purview of the Ummayad Caliph of Damascus until the Abbasids overthrew the Ummayads in 750, and Libya came under the rule of Baghdad. When Caliph Harun al-Rashidappointed Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab as his governor of Ifriqiya in 800, Libya enjoyed considerable local autonomy under the Aghlabid dynasty. The Aghlabids were amongst the most attentive Islamic rulers of Libya; they brought about a measure of order to the region, and restored Roman irrigation systems, which brought prosperity to the area from the agricultural surplus. By the end of the 9th century, the Shiite Fatimids controlled Western Libya from their capital in Mahdia, before they ruled the entire region from their new capital of Cairo in 972 and appointed Bologhine ibn Ziri as governor. During Fatimid rule, Tripoli thrived on the trade in slaves and gold brought from the Sudan and on the sale of wool, leather, and salt shipped from its docks to Italy in exchange for wood and iron goods. Ibn Ziri's Berber Zirid Dynasty ultimately broke away from the Shiite Fatimids, and recognised the Sunni Abbasids of Baghdad as rightful Caliphs. In retaliation, the Fatimids brought about the migration of as many as 200,000 families from two Bedouin tribes, the Banu Sulaym andBanu Hilal to North Africa—this act completely altered the fabric of Libyan cities, and cemented the cultural and linguistic Arabisation of the region. [18]Ibn Khaldun noted that the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become completely arid desert.[23]
After the subsequent social unrest during Zirid rule, the coast of Libya was weakened and invaded by the Normans of Sicily. [24] It was not until 1174 that the Ayyubid Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush reconquered Tripoli from European rule with an army of Turks and Bedouins. Afterward, a viceroy from the Almohads, Muhammad ibn Abu Hafs, ruled Libya from 1207 to 1221 before the later establishment of a Tunisian Hafsid dynasty [24] independent from the Almohads. The Hafsids ruled Tripolitania for nearly 300 years, and established significant trade with the city-states of Europe. Hafsid rulers also encouraged art, literature, architecture and scholarship. Ahmad Zarruq was one of the most famous Islamic scholars to settle in Libya, and did so during this time. By the 16th century however, the Hafsids became increasingly caught up in the power struggle between Spain and the Ottoman Empire. After a successful invasion of Tripoli by Habsburg Spain in 1510,[24] and its handover to the Knights of St. John, the Ottoman admiral Sinan Pasha) finally took control of Libya in 1551. [24]
Ottoman regency 1551–1911
After a successful invasion by the Habsburgs of Spainin the early 16th century, Charles V entrusted its defense to the Knights of St. John in Malta. Lured by the piracy that spread through the Maghreb coastline, adventurers such as Barbarossaand his successors consolidated Ottoman control in the central Maghreb. The Ottoman Turks conquered Tripoli in 1551 under the command of Sinan Pasha. In the next year his successorTurgut Reis was named the Bey of Tripoli and later Pasha of Tripoli in 1556. As Pasha, he adorned and built up Tripoli making it one of the most impressive cities along the North African coast.[25]By 1565, administrative authority as regent in Tripoli was vested in a pasha appointed directly by the sultan in Constantinople. In the 1580s, the rulers of Fezzan gave their allegiance to the sultan, and although Ottoman authority was absent in Cyrenaica, a bey was stationed in Benghazi late in the next century to act as agent of the government in Tripoli. [19]
In time, real power came to rest with the pasha's corp of janissaries, a self-governing military guild, and in time the pasha's role was reduced to that of ceremonial head of state. [24] Mutinies and coups were frequent, and in 1611 the deysstaged a coup against the pasha, and Dey Sulayman Safar was appointed as head of government. For the next hundred years, a series ofdeys effectively ruled Tripolitania some for only a few weeks, and at various times the dey was also pasha-regent. The regency governed by the dey was autonomous in internal affairs and, although dependent on the sultan for fresh recruits to the corps of janissaries, his government was left to pursue a virtually independent foreign policy as well. The two most important Deys were Mehmed Saqizli (r. 1631-49) and Osman Saqizli (r. 1649-72), both also Pasha, who ruled effectively the region. [26]The latter conquered also Cyrenaica. [26]
Tripoli was the only city of size in Ottoman Libya (then known as Tripolitania Eyalet) at the end of the 17th century and had a population of about 30,000. The bulk of its residents were Moors, as city dwelling Arabs were then known. Several hundred Turks and renegades formed a governing elite, a large portion of which werekouloughlis (lit. sons of servants—offspring of Turkish soldiers and Arab women); they identified with local interests and were respected by locals. Jews and Moriscoswere active as merchants and craftsmen and a small number of European traders also frequented the city. European slaves and large numbers of enslaved blacks transported from Sudan were also a feature of everyday life in Tripoli. In 1551, Turgut Reis enslaved almost the entire population of the Maltese island of Gozo, some 6,300 people, sending them to Libya.[27] The most pronounced slavery activity involved the enslavement of black Africans who were brought via trans-Saharan trade routes. Even though the slave trade was officially abolished in Tripoli in 1853, in practice it continued until the 1890s.[28]
Lacking direction from the Ottoman government, Tripoli lapsed into a period of military anarchy during which coup followed coup and few deys survived in office more than a year. One such coup was led by Turkish officerAhmed Karamanli. [26] The Karamanlis ruled from 1711 until 1835 mainly in Tripolitania, but had influence in Cyrenaica and Fezzan as well by the mid 18th century. Ahmed was a Janissary and popular cavalry officer. [26]He murdered the Ottoman Dey of Tripolitania and seized the throne in 1711. [26] After persuading SultanAhmed III to recognize him as governor, Ahmed established himself as pasha and made his post hereditary. Though Tripolitania continued to pay nominal tribute to the Ottoman padishah, it otherwise acted as an independent kingdom. Ahmed greatly expanded his city's economy, particularly through the employment of corsairs (pirates) on crucial Mediterranean shipping routes; nations that wished to protect their ships from the corsairs were forced to pay tribute to the pasha. Ahmad's successors proved to be less capable than himself, however, the region's delicate balance of power allowed the Karamanli to survive several dynastic crises without invasion. In 1793, Turkish officer Ali Benghul deposed Hamet Karamanli and briefly restored Tripolitania to Ottoman rule. However, Hamet's brother Yusuf (r. 1795–1832) reestablished Tripolitania's independence.
