Libya

Deep History Ruled by the Romans Then Ottoman Then Italians Only became a unified political entity in the last two hundred years (was set up as a united area by Ottomans and then Italians) Became independent when Italy lost WWII Overwhelmingly Islamic country Considers itself at least as much Middle-Eastern as African Discovery of Oil in the 1950s has been important to the country’s history In 1969, Muammar Q’addafi led a military coup that seized power in Libya from the pro-Western gov’t

Libya Since the Coup Q’addafi set up an Arab Totalitarian Gov’t Censorship, absence of political parties Q’addafi is anti-Western, broke off relations with Britain and the U.S. and became active in its support of Palestine in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle

State Sponsored Terrorism By the 1980s, the U.S. was accusing Libya of officially supporting terrorism The U.S. bombed Libya in response to certain terrorist attacks The most famous of the Libyan attacks was the bombing of a passenger jet heading to the U.S. from London –It blew up over Pan Am Flight 103 –Over 250 people were killed

Embargo UN placed sanctions and a trade embargo on Libya, ordering them to pay the families of Lockerbie victims… Q’addafi refused After ten years of sanctions, Q’addafi began to give ground… he turned over terrorism suspects to the UN In 2002 he agreed to pay money to Lockerbie victims The U.S. was very eager to restore relations with Libya, partly to prove that its responses to 9-11 were having the intended effects on international terrorists

Most freedoms in Libya are still highly restricted: speech, press, assembly, religion, etc. Oil wealth in Libya makes the country much richer than most other African nations, although the current crash in oil prices hurts Country seems generally interested in rehabilitating relationships with the West… wants to expand tourism, has welcomed Western companies back into the country High literacy… sparsely concentrated population… free public education…