Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
5 September 2008
Benghazi — Italy has signed an agreement to pay Libya USD5 billion for its colonial occupation of the North African nation.
The money will be released in the course of 25 years, according to international media reports.
Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi said the settlement he signed with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in the city of Benghazi, which once housed the Italian colonial administration, opened the door to partnership between the two states.
Berlusconi on his part said the deal ended "40 years of misunderstanding".
Libya was occupied by Italy in 1911 before becoming a colony in the 1930s. The former Ottoman territory became an independent country in 1951.
This is the first African country to be compensated by a former colonial master.
Berlusconi explained that USD200 million would be paid annually over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects, the main one being a coastal motorway between the Egyptian and Tunisian borders.
There will also be a colonial-era mine clearing project. As a goodwill gesture, Italy also returned an ancient statue of Venus, the headless "Venus of Cyrene", which had been taken to Rome in colonial times.
The settlement was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era", the Italian Prime Minister said.
"In this historic document, Italy apologizes for its killing, destruction and repression against Libyans during the colonial rule," Col Gaddafi said.
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