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Libya
The United Nations and Libya
Disposition of Italian colonial holdings was a question that
had to be considered before the peace treaty officially ending
the war with Italy could be completed. Technically, Libya remained
an Italian possession administered by Britain and France, but
at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 the Allies--Britain, the Soviet
Union, and the United States--agreed that the Italian colonies
seized during the war should not be returned to Italy. Further
consideration of the question was delegated to the Allied Council
of Foreign Ministers, which included a French representative;
although all council members initially favored some form of trusteeship,
no formula could be devised for disposing of Libya. The United
States suggested a trusteeship for the whole country under control
of the United Nations (UN), whose charter had become effective
in October 1945, to prepare it for self-government. The Soviet
Union proposed separate provincial trusteeships, claiming Tripolitania
for itself and assigning Fezzan to France and Cyrenaica to Britain.
France, seeing no end to the discussions, advocated the return
of the territory to Italy. To break the impasse, Britain finally
recommended immediate independence for Libya.
The peace treaty, in which Italy renounced all claims to its
African possessions, was signed in February 1947 and became effective
in September. The language of the treaty was vague on the subject
of colonies, adding only that these territories should "remain
in their present state until their future is decided." This indefinite
proviso disappointed Libyan leaders, who had earlier been alarmed
at Italian diplomatic agitation for return of the colonies. Libyans
were apprehensive that Italian hegemony might return in some ostensibly
nonpolitical guise if Italy were given responsibility for preparing
the country for independence.
By mutual agreement the settlement of the Italian colonies was
postponed for a year after the treaty became effective, during
which time the Big Four (Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and
the United States) were to search for a solution. If none could
be found, the question was to be put before the UN General Assembly.
A four-power commission of investigation was appointed to ascertain
what the Libyan people desired. Although the various regional
parties split over the question of the future status of their
respective provinces, the majority of Libyans favored independence.
The commission, however, decided that the country was not ready
for self-government. Other governments interested in the settlement
of the problem, notably Italy and Egypt, were consulted. In all
cases, conflicting interests prevented any solution, and in due
course the Libyan question was placed on the agenda of the General
Assembly.
Idris had returned to Libya to a tumultuous welcome in 1944,
but he declined to take up residence there until satisfied that
all constraints of foreign control not subject to his agreement
had been removed. At British urging, he resumed permanent residence
in Cyrenaica in 1947; in 1949, with British backing, he unilaterally
proclaimed Cyrenaica an independent amirate.
In the meantime, Britain and Italy had placed the Bevin-Sforza
plan (after Ernest Bevin and Carlo Sforza, foreign ministers of
its respective sponsors) before the UN for its consideration.
Under this plan, Libya would come under UN trusteeship, and responsibility
for administration in Tripolitania would be delegated to Italy,
in Cyrenaica to Britain, and in Fezzan to France. At the end of
ten years, Libya would become independent. Over Libyan protests,
the plan was adopted by the UN Political Committee in May 1949,
only to fall short by one vote of the twothirds majority required
for adoption by the General Assembly. No further proposals were
submitted, but protracted negotiations led to a compromise solution
that was embodied in a UN resolution in November 1949. This resolution
called for the establishment of a sovereign state including all
three historic regions of Libya by January 1952. A UN commissioner
and the so-called Council of Ten-- composed of a representative
from each of the three provinces, one for the Libyan minorities,
and one each for Egypt, France, Italy, Pakistan, Britain, and
the United States--were to guide Libya through the period of transition
to independence and to assist a Libyan national assembly in drawing
up a constitution. In the final analysis, indecision on the part
of the major powers had precipitated the creation of an independent
state and forced the union of provinces hitherto divided by geography
and history.
The General Assembly named Adrian Pelt of the Netherlands as
commissioner for Libya. Severe problems confronted him and his
staff in preparing for independence an economically backward and
politically inexperienced country, almost totally lacking in trained
managerial and technical personnel, physicians, and teachers.
Of Libya's approximately 1 million inhabitants, at least 90 percent
were illiterate. Libya's biggest source of income was from scrap
metal salvaged from the World War II battlefields. There were
no known natural resources--even Libya's sand was inadequate for
glassmaking--and it was obvious that the country would be dependent
on foreign economic aid for an indefinite period. Pelt argued
forcefully that Italian settlers should be encouraged to remain
in Libya, first, because the land they worked was private property
that could not be expropriated legally, and, second, because their
presence represented a long-term investment that was essential
to any further economic development in the country.
Historically, the administration of Libya had been united for
only a few years--and those under Italian rule. Many groups vied
for influence over the people but, although all parties desired
independence, there was no consensus as to what form of government
was to be established. The social basis of political organization
varied from region to region. In Cyrenaica and Fezzan, the tribe
was the chief focus of social identification, even in an urban
context. Idris had wide appeal in the former as head of the Sanusi
order, while in the latter the Sayf an Nasr clan commanded a following
as paramount tribal chieftains. In Tripolitania, by contrast,
loyalty that in a social context was reserved largely to the family
and kinship group could be transferred more easily to a political
party and its leader. Tripolitanians, following the lead of Bashir
as Sadawi's National Congress Party, pressed for a republican
form of government in a unitary state. Inasmuch as their region
had a significantly larger population and a relatively more advanced
economy that the other two, they expected that under a unitary
political system political power would gravitate automatically
to Tripoli. Cyrenaicans, who had achieved a larger degree of cohesion
under Sanusi leadership, feared the chaos they saw in Tripolitania
and the threat of being swamped politically by the Tripolitanians
in a unitary state. Guided by the National Front, endorsed by
Idris initially to advocate unilateral independence for Cyrenaica,
they backed formation of a federation with a weak central government
that would permit local autonomy under Idris as amir. But even
in Cyrenaica a cleavage existed between an older generation that
thought instinctively in provincial terms and a younger generation--many
of whom were influenced by their membership in the Umar al Mukhtar
Club, a political action group first formed in 1942 with Idris'
blessing but by 1947 tending toward republican and nationalist
views--whose outlook reflected the rise of pan-Arab political
nationalism, already a strong force in the Middle East and growing
in Libya.
To implement the General Assembly's directive, Pelt approved
the appointment of the Preparatory Committee of Twenty-One to
determine the composition of a national constitutional convention.
The committee included seven members from each province, nominated
in Cyrenaica by Idris, in Fezzan by the Sayf an Nasr chieftains,
and in Tripolitania by the grand mufti (chief religious judge)
of Tripoli, who also acted as its chairman. Nationalists objected
that the committee represented traditional regional interests
and could not reflect the will of the Libyan people as the General
Assembly had intended.
The product of the committee's deliberations was the creation
of the National Constituent Assembly, in which each of the three
provinces was equally represented. Meeting for the first time
in November 1950, the assembly approved a federal system of government
with a monarchy, despite dissent from Tripolitanian delegates,
and offered the throne to Idris. Committees of the assembly drafted
a constitution, which was duly adopted in October 1951. Meanwhile,
internal administrative authority had already been transferred
by British and French administrations to the regional governments--and
in Cyrenaica to the independent Sanusi amirate. On December 24,
1951, King Idris I proclaimed the independence of the United Kingdom
of Libya as a sovereign state.
Data as of 1987
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