FROM THE moment Libyan leader Col Muammar Gadafy stepped off a jet at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Wednesday, it was clear his groundbreaking four-day state visit to Italy was destined for controversy.
Along with his “rapper” shades and colourful military uniform, the Libyan leader was prominently wearing a 1931 photo of Libyan resistance fighter Omar-Al-Mukhtar, who was hanged by Benito Mussolini’s fascist forces for leading a 20-year struggle against the Italian colonial power.
Terrorism and colonialism have featured prominently during a series of meetings that Col Gadafy has had with Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and a number of Italian politicians and businessmen.
At a press conference, the Libyan leader explained the photograph: “For Libyans, the hanging of Omar-al-Mukhtar is like the crucifixion of Christ for you Christians. He is a symbol who recalls a great tragedy.”
Students at La Sapienza University in Rome, where Gadafy made a speech, protested yesterday against his visit, scuffling with police and hurling paint at them.
At a gathering of Italian senators, the Libyan leader argued that international terrorism was essentially created by the West. “If we were to ask Bin Laden and his followers, ‘Why did you kill so many civilians with the attack on New York ?’ . . . they already have answered, because we were defending ourselves against the humiliations we’ve suffered and against the plundering of our riches.” He said there was no difference between 9/11 and a 1986 US air attack on Libya. He said that “thanks to the United States”, Iraq had become an “open arena for al-Qaeda terrorists”.
The Gadafy regime has long been accused of having underwritten international terrorism, including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in which a Pan Am jet was blown up over the Scottish town with the loss of 270 lives.
These accusations and others on his government’s human rights record prompted opposition senators to block an initial plan that would have seen him address the Italian senate. Talking to the senators yesterday, Gadafy said, however, that he was “against terrorism” and condemned it, but added: “We have to try to understand the real reasons for this pernicious phenomenon . . . if necessary, we have to enter into dialogue with the devil . . .”
As an example, on Wednesday he defended Somali pirates, reiterating their claim that they are “forced” into piracy because their “maritime zone is violated and their fishing resources depleted”.
The Berlusconi government, which last August signed a €4 billion compensation deal with Libya over past wrongs, is keen to maintain close links. Not only have Italian corporations such as oil giant ENI invested heavily in oil- and gas-rich Libya, but the government has Libyan support for its controversial crackdown on illegal “boat people” emigrating from the Libyan coast to Italy.
UN sources, the Vatican and NGOs have criticised this policy, arguing it deprives migrants of the right to apply for political asylum. Col Gadafy rejected this criticism this week, saying: “It’s a complete lie to go on about asylum seekers. The fact is that there are millions of people who are attracted economically to Europe. It’s ridiculous to think that they all have an asylum problem.”