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Libya

Country in North Africa, bounded north by the Mediterranean Sea, east by Egypt, southeast by Sudan, south by Chad and Niger, and west by Algeria and Tunisia.

Government

The 1977 constitution created an Islamic socialist state, and the government is designed to allow the greatest possible popular involvement, through a large congress and smaller secretariats and committees. There is a General People's Congress (GPC) of 1,112 members that elects a secretary general who is intended to be head of state. The GPC is serviced by a general secretariat, which is Libya's nearest equivalent to a legislature. The executive organ of the state is the General People's Committee, which replaces the structure of ministries that operated before the 1969 revolution. The Arab Socialist Union (ASU) is the only political party, and, despite Libya's elaborately democratic structure, ultimate power rests with the party and its leader.

History

The area now known as Libya was inhabited by North African nomads until it came successively under the domination of Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, the Vandals, Byzantium, and Islam, and from the 16th century was part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. In 1911 it was conquered by Italy, becoming known as Libya from 1934.

After being the scene of much fighting during World War II, in 1942 it was divided into three provinces: Fezzan, which was placed under French control; Cyrenaica; and Tripolitania, which was placed under British control. In 1951 it achieved independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, Muhammad Idris-as-Sanusi becoming King Idris.

Revolution

The development of oil reserves during the 1960s transformed the Libyan economy. The country enjoyed internal and external stability until a bloodless revolution in 1969, led by young nationalist officers, deposed the king and proclaimed a Libyan Arab Republic. Power was vested in a Revolution Command Council (RCC), chaired by Col Moamer al-Khaddhafi, with the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) as the only political party. Khaddhafi soon began proposing schemes for Arab unity, none of which was permanently adopted. In 1972 he planned a federation of Libya, Syria, and Egypt and later that year a merger between Libya and Egypt. In 1980 he proposed a union with Syria and in 1981 with Chad.

Islamic socialism

Khaddhafi attempted to run the country on socialist Islamic lines, with people's committees pledged to socialism and the teachings of the Koran. The 1977 constitution made him secretary general of the general secretariat of the GPC, but in 1979 he resigned the post in order to devote more time to ‘preserving the revolution’.

Conflict with the West

Khaddhafi's attempts to establish himself as a leader of the Arab world brought him into conflict with Western powers, particularly the USA. The Reagan administration objected to Libya's presence in Chad and its attempts to unseat the French-US-sponsored government of President Habré. The USA linked Khaddhafi to worldwide terrorist activities, despite his denials of complicity, and the killing of a US soldier in a bomb attack in Berlin in 1986 by an unidentified guerrilla group prompted a raid by US aircraft, some of them British-based, on Tripoli and Benghazi. Libyan terrorists were also blamed for the bombing of Pan American World Airways Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, which killed 270 people; and for the 1989 bombing of UTA (Union de Transports Aérians) Flight 772 over Niger.

International sanctions

In 1988 Khaddhafi embarked on a dramatic programme of liberalization, freeing political prisoners and encouraging private businesses to operate, and in the same year offered to recognize Chad's independence and to give material help in the reconstruction of the country. In January 1989 he did not retaliate when two fighter jets were shot down over the Mediterranean off Libya by the US Navy, and appeared to be moving towards improving external relations, effecting a reconciliation with Egypt in October 1989. However in April 1992 international sanctions were imposed against Libya after Khaddhafi repeatedly refused to extradite six suspects linked to the Lockerbie and UTA bombings. Foreign air links were severed and Libyan diplomatic staff in several countries were expelled. A US request for tougher sanctions was rejected by the United Nations in April 1995.

In April 1999 the Libyan government handed over the two men suspected of planting a bomb on the aircraft which crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, for trial in the Netherlands.

In July 1999 the UK restored full diplomatic relations with Libya, broken off after British police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. The move followed Libya's acceptance of responsibility for the murder, and after the Libyan authorities paid an undisclosed sum in compensation to the family, British foreign secretary Robin Cook said he expected a British ambassador to take up position in Libya in December, making the last conciliatory step in the lifting of sanctions between Libya and Britain.

In March 2000, a day after Khaddaffi sacked his prime minister and abolished half of his government, he surprised the outside world by proposing that Libya install a formal head of state. The General People's Congress, the highest-ranking legislative body, endorsed reform in the government, abolishing twelve ministries and devolving powers to local level, and named a new prime minister, Mubarak al-Shamikh.

Lockerbie trial

Eight months after the two suspects were handed over by Libya in April 1999, it was ruled that they should be tried (under Scots law) on every count they faced, enabling the broadest possible amount of evidence to be put before the court. The trial opened in early May 2000 at Camp Zeist, a specially convened Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. It ended in January 2001, with one of the two suspects, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, being found guilty of murdering 270 people. His co-defendant was found not guilty. Gaddafi denounced the ruling, claiming to have proof of al-Megrahi's innocence. The UK and USA insisted that sanctions against Libya will not be fully lifted until it accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay compensation to victims's families.

International relations

Libya became involved in a hostage crisis in the Philippines in September 2000 as hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrilla group were released in small numbers. Despite some international criticism, Libya agreed to pay $24 million/£16 million for the remaining hostages. The money would come from the Khaddhafi International Association for Charitable Organizations, with Khaddhafi appearing to hope that by ending the crisis his image on the international stage would be further enhanced and his country might win a more respectable role.

Aozou Strip Banghazi Chad Fezzan Khaddhafi, Moamer al-

Misratah Sirte, Gulf of Tarabulus Tripolitania