The 24th of December 1951 was a memorable day in the history of the Libyan modern state who rose from the ashes of the previous eras. Libya was part of the ancient Greeks and Romans before the Islamic conquests. Then, it became part of the Ottoman era and Karamanli dynasty. Libya enjoyed the advantages but also endured the tragedies of those eras. Later came the American invasion and the occupation of the city of Derna where the American Flag was raised for the first time outside of US territory for a short time before their subsequent withdrawal. Afterwards, it became part of the second Turkish era before the Italian invasion and the two world wars, the consequences of which were catastrophic on the innocent Libyan people who had nothing to do with the war. Finally came the independence for the first time in the history of Libya.
First, it was the result of the Jihad and the merciless fight and sacrifice for the homeland. This, was started in the east, under the leadership of the Sanussi family who had a great (tremendous) contribution in the direction of the battle. As well as the hero, Omar Al-Mukhtar who was a sheikh of one of its Zawiyas (Sanussias) who fought fiercely until he fell wounded in a battle. He was identified and faced a quick trial and later hanged by the Italians, under the command of the General Grazziani. He was hanged without mercy or consideration for his old age (he was 80 years old).
In the west and south, there were many leaders and heroes as well as unknown soldiers whose stories are still untold, but their memory will remain with the Creator forever because they didn't give up and they scarified their lives for the sake of the freedom of the homeland and to get rid of the Italian occupier.
Second, as a result of the cold war, Libya became an independent state, a poor country with a small population, as a result of poverty, wars, starvation and ethnic cleansing. In the past, hidden forces and the super powers ignored and marginalized Libya. It was not until the era of King Idris (may Allah rest his soul), the first and last monarch, when there was an explosion of wealth with the beginning of the oil production. This was a great reward and a gift from Allah to the poor Libya, who suffered tremendously all along its history and paid the high price, in blood and tears throughout all the empires and kingdoms of the preceding eras.
Libya had been a land of transit for the civilizations and the different conquering armies, who had forgotten, or made forgotten the previous civilizations who dominated its lands. Libya was the cradle of ancient civilizations, like the advanced Garamantes civilization in the south west. They are credited for using underground irrigation systems. There are many rock art remaining in the Fezzan area of Libya, as well as a huge area that has not been excavated. One day, all this will be discovered and when that will happen, it will change the history of the world and prove to everyone that Libya had a great contribution to the human civilization and its progress.
The new kingdom came out of the blue and crossed its way through the darkness to the daylight.
At the opposite of what the old regime media was pretending, out of ignorance, so that the era of the kingdom wouldn’t have the due respect, even though it lasted for eighteen years. The independence of Libya was not an easy accomplishment, as described by the Gaddafi regime media. The honorable man of Libya made a huge sacrifice. Pushed by their strong faith, will, and determination to end the aggression, whatever the cost would be and the price to pay. Barefoot and hungry toward an independent state of Libya, for Libyans, who does not follow or receive instructions from anyone. They would not stop their dream until they reached their goal and accomplished the independence of the homeland.
After the end of World War II, the allies divided the cake among them. Libya was temporarily part of the British empire. There was a non binding agreement between the prince Idris Alsanussi (head of the Sanussi Rite, after his uncle, Sid Ahmed Alsanussi who abdicated the throne, before leaving to Istanbul) and the British forces, stipulating that the Eastern province would support the allies in their war against the Axis. In counterpart the allies would recognize Barga and its right for auto-determination. A pro Allies battalion was founded to support the Allies efforts in the War. The Sanussis played an important role in the War, through its leaders and supporters, providing the Allies with valuable intelligence about the Axis forces. As a result of that intelligence, many temporary airfields, as well as, several weapon storage rooms, belonging to the Axis forces, were destroyed by the Allies air forces (no satellites at that time) which made it very difficult for the Axis forces to make any advance in the war.
The Sanussi Army made many heroic acts (unfortunately only few of them were ever mentioned) that tremendously benefited the Allied forces, such as saving the life of the ejected pilots from crash jets (during the air battles from the Axis air force or shot down from the land). As well as providing, guides for the explosive teams to destroy the weapon storage facilities and ammunition, fuel and landed aircrafts and much other logistic help. After the victory of the allies, the Sanussis requested the British to fulfill their promise. The political movement continued all over Libya through strikes and demonstrations during the time of the British administration from 1944 to 1951. After many meetings, challenges, differences and competition, they reached an agreement to nominate the prince Idris Al-Sanussi as the leader and the first king of the country. They were honest men of honor and incorruptible. They only cared about the interest of Libya and the unity of the homeland. They set aside all their internal quarrels and made the liberation of Libya their ultimate goal, as well as, the creation of a new state.
Great Britain opposed the union and independence of Libya, behind the curtains, with all the intrigues and political shrewdness, fruit of its global expertise in keeping peoples under control, in many corners of the globe. The British were accustomed to create problems between leaders and abolish their creation of political parties and groups of interest. They utilized many pretexts to stop the people from learning political games and how to make their point. They neglected the fact that Libyans were born naturally intelligent, very patient and extremely brave, which makes them resilient and ready to easily make sacrifices when needed. The last thing they needed was to witness the giant coming out of the bottle.
A great fortunate event that played a major role in the independence of Libya occurred when Russia requested the use of one of the Libyan seaports as a naval base. The West was obviously horrified over the Russian/Communist presence in the Mediterranean basin. After many rounds of deliberation, they reached an agreement to submit the case to the United Nations council to decide. Obviously, it was a well-planned strategy, organized by the West to keep Libya under their control. The plan was to keep Tripoli under Italian control, even though Italy lost the war, Barga under British control and Fezzan under French control. The Allies who won the war were dividing our homeland without any consultation with us. They did not even inform us. How tragic is that?
The homeland is valuable and has its honest and great men who are incorruptible. The Libyan delegation members, Mr. Omar Faiq Shenib, Mr. Abdulraziq Shagloof and other good and patriotic men have succeeded to establish strong ties with other states’ representatives, which had a tremendous effect on the outcome of the vote. On the day of the vote at the council, it was a tied game, half of the members for the independence of Libya and the other half against Libyan autonomy. The remaining vote was the representative of Haiti, who was a friend of the Libyans and instead of following the instructions of his government (who ordered him to vote for the west), he gave his vote for Libya. That was a big slap on the face of Great Britian and a great victory for the Libyan delegation in New York.
The Libyan people were excited with jubilation upon hearing the good news and happiness spread throughout the country. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the real hero, Emile San Lao. Great Britain was very upset and out of anger and grudge it refused to pay the Libyan delegation expenses (hotel accommodation, food and travel expenses). The delegation members had no other choice than to borrow an amount of money to pay their bills and travel tickets back to Libya.
Moreover, under Western pressures, the Haitian government terminated Mr. Emile San Lao from his position which pushed him to poverty at an old age. He even visited the Libyan consulate in New York City to ask for help. Unfortunately, his request was denied from Tripoli which reflected the ingratitude of the Libyan government under Gaddafi's rule. How tragic was that?!
To summarize the situation, we can say that Britain intended to rule Libya through deception, using the Sanussi family as a cover while the real rulers were the Shalhis. It also revived the tribal and regional sensitivities, until they gained influence, especially in the Western province of Libya. There was a competition between the Sharif family and the Shali family. Each side was demanding British support, assistance and patronage, especially, when oil was discovered in large quantities with great quality. The situation got worse because of the unwillingness of King Idris to continue to rule the country as he got older and wanted to retire and seek refuge in the oases of Jaghbub.
Meanwhile, the opportunists, hypocrites and social climbers succeeded to manipulate the masses to come together, from all over Libya, and march toward the royal palace in Tobruk, to request the king to revoke his resignation. The pressure escalated upon King Idris when he went out to the balcony and saw the thousands of Libyans chanting and demanding him to stay in power. The King was not aware of what was happening behind the scenes and the lobbies taking advantage of maintaining him on the throne. All what those greedy lobbies wanted was to remain in the effective power and fatten their accounts with the stolen wealth from the oil commissions.
They certainly forgot that the people would one day wake up and demand their right to freedom and independence. No matter how long it takes, individuals would die and vanish one day; but peoples remain alive until the end of days. The competition and challenges between the two families escalated to murder and assassinations of one another. This situation resulted in the hidden forces and international lobbies strongly supporting the ‘black coup’ (Fateh Revolution) of the 1st of September 1969, when a monster reached power and destroyed Libya with terror and oppression for more than 42 years. God Almighty finally granted us the glorified revolution and the monster tyrant was destroyed forever.
May Allah rest the soul of King Idris, the descendent of the noble family, who tremendously suffered from the intrigues and conspiracies of some of the men of his era. One of the most important statements that I have heard in his speech on the radio in the first celebration of the independence was: ‘keeping the independence is harder than obtaining it.’
Now that we are freed twice; the first one was from the Italian colonization and the second was from the dictatorship, I ask everyone to strongly keep the king legacy and not to forget it with time so that we enjoy our independence and stay forever free.
This is a memorable legacy that can not be forgotten, because it is the first time for Libya to become an independant state. This was the fruit of a fierce fight and sturple against oppression under all its forms and names.
We ask the Almighty Allah to keep our wealth and that the good men among the revolutionaries, keep their eyes open so that our revolution won’t be stolen by other adventurers and that we keep our independence, the backbone of our union, cohesion and strength. Only then we would go together forwards.
God bless.
Ragab M. Zatout
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