Italy and Libya

Undoing the damage

What Italy hopes to gain by making amends to a former colony

AFTER years of awkward negotiation, Italy and Libya may be ready to settle the legacy of the short, but harsh, Italian colonial venture in north Africa, which the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini liked to call his country's “fourth shore”.

On July 24th Saif al-Islam, the influential son of Libya's leader, Muammar Qaddafi, announced the imminent signing of a deal to compensate Libyans for 32 years of Italian colonial rule. “Billions” (he did not say of what) would be spent on, among other things, a longed-for coastal motorway. Italian diplomats tried hastily to curb expectations, but their caution was brushed aside by the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who said he hoped to finalise an accord by the end of August.

Like all former colonial relationships, that between Italy and Libya is delicate yet intimate. Italy is Libya's biggest trading partner, but its colonial record is still fiercely resented. Tens of thousands of Libyans died in concentration camps set up to stifle a revolt against Italian rule that lasted 23 years. In 1970 Colonel Qaddafi expelled 20,000 Italians, who insist it is they, not Libyans, who deserve compensation. Recently links have been further bedevilled by clandestine migration. Most migrants arriving on Italy's islands, particularly Lampedusa, leave Libyan ports.

Clamping down on illegal immigration is a priority for Mr Berlusconi, which explains his anxiety to close a deal that escaped the previous centre-left government in November. He has personally handled the talks with the Libyan leader.

Those who cast off from Libya, usually aboard perilously vulnerable inflatable boats, constitute only a small percentage of illegal entrants. But on arrival they make a far bigger impact than those who slip across Italy's land borders or overstay their visas. Every time a party of wretched Africans is filmed landing ashore, it shows the public that illegal migrants are still coming. Last December Italy's former government signed a deal with Libya on curbing migration, but Libya has not implemented it. On July 25th Italy declared a national state of emergency in response to a sharp rise in the number of landings on Lampedusa. A deal with Libya could be presented as a big step towards resolving the crisis.

But it would leave at least two questions. One is whether Libya would, or could, stem the flow. It has more than 1,700km of coastline. Italy did a deal with Albania in 1998 that virtually halted clandestine migration. But that involved deploying Italian law-enforcement agents on the other side of the Adriatic to an extent Libya would be unlikely to countenance.

The other question is whether a deal would be seen by Italians as worth compensating an oil-rich country for. Unlike the British and French, Italians rarely agonise over their colonial past. Criticism of it barely figures in schoolbooks. In 1981 Libyan petrodollars funded a film on the resistance to Italian rule. “Lion of the Desert” had an all-star cast including Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed. The government imposed a ban, saying it was “damaging” to the army's honour. Hardly any Italians have seen it since.