In the early 19th century war broke out between the United States and Tripolitania, and a series of battles ensued in what became to be known as the Barbary Wars. By 1819, the various treaties of the Napoleonic Wars had forced the Barbary states to give up piracy almost entirely, and Tripolitania's economy began to crumble. As Yusuf weakened, factions sprung up around his three sons; though Yusuf abdicated in 1832 in favor of his son Ali II, civil war soon resulted. Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II sent in troops ostensibly to restore order, but instead deposed and exiled Ali II, marking the end of both the Karamanli dynasty and an independent Tripolitania. [29] Anyway, order was not recovered easily, and the revolt of the Lybian under Abd-El-Gelil and Gûma ben Khalifa lasted until the death of the latter in 1858. [29]
The second period of direct Ottoman rule saw administrative changes, and what seemed as greater order in the governance of the three provinces of Libya. In general however, 19th century Ottoman rule was characterised by corruption, revolt and repression. The region of Libya in particular became a backwater province in a decaying empire that had been dubbed the "sick man of Europe". It would not be long before the Scramble for Africa and European colonial interests set their eyes on the marginal Turkish provinces of Libya. Reunification came about through the unlikely route of an invasion (Italo-Turkish War, 1911–1912) and occupation starting from 1911 when Italy simultaneously turned the three regions into colonies.[30]
Italian colony and World War II 1911–1951
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From 1912 to 1927, the territory of Libya was known as Italian North Africa. From 1927 to 1934, the territory was split into two colonies, Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania, run by Italian governors. Some 150,000 Italians settled in Libya, constituting roughly 20% of the total population.[31]
In 1934, Italy adopted the name "Libya" (used by the Greeks for all of North Africa, except Egypt) as the official name of the colony (made up of the three provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitaniaand Fezzan). Idris al-Mahdi as-Senussi (later King Idris I), Emir of Cyrenaica, led Libyan resistance to Italian occupation between the two world wars. Ilan Pappé estimates that between 1928 and 1932 the Italian military "killed half the Bedouin population (directly or through starvation in camps)."[32] Italian historian Gentile wrote that this amount is excessive, and only a few thousands died, mainly of disease and starvation.
From 1943 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British administration, while the French controlled Fezzan. In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal of some aspects of foreign control in 1947. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya.[33]
Independence and the Kingdom of Libya 1951–1969
| History of Libya | |
|---|---|
 This article is part of a series | |
| Ancient Libya (before 146 BC) | |
| Roman Libya (146 BC – 670 AD) | |
| Islamic Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (670–1551) | |
| Ottoman Libya (1551–1911) | |
| Italian colony (1911–1934) | |
| Italian Libya (1934–1943) | |
| Allied occupation (1943–1951) | |
| Kingdom of Libya (1951–1969) | |
| Libya under Gaddafi (1969–present) | |
| 2011 Libyan uprising (February 2011 – present) | |
Libya Portal |
On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before January 1, 1952. Idris represented Libya in the subsequent UN negotiations. On December 24, 1951, Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, a constitutional and hereditary monarchy under King Idris, Libya's first and only monarch.
1951 also saw the enactment of the Libyan Constitution. The Libyan National Assembly drafted the Constitution and passed a resolution accepting it in a meeting held in the city of Benghazi on Sunday, 6th Muharram, Hegiras 1371: October 7th 1951. Mohamed Abulas'ad El-Alem, President of the National Assembly and the two Vice-Presidents of the National Assembly, Omar Faiek Shennib and Abu Baker Ahmed Abu Baker executed and submitted the Constitution to King Idris following which it was published in the Official Gazette of Libya.
The enactment of the Libyan Constitution was significant in that it was the first piece of legislation to formally entrench the rights of Libyan citizens following the post-war creation of the Libyan nation state. Following on from the intense UN debates during which Idris had argued that the creation of a single Libyan state would be of benefit to the regions of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica, the Libyan government was keen to formulate a constitution which contained many of the entrenched rights common to European and North American nation states. Thus, not creating a secular state - Article 5 proclaims Islam the religion of the State - the Libyan Constitution did formally set out rights such as equality before the law as well as equal civil and political rights, equal opportunities, and an equal responsibility for public duties and obligations, "without distinction of religion, belief, race, language, wealth, kinship or political or social opinions" (Article 11).
The discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959 and the subsequent income from petroleum sales enabled one of the world's poorest nations to establish an extremely wealthy state. Although oil drastically improved the Libyan government's finances, resentment among some factions began to build over the increased concentration of the nation's wealth in the hands of King Idris. This discontent mounted with the rise of Nasserism and Arab nationalism throughout North Africa and the Middle East, so while the continued presence of Americans, Italians and British in Libya aided in the increased levels of wealth and tourism following WWII, it was seen by some as a threat.
During this period, Britain was involved in extensive engineering projects in Libya and was also the country's biggest supplier of arms. The United States also maintained the large Wheelus Air Base in Libya.
Libya under Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi 1969-Present
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On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27-year-old army officer Muammar Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against King Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution.[34] Gaddafi was, and is to this day, referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official Libyan press.[35]
On Prophet Muhammad's birthday in 1973, Muammar Gaddafi delivered his famous "Five-Point Address". [36] The five main points of his address being:
- Suspension of all existing laws and implementation of Sharia
- Purging the country of the "politically sick"
- Creation of a "people's militia" to "protect the revolution"
- Administrative revolution
- Cultural revolution
Muammar Gaddafi set up an extensive surveillance system. Reportedly 10 to 20 percent of Libyans work in surveillance for the Revolutionary committees. The surveillance takes place in government, in factories, and in the education sector.[36]
Muammar Gaddafi executed dissidents publicly and the executions were often rebroadcast on state television channels.[36][37]
Muammar Gaddafi employed his network of diplomats and recruits to assassinate dozens of critical refugees around the world. Amnesty International listed at least 25 assassinations between 1980 and 1987.[36][38]
In 1977, Libya officially became the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Later that same year, Gaddafi ordered an artillery strike on Egypt in retaliation against Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's intent to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Sadat's forces triumphed easily in a four-day border war that came to be known as the Libyan-Egyptian War, leaving over 400 Libyans dead and much of Gaddafi's armored divisions in ruins.
February 1977, Libya begins supplying Goukouni Oueddei and the People's Armed Forces (FAP) with substantial amounts of military supplies. The Chadian–Libyan conflict began in earnest when Gaddafi's long-held support of rebel forces in northern Chad escalated into a Libyan military invasion of its southern neighbor.
