Winston Churchill in his famous speech ’While England Slept’, which statement may have been inspired by

An ancient limerick as quoted by Justice A.R.B.Amerasinghe in ‘Beautiful Inspiring Interesting Words’ (2005)

Libya known as the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah is a nation of northern Africa, comprising of the former Italian

colonies of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan. One of the largest countries in Africa it has a square area of 1,739,540 sq.km. (679,362 sq.ml.) Bordered on the North by the Mediterranean Sea, to the East by Egypt, to the south-east by Sudan, to the South by Chad and Niger, to the west by Algeria and to the north-west by Tunisia its capital city is Tripoli. Almost 95 per cent of Libya is made up of barren, rock-strewn plains and seas of sand, with two small areas of hills rising to about 915m(3000 ft.) in the north-west and north-east.In the south the land rises to the Tibesti along the Chad border.

The principal resource of Libya is petroleum. Natural gas, gypsum, marine salt and potash are also among its other resources. Libya is extremely arid and fresh water resources are scarce. There are no permanent rivers or streams, though a network of dams has been built to store rain water and wells have been dug to tap subterranean water.

The indigenous population of Libya is almost entirely Berber and Arab in origin. About 88 per cent of the people live in urban areas although some Libyans still live in normadic or semi-normadic groups. After Qadaffi captured power, European settlers and Jews were expelled. Around 20 per cent of the population is from Egypt, Sudan and Chad. The two largest populated areas are the port cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. While 97 per cent of the Libyans are Sunni Muslims, there is a minority of Roman Catholics.

Traditionally an agricultural country, the economy underwent a profound change in the late 1950s with the discovery of petroleum.

Libyan history reveals that Phoenicia founded colonies on the coast of Tripolitania, which were conquered by Carthage in the 6^th century B.C. Greeks subsequently established settlement in Cyrenaica. The Greek historian, Herodotus writing in the 5^th century B.C., described the Garamantes people of the Fezzan, who were sedentary farmers and used horse drawn chariots in war fare. Ancient cave art discovered in Jabal Alakus of the western Fezzan and Jabal al-Uwaynat near the Egyptian border, authenticates his writings.

Libya later became a Roman possession, until it was captured by the Vandals in 455A.D. After a re-conquest by the Byzantine Empire in the following century, the region was won by Arabs led by Amr Ibn al-As in 643 A.D. Ruled successively by Umayyads, Fatimids and a Berban dynasty ,the historic regions of Tripoli and Cyrenaica were partly conquered by the Normans in 1146A.D. but soon abandoned to Almohad control. During the following centuries Libya or parts thereof frequently changed hands until it was finally conquered in the 16^th century by the Ottoman Empire. In 1931 Italians invaded Libya. After World War II, France and Britain shared control of Libya.

Libya was granted independence on 1^stJanuary 1952,on a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly.

A national assembly composed of an equal number of delegates from Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan convened on Tripoli in 1950

and designated Emir Sayid Idris el-Sanusi head of the Cyranaican government and leader of the Sanus sect, as King-Designate. On 7^thOctober 1951the national assembly promulgated the Libyan constitution. On 24^th December of the same year, the emir, as King Idris, proclaimed the independence of the Federal United Kingdom of Libya. Elections were held in February 1952 and Parliament met for the first time in March that year.  Libya joined the Arab League in 1951 and the UN in 1955.In 1963 the constitution was amended to give women the right to vote and the federal system was replaced by a unitary system of government.

A new era in the history of Libya began on the 1^st of September 1969,when a group of young army officers led by Muammar al-Qaddafi, then a captain in the Libyan army ,overthrew King Idris in a bloodless military coup and proclaimed Libya an Arab Republic. As Colonel in the army and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, he acquired dictatorial powers. He nationalized most foreign petroleum assets and closed British and US military bases. After negotiations begun in 1964 between Libya,United States and Britain for the withdrawal of the troops and closing of the air bases, the last contingents of British and US troops left in 1970.Qaddafi used Libya’s vast wealth to support the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)and other revolutionary groups from the Provisional Irish Republican Army to Muslim separatists in Thailand and the Philippines. His ambition to create a single North African Arab Federation from Egypt to Morocco remained unrealized.

In Libya, Qaddafi launched a cultural and social revolution that blended Islam with Arab nationalism and aspects of welfare state. Large sums were spent on improving roads, schools and housing and in 1977 he instituted the so called jamahiriyah (state of the

masses).In 1979 Qaddafi gave up all formal posts in the administration but remained Libya’s unquestioned leader. By the mid 1980s, Qaddafi was widely regarded in the West as a financier of international terrorism and became the target of military and diplomatic campaigns.

In 1986,in retaliation for Libya’s alleged involvement in terrorist acts against US nationals ,President Ronald Reagan authorized the bombing of the Aziziyal barracks in Tripoli ,injuring Qaddafi and killing his infant daughter. Western intelligence agencies blamed Qaddafi and Libya for the bombing of the US airliner that blew up over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988.In October 1993 Qaddafi successfully opposed an attempt by 2,000 members of the army to overthrow him. UN imposed sanctions against Libya in April 1996, after which Qaddafi agreed to surrender two men suspected of carrying out the Lockerbie bombing for trial. The trial held in a specially established Scottish court in the Netherlands found one of the agents, Abdul Baset al-Megrahi guilty in January 2001.

With the uprisings in the neighbouring states of Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries such as Yemen, Syria and Bahrain now popularly known as the Arab awakening the people of Libya revolted against the dictatorial rule of Qaddafi and his family members.

Qaddafi is supposed to have fled to Algeria and the rebels have taken over control of Libya although sporadic fighting between the rebels and troops loyal to Qaddafi is still going on in Libya, but it is a matter of time before the entirety of Libya succumbs to people’s power.

When a dictator saps the county’s resources to amass wealth for himself, his family members and allies for their personal comfort and luxurious living whilst the people are suffering without the basic amenities in life it is inevitable that such leaders would one day meet the fate that befell Qaddafi. Those who choose to ride tigers should be careful not to become their prey as quoted at the beginning of this piece.

Lakshman Keerthisinghe, LL.B., LL.M. is an Attorney-at-Law and a former senior consultant in the Law Reform Project funded by the UNDP for the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka