As the UN attempts to forge reconciliation in Libya’s divided government, Correspondents looks back at the UNs historical role in forming and dismantling governments and leadership there.
The Libyan case was the first to be discussed by the UN after the Second World War in an era characterized by liberation from occupation.
As the UN attempts to forge reconciliation in Libya’s divided government, Correspondents looks back at the UNs historical role in forming and dismantling governments and leadership there.
The Libyan case was the first to be discussed by the UN after the Second World War in an era characterized by liberation from occupation.
The Italian occupation was defeated by the British army which came from Egypt. It included 4,000 Libyan soldiers who were immigrants from Burqa tribes. Burqa and Tripolitania fell under the so-called “British Administration” from 1943 to 1951 and Fezzan fell under the French domination.
In that period, the competition among the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and France over Libya became fierce. However, they failed to agree on how to control and share it. The Americans firmly rejected that the British control the previous Italian dominion, as they were the new super power. As a result, the competitors were forced to refer the Libyan case to the UN General Assembly to decide on the matter.
The UN General Assembly started discussing the Libyan case in April 1949. Meanwhile, the Bevin-Sforza project appeared as a result of an agreement between the British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin and the Italian Foreign Minister Carlo Sforza, who proposed that Libya gained independence after ten years during which Libya’s three regions were to be put under international custody where Britain administered Burqa, Italy administered Tripolitania and France administered Fezzan.
The decision draft was referred to the UN to be voted on at the General Assembly on May 17 1949. The passing of this decision needed the consent of two thirds of the member states, of which there were 58. It was about to be passed. However, the Libyan delegate managed to secure the support of Haiti’s representative, the leftist diplomat Dr. Emile San Lou who voted against the decision and against the instructions of his government. Thanks to his vote, the decision was not adopted.
Dependence on the outside for independence
The alternative was proposing a draft to the UN on November 21, 1941 by the delegates of India, Iraq, Pakistan and the United States. It stipulated that Libya gain its independence before January 1, 1952. Thus, decision No. 289 was passed unanimously.
To help the newly independent state in establishing itself, the decision provided for appointing a UN special envoy to Libya. Adriaan Pelt, the Dutch diplomat, was chosen. His main task was to supervise the empowerment of Libyans through drafting a constitution by a national committee, composed of 60 members equally representing Libya’s three regions, leading to establishing a democratic political system.
The UN special envoy was assisted by a consultative council to help and guide him. It consisted of 10 members, six of whom were from Egypt, France, Italy, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and three ones were from Libya’s three provinces and one represented minorities in Libya
As for the Libyans, national figures who struggled and fought the Italian occupation, party leaders and some political and educated elite from the three provinces were committed to Libya’s independence and unity.
Pelt was very much loved by the Libyans to the extent that they, later, named famous streets in Tripoli and Benghazi and the most popular cinema in Benghazi after him and after Emile San Lou and Haiti.
Thus, Libya was the first dominion to gain its independence after the Second World War by a UN decision and the first and, maybe, the only country whose constitution was drafted under the UN’s supervision and was adopted before its actual independence. It can be said that Pelt helped in the drafting process.
It was also the first country whose national army was founded abroad, its flag was inspired by a poetry line by an Iraqi poet called Safi al-Din al-Hilli and its anthem was composed by a Tunisian poet and the famous Egyptian composer Mohamed Abdulwahhab, as a result of a competition held to this purpose.
As if history were repeating itself, 60 years after the UN decision, which gave Libya its independence, the Security Council decision No. 1973 of 2011 was adopted to allow international military intervention to protect the Libyan civilians from the crimes of their dictator. It indeed saved the lives of Libyans. Had the international forces, represented by the NATO, not intervened, the Libyans’ situation would have been very much like the disastrous situation of the Syrian people.
As Libyans appreciated and were grateful for the UN role in gaining independence sixty years ago, they were again grateful when NATO jets hit the barbaric military force of Gaddafi. Libyan men and women were cheering. The flags of France, the United States and Britain were flying in the public squares.
Like what happened 60 years ago, the UN appointed a special envoy to help the Libyans reestablish their state after their second independence. However, Libyans are no longer those good-hearted, simple people who they were once after the Second World War.