Hundreds of Libyans lost their lives in the war against Tanzania, when Gaddafi tried to save his friend Idi Amin. Gaddafi financed various other groups from anti-nuclear movements to Australian trade unions.[39]
Once a breadbasket of ancient world, the eastern parts of the country become impoverished under Gaddafi's economic theories.[40][41]
Much of the country's income from oil, which soared in the 1970s, was spent on arms purchases and on sponsoring dozens of paramilitaries and terrorist groups around the world.[42][43][44][39] An airstrike failed to kill Gaddafi in 1986. Libya was finally put under international sanctions after bombing of a commercial flight killed hundreds of travelers.
Gaddafi assumed the honorific title of "King of Kings of Africa" in 2008 as part of his campaign for a United States of Africa.[45] By the early 2010s, in addition to attempting to assume a leadership role in the African Union, Libya was also viewed as having formed closer ties withItaly, one of its former colonial rulers, than any other country in the European Union.[46]
2011 uprising
After popular movements overturned the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt , its immediate neighbours to the west and east, Libya experienced a full-scale revolt beginning in February 2011.[49][50] By 20 February, the unrest had spread to Tripoli. In the early hours of 21 February 2011, Saif al-Islam Muammar Al-Gaddafi, oldest son of Muammar Gaddafi, spoke on Libyan television of his fears that the country would fragment and be replaced by "15 Islamic fundamentalist emirates" if the uprising engulfed the entire state. He warned that the country's economic wealth and recent prosperity was at risk, admitted that "mistakes had been made" in quelling recent protests and announced that a constitutional convention would begin on 23 February. Shortly after this speech, the Libyan Ambassador to India announced on BBC Radio 5 live that he had resigned in protest at the "massacre" of protesters.
Gaddafi appeared on Libyan state TV to deny rumours given voice by the United Kingdom's foreign minister, William Hague, saying, "I want to show that I'm in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Do not believe the channels belonging to stray dogs."[51] His government has also portrayed the recent rebellion as being engineered by Western elements and Israel, and has been suspected of manipulating the Libyan news media through planted reports in newspapers and television.[52] Two Libyan Air Force colonels flew their Mirage F1 jets to Malta and defected, claiming they refused orders to bomb protesters.[53][54] The military of Russia claims it cannot verify a single airstrike against protesters has taken place since the unrest began.[55]
While much of Libya has tipped out of Gaddafi's control as of early March 2011, coming under the aegis of a coalition of opposition forces, including soldiers who decided to mobilize in support of the rebels, Gaddafi forces have been able to forcefully respond to recent rebel pushes in Western Libya and counterattack strategic areas such as Ras Lunuf[56]. The town of Zawiyah, 30 miles from Tripoli, was bombarded by planes and tanks and seized by pro-Gaddafi troops, "exercising a level of brutality not yet seen in the conflict." [57] Eastern Libya, centered on the second city and vital port of Benghazi, is said to be firmly in the hands of the opposition, while Tripoli and its environs remain in dispute. [58] However, in several public appearances, Gaddafi has threatened to destroy the protest movement, and Al Jazeera and other agencies have reported his government is arming pro-Gaddafi militiamen to kill protesters and defectors against the regime in Tripoli.[59]Organs of the United Nations, including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon[60] and the United Nations Human Rights Council, have condemned the crackdown as violating international law, with the latter body expelling Libya outright in an unprecedented action urged by Libya's own delegation to the UN.[61][62] The United States imposed economic sanctions against Libya,[63] followed shortly byAustralia,[64] Canada[65] and the United Nations Security Council, which also voted to refer Gaddafi and other government officials to theInternational Criminal Court for investigation.[66][67]
On 26 February 2011, a national council was established under the stewardship of Mustafa Mohamed Abud Al Jeleil, Gaddafi's former justice minister, to administer the areas of Libya under rebel control. This marked the first serious effort to organize the broad-based opposition to the Gaddafi regime. While the council is presently based in Benghazi, it claims Tripoli as its capital.[68] Hafiz Ghoga, a human rights lawyer, later assumed the role of spokesman for the council.[69]On 10 March 2011 , France became the first state to recognise the National Libyan Council as the country's legitimate government.
Resolution 1973 and Libyan no-fly zone
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On 17 March 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 with a 10-0 vote with 5 members abstaining. Resolution 1973 establishes a no-fly zone and the use of "all means necessary" to protect civilians within Libya.[70]
Shortly afterwards Gaddafi's regime announced "Libya has decided an immediate ceasefire and the stoppage of all military operations", but soon after, Libyan warplanes were bombing Benghazi. [71] Aggression on the insurgent strongholds continued despite the claims.
On Saturday 19 March 2011, the first allied act to secure the no-fly zone began when French military jets entered Libyan airspace on areconnaissance mission heralding attacks on enemy targets.[72] Allied military action to enforce the ceasefire commenced the same day when a French plane opened fire and destroyed an enemy vehicle on ground. French jets also destroyed 5 enemy tanks belonging to the Gaddafi regime.[73] The United States and United Kingdom launched attacks on over 20 "integrated air defense systems" using over 110Tomahawk cruise missiles during operations Odyssey Dawn and Ellamy.[74]
Geography
Libya extends over 1,759,540 square kilometres (679,362 sq mi), making it the 17th largest nation in the world by size. Libya is somewhat smaller than Indonesia in land area, and roughly the size of the US state of Alaska. It is bound to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, the west by Tunisiaand Algeria, the southwest by Niger, the south by Chad and Sudan and to the east by Egypt. Libya lies between latitudes 19° and 34°N, and longitudes 9° and 26°E.
At 1,770 kilometres (1,100 mi), Libya's coastline is the longest of any African country bordering the Mediterranean.[76][77] The portion of the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya is often called theLibyan Sea. The climate is mostly dry and desertlike in nature. However, the northern regions enjoy a milder Mediterranean climate.
Natural hazards come in the form of hot, dry, dust-laden sirocco (known in Libya as the gibli). This is a southern wind blowing from one to four days in spring and autumn. There are also dust stormsand sandstorms. Oases can also be found scattered throughout Libya, the most important of which are Ghadames and Kufra.
