Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 315
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ROME, March 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Italy is considering the possibility of building a highway across Libya as compensations for its bloody colonial rule of the country, Italian News Agency ANSA said on Tuesday.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Monday night that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sees an east-west motorway across the country as the price for definitively closing the ongoing question of reparations. "Colonel Gaddafi wants a gesture that marks a definitive accord with compensation to Libya for the period of colonial occupation," he said. "We have made several offers, for example, the construction of hospitals, but Gaddafi wants a coastal road linking Egypt with Tunisia," he added. Italy occupied and ruled Libya between 1911 and 1943, a span of time when Fascist Italian authorities carried out a bloody "pacification" of the country in which many Libyans died. In a statement released on Monday, the Libyan government repeated its request for compensation and put the number of victims of colonial rule at 700,000. According to Italian newspapers, the motorway demanded by Gaddafi would cost at least 3 billion euros (3.51 billion U.S. dollars), a sum much higher than the 60 million euros (70.2 million U.S. dollars) that Berlusconi reportedly hinted Italy might pay for a road in 2002. Enditem |
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