History digs out Italy concentration camps in Libya

[Strengthandhonour]

History digs out Italy concentration camps in Libya

Researchers gather to review new studies regarding genocide of Libyans under colonial Italy rule.

TRIPOLI - A two-day session workshop was held in the Libyan capital to shed light on Fascist Italy’s concentration camps during its colonial rule of the North African country in the first half of the twentieth century.
The workshop, entitled ‘Italian Colonialism and Detention Camps in Libya 1929 – 1943; Developments of Historical Research, Today’, hosted a number of scholars and researchers from Italy, the US, Europe, and Libya to review new documents and studies regarding the Italian concentration camps.
During his address at the opening session of the workshop, Libya’s Minister of Information and Culture, Nuri Hemidi, highlighted the crimes committed against the Libyan people by colonial Italy, citing cases of genocide and mass exile.
The Libyan minister called for more attention on the legal and humanitarian aspect of the issue.
However, Hemidi also pointed out that Italy had acknowledged the crimes committed during its colonial era and it had apologized for such atrocities as well as pledging to pay some compensation to the damages it inflicted.
Director of the Jihad Centre for Historical Studies, Dr Mohammed Taher Jerari, said that the centre had focused on collecting preliminary materials about the Italian concentration camps in Libya through two questionnaires carried out in 1978 and 1984, in addition to six field researches to compile oral narratives that extended from 1978 up to 2004.
In his address at the opening session, he underlined that researches had discovered that most of the Italian documents regarding the Italian colonial occupation of Libya were questionable and therefore needed more investigation from a local authority to reach a historical truth.
Head of the ‘Association for History and Memories of the Republic in Italy’ stressed the importance of such studies to understand the reason and level of mistrust people in the region have towards the West (former colonial powers).
“Today, it is impossible to imagine the Mediterranean in the manner we want it to be, a peaceful united Area dealing with our mutual history, without reviewing those more difficult stages in history,” he said.
During the second session, an Italian researcher from Pisa University presented a research paper in which she addressed the Italian colonialist policies in seeking to impose Italian culture by using all forms of oppression in an attempt to black out Libyans' national identity and their religious beliefs.
Another researcher, Dr. Salah Eddin al-Suri, professor of history at al-Fatah University, noted in his paper (entitled Colonialist Oppression in Libya; between Continuity and Halt) that when the Italians found strong resistance to their presence in Libya, they used the worst forms of distortion and killing against the Libyan fighters and their families, citing senior Italian military officials and politicians who had acknowledged in their memoirs the oppressive practices and massacres committed indiscriminately.
In conclusion, the workshop recommended establishing an international committee composed of scholars and researchers to continue researching Italy’s colonial concentration camps in Libya.
The committee would seek official and local documents in Italy’s achieve, publication and translation of related works, in addition to organising seminars and conferences regarding the issue.

source:Middle East Online