Libyan Desert
The Libyan Desert, which covers much of Libya, is one of the most arid places on earth.[34] In places, decades may pass without rain, and even in the highlands rainfall seldom happens, once every 5–10 years. At Uweinat, as of 2006 the last recorded rainfall was in September 1998.[78]There is a large depression, the Qattara Depression, just to the south of the northernmost scarp, with Siwa Oasis at its western extremity. The depression continues in a shallower form west, to the oases of Jaghbub and Jalo.
Likewise, the temperature in the Libyan desert can be extreme; on September 13, 1922 the town of Al 'Aziziyah, which is located Southwest of Tripoli, recorded an air temperature of 57.8 °C(136.0 °F), generally accepted as the highest recorded naturally occurring air temperature reached on Earth.[79]
There are a few scattered uninhabited small oases, usually linked to the major depressions, where water can be found by digging to a few feet in depth. In the west there is a widely dispersed group of oases in unconnected shallow depressions, the Kufra group, consisting of Tazerbo, Rebianae and Kufra.[78] Aside from the scarps, the general flatness is only interrupted by a series ofplateaus and massifs near the centre of the Libyan Desert, around the convergence of the Egyptian-Sudanese-Libyan borders.
Slightly further to the south are the massifs of Arkenu, Uweinat and Kissu. These granitemountains are ancient, having formed long before the sandstones surrounding them. Arkenu and Western Uweinat are ring complexes very similar to those in the Aïr Mountains. Eastern Uweinat (the highest point in the Libyan Desert) is a raised sandstone plateau adjacent to the granite part further west.[78] The plain to the north of Uweinat is dotted with eroded volcanic features. With the discovery of oil in the 1950s also came the discovery of a massive aquifer underneath much of the country. The water in this aquifer pre-dates the last ice ages and the Sahara desert itself.[80] The country is also home to the Arkenu craters, double impact craters found in the desert.
Politics
As a result of the 2011 Libyan uprising, there are currently two entities claiming to be the legitimate Libyan state, the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya", led by Muammar Gaddafi and the "Libyan Republic" led by Mustafa Abdul Jalil.
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
There are two branches of government in the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The "revolutionary sector" comprises Revolutionary Leader Gaddafi, the Revolutionary Committees and the remaining members of the 12-person Revolutionary Command Council, which was established in 1969.[81] The historical revolutionary leadership is not elected and cannot be voted out of office; they are in power by virtue of their involvement in the revolution.
The second sector, the Jamahiriya sector, comprises Basic People's Congresses in each of the 1,500 urban wards, 32 Sha'biyat People's Congresses for the regions, and the National General People's Congress. These legislative bodies are represented by correspondingexecutive bodies (Local People's Committees, Sha'biyat People's Committees and the National General People's Committee/Cabinet).
Every four years, the membership of the Basic People's Congresses elects their own leaders and the secretaries for the People's Committees, sometimes after many debates and a critical vote. The leadership of the Local People's Congress represents the local congress at the People's Congress of the next level. The members of the National General People's Congress elect the members of the National General People's Committee (the Cabinet) at their annual meeting.
The government controls both state-run and semi-autonomous media. In cases involving a violation of "certain taboos", the private press, likeThe Tripoli Post has been censored,[82] although articles that are critical of policies have been requested and intentionally published by the revolutionary leadership itself as a means of initiating reforms.
Libya is the most censored country in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Freedom of the Press Index.[83]
Political parties were banned by the 1972 Prohibition of Party Politics Act Number 71.[84] According to the Association Act of 1971, the establishment of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is allowed. However, because they are required to conform to the goals of the revolution, their numbers are small in comparison with those in neighbouring countries. Trade unions do not exist,[85] but numerous professional associations are integrated into the state structure as a third pillar, along with the People's Congresses and Committees. These associations do not have the right to strike. Professional associations send delegates to the General People's Congress, where they have a representative mandate.
Libyan Republic
The Libyan Republic is governed by a 31 member Transitional National Council formed on 27 February 2011. On 5 March 2011 the council declared itself to be the "sole representative of all Libya". It is currently recognised by France as the official government of Libya [86] and is supported by the Arab League [87], European Union [88], the United Kingdom and Portugal. [89]
Foreign relations
Kingdom of Libya
Libya's foreign policies have fluctuated since 1951. As a Kingdom, Libya maintained a definitively pro-Western stance, yet was recognized as belonging to the conservative traditionalist bloc in the League of Arab States (the present-day Arab League), of which it became a member in 1953.[90]The government was also friendly towards Western countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, France, Italy, Greece, and established full diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1955.
Although the government supported Arab causes, including the Moroccan and Algerian independence movements, it took little active part in the Arab-Israeli dispute or the tumultuous inter-Arab politics of the 1950s and early 1960s. The Kingdom was noted for its close association with the West, while it steered an essentially conservative course at home.[91]
Libya under Gaddafi
After the 1969 coup, Muammar Gaddafi closed American and British bases and partly nationalizedforeign oil and commercial interests in Libya.
On 11 June 1972, Gaddafi announced that any Arab wishing to volunteer for Palestinian terrorist groups "can register his name at any Libyan embassy will be given adequate training for combat". He also promised financial support for attacks.[92][93][94]
On 7 October 1972, Gaddafi praised the Lod Airport massacre, carried out by the Japanese Red Army, and demanded Palestinian terrorist groups to carry out similar attacks.[92]
Gaddafi created the Islamic Legion, a mercenary group associated with Arab supremacism.
He also played a key role in promoting oil embargoes as a political weapon, hoping that an oil price rise and embargo in 1973 would persuade the West to end support for Israel.[95]
In 1973 the Irish Naval Service intercepted the vessel Claudia in Irish territorial waters, which carried Soviet arms from Libya to the Provisional IRA.[96][97] In 1976 after a series of terror attacks by the Provisional IRA, Gaddafi announced that "the bombs which are convulsing Britain and breaking its spirit are the bombs of Libyan people. We have sent them to the Irish revolutionaries so that the British will pay the price for their past deeds".[92]
Gaddafi was a close supporter of Ugandan President Idi Amin.[98] Gaddafi was not alone – the Soviet Union armed Amin and East GermanStasi agents came to build Amin's repression machinery.[99][100][101] Gaddafi shipped troops to fight against Tanzania on behalf of Idi Amin. About 600 Libyan soldiers lost their lives attempting to defend the collapsing presidency of Amin,[102] during which Amin's government killed hundreds of thousands of Ugandans.
