{"id":1396,"date":"2004-10-11T08:30:32","date_gmt":"2004-10-11T08:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2004-10-11T08:30:32","modified_gmt":"2004-10-11T08:30:32","slug":"2004-10-11-from-revenge-to-friendship-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1396","title":{"rendered":"From revenge to friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-src=\"v5\">Qadhafi is canceling Libya&#8217;s &#8220;day of revenge,&#8221; when the country<br \/>celebrates its independence from the its former colonial master, Italy,<br \/>and replacing it with a &#8220;day of friendship.&#8221; And he&#8217;s also agreed to<br \/>allow former Italian <i>pieds-noir<\/i> who were exiled to <a<br \/>href=&#8221;http:\/\/news.independent.co.uk\/world\/africa\/story.jsp?story=570384&#8243;>come back<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Giovanna Ortu, born in Libya in 1939 and head of the<br \/>association of exiles, said: &#8220;For six years we&#8217;ve been told it would be<br \/>possible, since the Italy-Libya agreement of 1998. In April 1999 Libya<br \/>opened up to tourists, but we were specifically barred. I was very much<br \/>against Mr Berlusconi&#8217;s latest visit to Gaddafi. Successive governments<br \/>of left and right have made oil more of a priority than our problems,<br \/>and in the process we lost honour.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>The group, the Italian Association for Repatriation to<br \/>Libya, still wants Libya to pay &euro;250m (&pound;170m)for expropriated property,<br \/>but that is not the principal issue. &#8220;None of us wants to go back to<br \/>live,&#8221; Ms Ortu said. &#8220;We no longer cherish hatred and we are ready to<br \/>forget. But we want the right to return for holidays. It&#8217;s a matter of<br \/>honour.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The $6.6 billion natural gas pipeline that will be going to Italy and<br \/>bringing $20 billion over the next 20 years will also help bury those<br \/>bad old memories, I&#8217;m sure.<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/imagegallery\/store\/AFP\/SGE_QFD25_071004190041_00_245x171.jpg\" alt=\"Qadhafi\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"3\" vspace=\"3\"><br \/>Still, I have a weird feeling that you can never quite know what&#8217;s going<br \/>to happen next with Qadhafi. After all, he still looks crazy.<\/p>\n<p>While on the subject of the mad bedouin, Abu Aardvark writes of accusations that Libya is supporting remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and reminds us that <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Most experts on Libya, both academic and governmental, argued something quite different: Libya took the opportunity to cash in its non-existent nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions and restoration of diplomatic relations, which Qadaffi had been trying to get through negotiations for many years. Qadaffi got what he wanted &#8211; the sanctions lifted and normal diplomatic status &#8211; and gave up very little.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One day someone will write a history of Qadhafi&#8217;s Libya, and I think it will be a most entertaining book.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div data-src=\"v5\">Qadhafi is canceling Libya&#8217;s &#8220;day of revenge,&#8221; when the country<br \/>\ncelebrates its independence from the its former colonial master, Italy,<br \/>\nand replacing it with a &#8220;day of friendship.&#8221; And he&#8217;s also agreed to<br \/>\nallow former Italian <i>pieds-noir<\/i> who were exiled to <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/news.independent.co.uk\/world\/africa\/story.jsp?story=570384\">come back<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Giovanna Ortu, born in Libya in 1939 and head of the<br \/>\nassociation of exiles, said: &#8220;For six years we&#8217;ve been told it would be<br \/>\npossible, since the Italy-Libya agreement of 1998. In April 1999 Libya<br \/>\nopened up to tourists, but we were specifically barred. I was very much<br \/>\nagainst Mr Berlusconi&#8217;s latest visit to Gaddafi. Successive governments<br \/>\nof left and right have made oil more of a priority than our problems,<br \/>\nand in the process we lost honour.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>The group, the Italian Association for Repatriation to<br \/>\nLibya, still wants Libya to pay &euro;250m (&pound;170m)for expropriated property,<br \/>\nbut that is not the principal issue. &#8220;None of us wants to go back to<br \/>\nlive,&#8221; Ms Ortu said. &#8220;We no longer cherish hatred and we are ready to<br \/>\nforget. But we want the right to return for holidays. It&#8217;s a matter of<br \/>\nhonour.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The $6.6 billion natural gas pipeline that will be going to Italy and<br \/>\nbringing $20 billion over the next 20 years will also help bury those<br \/>\nbad old memories, I&#8217;m sure.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/imagegallery\/store\/AFP\/SGE_QFD25_071004190041_00_245x171.jpg\" alt=\"Qadhafi\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"3\" vspace=\"3\"><br \/>\nStill, I have a weird feeling that you can never quite know what&#8217;s going<br \/>\nto happen next with Qadhafi. After all, he still looks crazy.<br \/>\nWhile on the subject of the mad bedouin, Abu Aardvark writes of accusations that Libya is supporting remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and reminds us that<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Most experts on Libya, both academic and governmental, argued something quite different: Libya took the opportunity to cash in its non-existent nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions and restoration of diplomatic relations, which Qadaffi had been trying to get through negotiations for many years. Qadaffi got what he wanted &#8211; the sanctions lifted and normal diplomatic status &#8211; and gave up very little.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One day someone will write a history of Qadhafi&#8217;s Libya, and I think it will be a most entertaining book.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[2],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}