Italy will give Libya US$5 billion as compensation for occupation

Sunday, August 31, 2008

The government of Italy has agreed to pay Libya US$5 billion as compensation for its occupation of the country from 1911 to 1943. The agreement was reached between the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and Baghdadi Mahmudi, Berlusconi's Libyan counterpart.

"It is a material and emotional recognition of the mistakes that our country has done to yours during the colonial era," said Berlusconi after arriving in Libya. "This agreement opens the path to further cooperation."

"The accord will provide for $200 million a year over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects in Libya," Berlusconi continued. "It is my duty, as a head of government, to express to you in the name of the Italian people our regret and apologies for the deep wounds that we have caused you."

In return for providing compensation, Italy has asked that Libya attempts to reduce the number of immigrants illegally moving from Libya to Italy.

As a result of the deal, the Libyan government has named August 30 "Libyan-Italian Friendship Day".

The deal has also made some people ask if the United Kingdom should provide compensation to Nigeria for it's colonisation of the country.

Dr. Eyimofe Atake from the Senior Advocate of Nigeria commented on this issue: "To be able to answer that question, one needs to know exactly why compensation was paid and the circumstances in which compensation was paid. One needs to know the fact of the case between the Italians and the Libyans and how the issue for the payment of compensation arose. No two cases are necessarily similar, so in the absence of the facts and circumstances that led to the payment of compensation, it will be totally speculative to say if Nigeria could ask for compensation or be paid compensation by Britain."

"In any event, under international law, Britain and Italy are separate and distinct states. They are sovereign states. Consequently, the British government is not bound by the acts of the Italian government. The decision of the Italian government is personal to them based on their peculiar circumstance and facts, which have nothing to do with the British government and the Nigerian government," Atake continued.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Pact with Libya aims at curbing illegals" — Washington Times, August 31, 2008
"Libya: Italy to Pay U.S. $5 Billion for Colonialism" — All Africa, August 31, 2008

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License