Gaddafi aided Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the Emperor of the Central African Empire.[103][102]
Together with Moscow and Fidel Castro, Gaddafi supported Soviet protege Haile Mariam Mengistu[103], who was later convicted for agenocide that killed thousands at least.
In October 1981 Egypt's President Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Gaddafi applauded the murder and remarked that it was a punishment.[104]
Neighboring Arab countries and the United States became concerned of Gaddafi's policies, and they made a deal to increase in military credits and training.[105]
In April 1984, Libyan refugees in London protested against execution of two dissidents. Libyan diplomats shot at 11 people and killed a British policewoman. The incident led to the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Libya for over a decade.[106]
Gaddafi asserted in June 1984 that he wanted his agents to assassinate dissident refugees even when they were on pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca. In August 1984, one Libyan plot in Mecca was thwarted by Saudi Arabian police.[107]
After December 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, which killed 19 and wounded around 140, Gaddafi indicated that he would continue to support the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army as long as European countries support anti-Gaddafi Libyans.[44] The Foreign Minister of Libya also called the massacres "heroic acts".[108]
In 1986 Libyan state television announced that Libya was training suicide squads to attack American and European interests.[109]
Gaddafi claimed the Gulf of Sidra as his territorial water and his navy was involved in a conflict from January to March 1986.
On 5 April 1986, Libyan agents bombed "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin, killing three people and injuring 229 people who were spending the evening there. Gaddafi's plan was intercepted by Western intelligence. More detailed information was retrieved years later when Stasiarchives were investigated by the reunited Germany. Libyan agents who had carried out the operation from the Libyan embassy in East Germany were prosecuted by reunited Germany in the 1990s.[110]
Germany and the United States learned that the bombing in West Berlin had been ordered from Tripoli. On 14 April 1986, the United States carried out Operation El Dorado Canyon against Gaddafi and members of his regime. Air defenses, three army bases, and two airfields inTripoli and Benghazi were bombed. The surgical strikes failed to kill Gaddafi but he lost a few dozen military officers.[34][111]
Gaddafi announced that he had won a spectacular military victory over the United States and the country was officially renamed the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah".[107] However, his speech appeared devoid passion and even the "victory" celebrations appeared unusual. Criticism of Gaddafi by ordinary Libyan citizens became more bold, such as defacing of Gaddafi posters.[107] The raids against Gaddafi had brought the regime to its the weakest point in 17 years.[107]
Many Western European countries took action against Libyan terror and other activities following years.
Gaddafi fueled a number of Islamist and communist terrorist groups in the Philippines. The country still struggles with their murders and kidnappings.[43][44][39][112][36]
Gaddafi fueled paramilitaries in the Oceania. He attempted to radicalized New Zealand's Maoris.[39] In Australia he financed trade unions and some politicians. In May 1987, Australia deported diplomats and broke off relations with Libya because of the activities in the Oceania.[38][39]
In late 1987 French authorities stopped a merchant vessel, the MV Eksund, which was delivering a 150 ton Libyan arms shipment to European terrorist groups.
In 1991, two Libyan intelligence agents were indicted by prosecutors in the United States and United Kingdom for their involvement in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Six other Libyans were put on trial in absentia for the 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 overChad and Niger. The UN Security Council demanded that Libya surrender the suspects, cooperate with the Pan Am 103 and UTA 772 investigations, pay compensation to the victims' families, and cease all support for terrorism. Libya's refusal to comply led to the approval ofSecurity Council Resolution 748 on March 31, 1992, imposing international sanctions on the state designed to bring about Libyan compliance. Continued Libyan defiance led to further sanctions by the UN against Libya in November 1993.[113]
Gaddafi trained and supported Charles Taylor, who was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone.[114]
Libya had close ties with Slobodan Milošević's regime. Gaddafi aligned himself with the Orthodox Serbs against Bosnia's Muslims and Kosovo's Albanians. Gaddafi supported Milošević even when Milošević was charged with large-scale ethnic cleansing against Albanians in Kosovo.[115][116][117]
In 1999, less than a decade after the sanctions were put in place, Libya began to make dramatic policy changes in regard to the Western world, including turning over the Lockerbie suspects for trial. This diplomatic breakthrough followed years of negotiation, including a visit by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to Libya in December 1998, and personal appeals by Nelson Mandela. Eventually UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook persuaded the Americans to accept a trial of the suspects in the Netherlands under Scottish law, with the UN Security Council agreeing to suspend sanctions as soon as the suspects arrived in the Netherlands for trial.[34]
Following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Gaddafi decided to abandon his weapons of mass destruction programmes and pay almost 3 billion US dollars in compensation to the families of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.[118][119] The decision was welcomed by many western nations and was seen as an important step toward Libya rejoining the international community.[120] Since 2003 the country has made efforts to normalize its ties with the European Union and the United States and has even coined the catchphrase, 'The Libya Model', an example intended to show the world what can be achieved through negotiation, rather than force, when there is goodwill on both sides. By 2004 George W. Bush had lifted the economic sanctions and official relations resumed with the United States. Libya opened a liaison office in Washington, and the United States opened an office in Tripoli. In January 2004, Congressman Tom Lantos led the first official Congressional delegation visit to Libya.[121]
Libya has supported Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir despite charges of a genocide in Darfur.[122]
The release, in 2007, of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who had been held since 1999, charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV, was seen as marking a new stage in Libyan-Western relations.
The United States removed Gaddafi's regime, after 27 years, from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.[123]
On October 16, 2007, Libya was elected to serve on the United Nations Security Council for two years starting in January 2008.[124] In February 2009, Gaddafi was selected to be chairman of the African Union for one year.
