| Berlusconi in Benghazi, Unwelcome by Son of Omar Al-Mukhtar 30/08/2008 15:47:00 | ||
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| Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrived today in Benghazi, Libya where he announced that he would sign a deal with Libya according to which Italy will invest five billion Dollars in 25 years.”The accord will provide for 200 million dollars a year over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects in Libya,” Berlusconi said in remarks translated into Arabic.”This agreement should put an end to 40 years of discord. It is a concrete and moral acknowledgment of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era,” he told reporters.The Libyan hero Omar Al-Mukhtar’s family in Benghazi as well as historians of the Italian colonialist era in Libya reject Berlusconi visit and said that he should have visited the site of Italian concentration camps in Solug where tens of thousand of Libyan men, women and children were killed by Italian occupiers.Omar Al-Mukhtar’s son, Mohammad who is now in his eighties, told aljazeera.net that he would not meet Berlusconi even if Libyan authorities asked him to do so.Mohammad Al-Mukhtar said “I will reject meeting Berlusconi in Rodolfo Graziani palace in Benghazi. This country [Italy] hates the Libyan people and hates Omar Al-Mukhtar.”Graziani commanded the Italian occupying forces in Libya. He was responsible for the construction of several concentration camps and labor camps, where tens of thousands Libyan prisoners died, if not killed directly by hanging, like Omar Mukhtar, or bullets, then indirectly by starvation or disease. His deeds earned him the nickname “the Butcher of Libya” between the Arabs, but was called by the Italians the Pacifier of Libya (“Pacificatore della Libia”).The Libyan historian Wahhbi Al-Bouri said that whatever the amount paid by Italy in compensation for its colonial era in Libya would not meet the war crimes committed by its forces in the country.Al-Bouri told aljazeera net the Italian occupation detained more than 80,000 Libyans more than 50 percent of which died under torture, hunger and disease in detentions.Italy sentenced Omar Al-Mukhtar to death and hanged him in front of thousand of Libyans who were brought by force to attend the hanging on 16 September 1931.Italy also on Saturday returned a Roman statue of the goddess Venus dating back to the second century which was found in 1913 by Italian troops near the ruins of the Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, on the Libyan coast.Berlusconi was greeted by government ministers at the airport in the eastern city of Benghazi airport and will meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi later to sign the pact, Libyan officials said. |
Berlusconi in Benghazi, Unwelcome by Son of Omar Al-Mukhtar
Abdullah Al Asadi is a Libyan journalist and writer at TripoliPost, covering politics, society, and culture across Libya and the wider region. With a passion for independent storytelling and a commitment to accuracy, he brings readers in-depth reporting and thoughtful analysis on the issues shaping his country. He can be reached at abdullah.asadi@tripolipost.com
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