tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post7363804394592046984..comments2024-03-24T20:40:46.666-04:00Comments on Pan-African News Wire: Libya Calls For Day of Mourning to Remember 1911 Colonial DeportationsPan-African News Wirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10958190577776906688noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post-17836375449489544352007-10-30T11:19:00.000-04:002007-10-30T11:19:00.000-04:00ROME 29 October 2007 Sapa-AFPITALY AND LIBYA POISE...ROME 29 October 2007 Sapa-AFP<BR/><BR/>ITALY AND LIBYA POISED TO SIGN COLONIAL COMPENSATION TREATY<BR/><BR/>Italy and Libya are poised to sign a treaty designed to settle the<BR/>question of compensation for Italy's colonisation of the country, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema reportedly said Monday.<BR/><BR/>"We have certain debts owed to Libya but we also have a fundamental interest in our links with this essential partner," ANSA news agency quoted D'Alema as saying.<BR/><BR/>"The moment has arrived to take a further step and I hope that here<BR/>in a few days time we can announce an important accord between Italy<BR/>and Libya."<BR/><BR/>He said the accord would close "a sad chapter in history" but gave<BR/>no details on the amount of compensation being offered.<BR/><BR/>The minister was speaking during a conference on the deportation of<BR/>Libyans to the Adriatic Italian islands of Tremiti in 1911 and 1912.<BR/><BR/>Once part of the Ottoman Empire, Libya was occupied by Italy in 1911<BR/>and became an Italian colony in the 1930s. The country gained its<BR/>independence in 1951 after a brief period under a UN mandated<BR/>Franco-British administration.<BR/><BR/>The history of Italian-Libyan relations have been plagued by<BR/>tensions caused by their shared colonial history.<BR/><BR/>In recent years negotiations on a treaty floundered pending the<BR/>construction of a six million euro (8.6 million dollars) motorway in<BR/>Libya which former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to finance during a trip to Tripoli in 2004.Pan-African News Wirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10958190577776906688noreply@blogger.com