In 2009 the United Kingdom and Libya signed a prisoner-exchange agreement and then Libya requested the transfer of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, who finally returned home in August 2009.[125]
As of October 25, 2009, Canadian visa requests were being denied and Canadian travelers were told they were not welcome in Libya, in an apparent reprisal for Canada's near tongue-lashing[vague] of Gaddafi.[126] Specifically, Harper's government was planning to publicly criticize Gadhafi for praising the convicted Lockerbie bomber.[127]
Libyan-Swiss relations strongly suffered after the arrest of Hannibal Gadhafi for beating up his domestic servants in Geneva in 2008. In response, Gaddafi removed all his money held in Swiss banks and asked the United Nations to vote to abolish Switzerland as a sovereign nation.[128] [129]
Libya still provides bounties for heads of refugees who have criticized Gaddafi, including 1 million dollars for Ashur Shamis, a Libyan-British journalist.[130]
Cooperation with Italy
On August 30, 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi.[131][132][133] Under its terms, Italy will pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation. In exchange, Libya will take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies.[132][134] The treaty was ratified by Italy on February 6, 2009,[131] and by Libya on March 2, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi.[132][135] In June Gaddafi made his first visit to Rome, where he met Prime Minister Berlusconi,President Giorgio Napolitano, Senate President Renato Schifani, and Chamber President Gianfranco Fini, among others.[132] The Democratic Party and Italy of Values opposed the visit,[136][137] and many protests were staged throughout Italy by human rights organizations and theItalian Radicals.[138] Gaddafi also took part in the 35th G8 summit in L'Aquila in July 2009 as Chairman of the African Union.[132] Since 2008, Italy is Libya's principal commercial partner. Numerous commercial agreements have been signed in the oil, infrastructural and financial sectors between both countries.
Human rights
According to the US Department of State's annual human rights report for 2007, Libya's authoritarian regime continued to have a poor record in the area of human rights.[139] Some of the numerous and serious abuses on the part of the government include poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and prisoners held incommunicado, and political prisoners held for many years without charge or trial. The judiciary is controlled by the government, and there is no right to a fair public trial. Libyans do not have the right to change their government. Freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and religion are restricted. Independent human rights organizations are prohibited. Ethnic and tribal minorities suffer discrimination, and the state continues to restrict the labor rights of foreign jobs.
In 2005 Freedom House rated both political rights and civil liberties in Libya as "7" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free".[140]
In May, 2010, Libya was elected by the UN General Assembly to a three-year term on the UN's Human Rights Council. [141] It was suspended from the Human Rights Council in March, 2011. [142]
Libya's human rights record was put in the spotlight in February 2011, due to the government's violent response to pro-democracy protestors, which killed hundreds of demonstrators.[143]
Administrative divisions and cities
Historically the area of Libya was considered three provinces (or states), Tripolitania in the northwest, Barka (Cyrenaica) in the east, andFezzan in the southwest. It was the conquest by Italy in the Italo-Turkish War that united them in a single political unit. Under the Italians Libya, in 1934, was divided into four provinces and one territory (in the south): Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi, Al Bayda, and the Territory of the Libyan Sahara.[144]
After independence, Libya was divided into three governorates (muhafazat)[145] and then in 1963 into ten governorates.[146][147] The governorates were legally abolished in February 1975, and nine "control bureaus" were set up to deal directly with the nine areas, respectively: education, health, housing, social services, labor, agricultural services, communications, financial services, and economy, each under their own ministry.[148] However, the courts and some other agencies continued to operate as if the governorate structure were still in place.[148] In 1983 Libya was split into forty-six districts (baladiyat), then in 1987 into twenty-five.[149][150][151] In 1995, Libya was divided into thirteen districts (shabiyah),[152] in 1998 into twenty-six districts, and in 2001 into thirty-two districts.[153] These were then further rearranged into twenty-two districts in 2007:
Arabic | Transliteration | Pop (2006)[154] | Land area (km2) | Number (on map) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| البطنان | Al Butnan | 159,536 | 83,860 | 1 |
| درنة | Darnah | 163,351 | 19,630 | 2 |
| الجبل الاخضر | Al Jabal al Akhdar | 206,180 | 7,800 | 3 |
| المرج | Al Marj | 185,848 | 10,000 | 4 |
| بنغازي | Benghazi | 670,797 | 43,535 | 5 |
| الواحات | Al Wahat | 177,047 | 6 | |
| الكفرة | Al Kufrah | 50,104 | 483,510 | 7 |
| سرت | Sirt/Surt | 141,378 | 77,660 | 8 |
| مرزق | Murzuq | 78,621 | 349,790 | 22 |
| سبها | Sabha | 134,162 | 15,330 | 19 |
| وادي الحياة | Wadi Al Hayaa | 76,858 | 31,890 | 20 |
| مصراتة | Misratah | 550,938 | 9 | |
| المرقب | Al Murgub | 432,202 | 10 | |
| طرابلس | Tarabulus | 1,065,405 | 11 | |
| الجفارة | Al Jfara | 453,198 | 1,940 | 12 |
| الزاوية | Az Zawiyah | 290,993 | 2,890 | 13 |
| النقاط الخمس | An Nuqat al Khams | 287,662 | 5,250 | 14 |
| الجبل الغربي | Al Jabal al Gharbi | 304,159 | 15 | |
| نالوت | Nalut | 93,224 | 16 | |
| غات | Ghat | 23,518 | 72,700 | 21 |
| الجفرة | Al Jufrah | 52,342 | 117,410 | 17 |
| وادي الشاطئ | Wadi Al Shatii | 78,532 | 97,160 | 18 |
Libyan districts are further subdivided into Basic People's Congresses which act as townships orboroughs.
The below table shows the ten largest cities in the country (some may be considered neighborhoods of larger cities).
| No. | City | Population (2006)[155] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tripoli | 1,228,187 |
| 2 | Benghazi | 670,797 |
| 3 | Misurata | 507,069 |
| 4 | Az Zawiyah | 318,726 |
| 5 | Sabha | 250,404 |
| 6 | Ajdabiya | 108,771 |
| 7 | Al Khums | 103,743 |
| 8 | Al Bayda | 99,208 |
| 9 | Darnah | 88,317 |
| 10 | Tobruk | 75,893 |
Economy
 | This section may need to be updated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information. (February 2011) |
The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil sector, which constitute practically all export earnings and about one-quarter of gross domestic product (GDP). The discovery of the oil and natural gas reserves in the country in 1959 led to the transformation of Libya's economy from a poor country to (then) Africa's richest. The World Bank defines Libya as an 'Upper Middle Income Economy', along with only seven other African countries.[156] In the early 1980s, Libya was one of the wealthiest countries in the world; its GDP per capita was higher than that of developed countries such as Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and New Zealand.[157]
Today, high oil revenues and a small population give Libya one of the highest GDPs per capita in Africa and have allowed the Libyan state to provide an extensive level of social security, particularly in the fields of housing and education.[158] Many problems still beset Libya's economy however; unemployment is the highest in the region at 21%, according to the latest census figures.[159]
Compared to its neighbors, Libya enjoys a low level of both absolute and relative poverty. Libyan officials in the past six years have carried out economic reforms as part of a broader campaign to reintegrate the country into the global capitalist economy.[160] This effort picked up steam after UN sanctions were lifted in September 2003, and as Libya announced in December 2003 that it would abandon programmes to build weapons of mass destruction.[161]
Libya has begun some market-oriented reforms. Initial steps have included applying for membership of the World Trade Organization, reducing subsidies, and announcing plans forprivatisation.[162] Authorities have privatised more than 100 government owned companies since 2003 in industries including oil refining, tourism and real estate, of which 29 are 100% foreign owned.[163] The non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for about 20% of GDP, have expanded from processing mostly agricultural products to include the production ofpetrochemicals, iron, steel and aluminum.
Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit agricultural output, and Libya imports about 75% of its food.[160] Water is also a problem, with some 28% of the population not having access to safe drinking water in 2000.[164] The Great Manmade River project is tapping into vast undergroundaquifers of fresh water discovered during the quest for oil, and is intended to improve the country's agricultural output.
Under the previous Prime Minister, Shukri Ghanem, and current Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi, Libya is undergoing a business boom. Many government-run industries are beingprivatised. Many international oil companies have returned to the country, including oil giants Shelland ExxonMobil.[165]
Tourism is on the rise, bringing increased demand for hotel accommodation and for capacity at airports such as Tripoli International. A multi-million dollar renovation of Libyan airports has recently[when?] been approved by the government to help meet such demands.[166] At present 130,000 people visit the country annually; the Libyan government hopes to increase this figure to 10,000,000 tourists. However there is little evidence to suggest the current administration is taking active steps to meet this figure. Libya has long been a notoriously difficult country for western tourists to visit due to stringent visa requirements. Since the 2011 protests there has been revived hope that an open society will encourage the return of tourists.[167] Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the second-eldest son of Muammar Gaddafi, is involved in a green development project called the Green Mountain Sustainable Development Area, which seeks to bring tourism to Cyrene and to preserve Greek ruins in the area.[168]
Demographics
Fareed Zakaria said in 2011 that "The unusual thing about Libya is that it's a very large country with a very small population, but the population is actually concentrated very narrowly along the coast."[169] Population density is about 50 persons per km² (130/sq. mi.) in the two northern regions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, but falls to less than one person per km² (2.6/sq. mi.) elsewhere. Ninety percent of the people live in less than 10% of the area, primarily along the coast. About 88% of the population is urban, mostly concentrated in the three largest cities, Tripoli , Benghazi and Al Bayda.[170] Libya has a population of about 6.5 million, around half of whom are under the age of 15. In 1984 the population reached 3.6 million and was growing at about 4% a year, one of the highest rates in the world. The 1984 population total was an increase from the 1.54 million reported in 1964.[171]
Native Libyans are primarily Berbers; Arabized Berbers and Turks; ethnic "pure" Arabs, mainly tribal desert "Bedouins"; and Tuareg.[172] Small Hausa, and Tebu tribal groups in southern Libya are nomadic or seminomadic. Among foreign residents, the largest groups are citizens of otherAfrican nations, including North Africans (primarily Egyptians), and Sub-Saharan Africans.[173] In 2011, there were also an estimated 60,000 Bangladeshis, 30,000 Chinese and 30,000 Filipinos in Libya.[174] Libya is home to a large illegal population which numbers more than one million, mostlyEgyptians and Sub-Saharan Africans.[175] Libya has a small Italian minority. Previously, there was a visible presence of Italian settlers, but many left after independence in 1947 and many more left in 1970 after the accession of Muammar Gaddafi.[176]
The main language spoken in Libya is Arabic (Libyan dialect) by 80% of the Libyans, and Modern Standard Arabic is also the official language; the Tamazight spoken by 20% (i.e. Berber and Tuareg languages), which do not have official status, are spoken by Libyan Berbers and Tuaregs in the south beside Arabic language.[177] Berber speakers live above all in the Jebel Nafusa region (Tripolitania), the town of Zuwarah on the coast, and the city-oases of Ghadames, Ghat andAwjila. In addition, Tuaregs speak Tamahaq, the only known Northern Tamasheq language, alsoToubou is spoken in some pockets in Qatroun village and Koffra city. Italian and English are sometimes spoken in the big cities, although Italian speakers are mainly among the older generation.
There are about 140 tribes and clans in Libya.[178] Family life is important for Libyan families, the majority of which live in apartment blocksand other independent housing units, with precise modes of housing depending on their income and wealth. Although the Libyan Arabs traditionally lived nomadic lifestyles in tents, they have now settled in various towns and cities.[179] Because of this, their old ways of life are gradually fading out. An unknown small number of Libyans still live in the desert as their families have done for centuries. Most of the population has occupations in industry and services, and a small percentage is in agriculture.
According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Libya hosted a population ofrefugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 16,000 in 2007. Of this group, approximately 9,000 persons were from the FormerPalestine, 3,200 from Sudan, 2,500 from Somalia and 1,100 from Iraq.[180] Libya reportedly deported thousands of illegal entrants in 2007 without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum. Refugees faced discrimination from Libyan officials when moving in the country and seeking employment.[180]
Education
Libya's population includes 1.7 million students, over 270,000 of whom study at the tertiary level.[181] Basic education in Libya is free for all citizens,[182] and compulsory to secondary level. The literacy rate is the highest in North Africa; over 82% of the population can read and write.[183]
After Libya's independence in 1951, its first university, the University of Libya, was established in Benghazi by royal decree.[184] In academic year 1975/76 the number of university students was estimated to be 13,418. As of 2004, this number has increased to more than 200,000, with an extra 70,000 enrolled in the higher technical and vocational sector.[181] The rapid increase in the number of students in the higher education sector has been mirrored by an increase in the number of institutions of higher education.
