The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Libya was the diplomatic crossroads of the planet the first week of September. Condoleezza Rice made the first visit by a US Secretary of State in 55 years (to discuss a murky deal involving payments to American victims of terrorist attacks allegedly sponsored by Libya), and ItalyÕs Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrived to promise Libya $5 billion in compensation for the brutalities of Italian colonial rule. But the US Congress wasnÕt impressed. On September 8, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed hearings on the confirmation of the first US ambassador to Libya since 1972. What bothered the senators was LibyaÕs delay in paying a promised $1.8 billion in compensation to the families of 180 Americans who died when Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down by a terrorist bomb in 1988, and of the American soldiers who were targeted in a 1986 attack on a West Berlin nightclub (one killed, scores injured). Western intelligence services blamed both those attacks on LibyaÕs leader, Colonel Muammar Gadafy, and US aircraft bombed Libya after the 1986 attack, killing some 30 Libyans. Yet the evidence for Libyan involvement is shaky, and Libya never officially admitted its responsibility. Instead, it finally signed a ÒhumanitarianÓ deal that gives the American families $1.8 billion, but also includes an unstated amount for the Libyan victims of the American air attacks. The United States worries about the security of its oil supplies and Libya produces oil, so Washington has been seeking a way to end its quarrel with Colonel Gadafy for a long time. Gadafy wanted that too, because the UN sanctions imposed at WashingtonÕs request were hurting his regime. The final compensation deal was signed last month. Condoleezza Rice was in Libya partly to show that Gadafy was no longer in the dog house Ð and partly to ask where the money was. But note that Libyan banks take more than a month to transfer even thousands of dollars abroad, let alone billions. The history behind Silvio BerlusconiÕs deal with Gadafy is much clearer, and so are the motives behind it. Italy conquered Libya, formerly part of the Ottoman empire, in 1911, and ruled it until 1943. Tens of thousands of Libyans who resisted were killed, while many more had their land confiscated and given to Italian settlers. Italy owes Ð but why is it paying now, half a century later? The answer is partly oil Ð a quarter of ItalyÕs oil and a third of its gas come from Libya Ð but also illegal immigrants. Italy is the destination for a growing stream of economic migrants from Africa who use Libya as a jumping-off place for their trip across the Mediterranean, and Berlusconi needs GadafyÕs cooperation to stem the flow. So Libya gets $5 billion of Italian money to compensate for all the wrongs of the colonial era. ÒIt is my duty...to express to you in the name of the Italian people our regret and apologies for the deep wounds that we have caused you,Ó Berlusconi said. ItÕs a generous apology: $200 million a year on infrastructure projects for 25 years, and if BerlusconiÕs cronies in the Italian construction business get the contracts, whatÕs the harm in that? But we will probably not see him making a similar apology in Mogadishu any time soon. Libya got off lightly. Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, ItalyÕs other African colonies, suffered far more from its rule, and are owed far more in compensation. But they have no oil, they are not close to Italy, and they are not going to get it. If you calculate the amount owed by other former colonial powers at the same per capita rate as Italy did for Libya Ð around $1,000 per head of the ex-colonyÕs current population Ð then France owes Algeria $30 billion, the US owes the Philippines $75 billion, and Great Britain owes India $1.1 trillion. But the victimsÕ heirs shouldnÕt spend their money until they actually have it in their hands, and they shouldnÕt hold their breaths while waiting.