Since 1975 the number of universities has grown from two to nine and after their introduction in 1980, the number of higher technical and vocational institutes currently stands at 84 (with 12 public universities).[181] Libya's higher education is mostly financed by the public budget, although a small number of private institutions has been given accreditation lately. In 1998 the budget allocated for education represented 38.2% of the national budget.[184]
The main universities in Libya are:
- Al Fateh University (Tripoli)
- Garyounis University (Benghazi)
- University of Omar Almukhtar (Al Bayda)
The main technology institutions are:
- The Higher Institute of Computer Technology Also known as The College of Computer Technology (Tripoli)
- The Higher Institute of Electronics (Tripoli)
Religion
By far the predominant religion in Libya is Islam with 97% of the population associating with the faith.[185] The vast majority of Libyan Muslims adhere to Sunni Islam, which provides both a spiritual guide for individuals and a keystone for government policy, but a minority (between 5 and 10%) adhere to Ibadism (a branch of Kharijism), above all in the Jebel Nefusa and the town of Zuwarah, west of Tripoli.
Before the 1930s, the Senussi Movement was the primary Islamic movement in Libya. This was a religious revival adapted to desert life. Its zawaaya (lodges) were found in Tripolitaniaand Fezzan, but Senussi influence was strongest in Cyrenaica. Rescuing the region from unrest and anarchy, the Senussi movement gave the Cyrenaican tribal people a religious attachment and feelings of unity and purpose.[186]
This Islamic movement, which was eventually destroyed by both Italian invasion and later the Gaddafi government,[186] was very conservative and somewhat different from the Islam that exists in Libya today. Gaddafi asserts that he is a devout Muslim, and his government is taking a role in supporting Islamic institutions and in worldwide proselytizing on behalf of Islam.[187] A Libyan form of Sufism is also common in parts of the country.[188]
Other than the overwhelming majority of Sunni Muslims, there are also small foreign communities of Christians. Coptic Orthodox Christianity, which is the Christian Church of Egypt, is the largest and most historical Christian denomination in Libya. There are over 60,000 Egyptian Copts in Libya, as they comprise over 1% of the population.[189][190] There are an estimated 40,000 Roman Catholics in Libya who are served by two Bishops, one in Tripoli (serving the Italian community) and one in Benghazi (serving the Maltese community). There is also a small Anglican community, made up mostly of African immigrant workers in Tripoli; it is part of the Anglican Diocese of Egypt.
Libya was until recent times the home of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, dating back to at least 300 BC.[191] In 1942 the Italian Fascist authorities set up forced labour camps south of Tripoli for the Jews, including Giado (about 3,000 Jews) and Gharyan, Jeren, and Tigrinna. In Giado some 500 Jews died of weakness, hunger, and disease. In 1942, Jews who were not in the concentration camps were heavily restricted in their economic activity and all men between 18 and 45 years were drafted for forced labour. In August 1942, Jews from Tripolitania were interned in a concentration camp at Sidi Azaz. In the three years after November 1945, more than 140 Jews were murdered, and hundreds more wounded, in a series of pogroms.[192] By 1948, about 38,000 Jews remained in the country. Upon Libya's independence in 1951, most of the Jewish community emigrated. (See History of the Jews in Libya.)
Culture
Libya is culturally similar to its neighboring Maghrebian states. Libyans consider themselves very much a part of a wider Arab community. The Libyan state tends to strengthen this feeling by considering Arabic as the only official language, and forbidding the teaching and even the use of the Berber language. Libyan Arabs have a heritage in the traditions of the nomadic Bedouin and associate themselves with a particular Bedouin tribe.
Libya boasts few theatres or art galleries.[193][194] For many years there have been no public theatres, and only a few cinemas showing foreign films. The tradition of folk culture is still alive and well, with troupes performing music and dance at frequent festivals, both in Libya and abroad.
The main output of Libyan television is devoted to showing various styles of traditional Libyan music. Tuareg music and dance are popular in Ghadames and the south. Libyan television programmes are mostly in Arabic with a 30-minute news broadcast each evening in English and French. The government maintains strict control over all media outlets. A new analysis by theCommittee to Protect Journalists has found Libya's media the most tightly controlled in the Arab world.[82] To combat this, the government plans to introduce private media, an initiative intended to update the country's media.[195]
Many Libyans frequent the country's beach and they also visit Libya's archaeological sites—especially Leptis Magna, which is widely considered to be one of the best preserved Roman archaeological sites in the world.[196]
The nation's capital, Tripoli, boasts many museums and archives; these include the Government Library, the Ethnographic Museum, the Archaeological Museum, the National Archives, the Epigraphy Museum and the Islamic Museum. The Jamahiriya Museum, built in consultation withUNESCO, may be the country's most famous.[197]
Contemporary travel
The most common form of public transport between cities is the bus, but many people travel by automobile.[198] There are no railway services in Libya.[198]
Libyan cuisine
 | This section contains information which may be of unclear or questionable importance orrelevance to the article's subject matter. Please help improve this article by clarifying or removing superfluous information. (November 2010) |
Libyan cuisine is generally simple, and is very similar to Sahara cuisine.[199] In many undeveloped areas and small towns, restaurants may be nonexistent, and food stores may be the only source to obtain food products.[199] Some common Libyan foods include couscous, bazeen, which is a type of unsweetened cake, and shurba, which is soup.[199] Libyan restaurants may serve international cuisine, or may serve simpler fare such as lamb, chicken, vegetable stew, potatoes and macaroni.[199] Alcohol consumption is illegal in the entire country.[200]
There are four main ingredients of traditional Libyan food: olives (and olive oil), palm dates, grains and milk.[201] Grains are roasted, ground, sieved and used for making bread, cakes, soups and bazeen. Dates are harvested, dried and can be eaten as they are, made into syrup or slightly fried and eaten with bsisa and milk. After eating, Libyans often drink black tea. This is normally repeated a second time (for the second glass of tea), and in the third round the tea is served with roasted peanuts or roasted almonds (mixed with the tea in the same glass).[201]
See also
- Jamahiriya
- List of heads of government of Libya
- List of Libyans
- Transitional National Council of the Libyan Republic
Notes
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References
- Brady, Adrienne (2008). Libya -Kiss The Hand You Cannot Sever (1 ed.). Melrose Books. ISBN 1906050600.
- Ham, Anthony (2002). Libya. Lonely Planet Publications. ISBN 0-86442-699-2.
- Azema, James (2001). Libya Handbook. Footprint Handbooks. ISBN 1-900949-77-6.
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- Wright, John L. (1969). Nations of the Modern World: Libya. Ernest Benn Ltd.
- Bertarelli, L.V. (1929) (in Italian). Guida d'Italia, Vol. XVII. Milano: Consociazione Turistica Italiana.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State (Background Notes).
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