| Native name | ليبياLībiyā |
|---|
| Conventional long name | Libya |
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| Common name | Libya |
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| Official languages | Arabic |
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| Languages type | Spoken languages |
|---|
| Languages | Arabic, Berber |
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| Demonym | Libyan |
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| Capital | Tripoli |
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| Largest city | capital |
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| Government type | Disputed(See below) |
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| Area rank | 17th |
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| Area magnitude | 1 E12 |
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| Area km2 | 1,759,541 |
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| Area sq mi | 679,359 |
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| Percent water | Negligible surface water, reservoirs of water underground. |
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| Population estimate | 6,420,000 |
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| Population estimate year | 2010 |
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| Population census | 5,670,688 |
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| Population census year | 2006 |
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| Population estimate rank | 105th |
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| Population density km2 | 3.6 |
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| Population density sq mi | 9.4 |
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| Population density rank | 218th |
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| Gdp ppp year | 2010 |
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| Gdp ppp | $90.571 billion |
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| Gdp ppp per capita | $13,804 |
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| Hdi rank | 53rd |
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| Hdi category | high |
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| Sovereignty type | Independence |
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| Established event1 | Relinquished by Italy |
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| Established date1 | 10 February 1947 |
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| Established event2 | From United Kingdom & France under United Nations Trusteeship |
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| Established date2 | 24 December 1951 |
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| Established date2 | 24 December 1951 |
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| Currency | Dinar |
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| Currency code | LYD |
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| Country code | ly |
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| Time zone | EET |
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| Utc offset | +2 |
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| Drives on | right |
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| Cctld | .ly |
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| Calling code | 218 |
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Libya ( ; Tamazight: ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ) is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya faces Egypt to the east, Sudan to the south east, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.
As a result of the 2011 Libyan civil war, there are currently two entities claiming to be the official government of Libya. The Tripoli-based government of Muammar Gaddafi refers to the Libyan state as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. It controls most of the western half of the country. The Benghazi-based Transitional National Council refers to the Libyan state as the Libyan Republic. It is led by Mustafa Abdul Jalil and controls most of the eastern half of the country.
With an area of almost , Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The capital, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. Libya has the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa as of 2009, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. These are largely due to its large petroleum reserves and low population. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production.
Name
The name
Libya (;
;
Libyan Arabic:
Lībya ,
Egyptian:
,
Punic:
lby,
Libúē, ) originally derives from the
Libu tribesmen (
Líbues, ). The land of the Libu was (
Libúē) and (
Libúā) in the
Attic and
Doric dialects respectively, entering Latin as
Libya. In
Classical Greece the term had a broader meaning, encompassing all the continent that later (2nd century BC) came to be known as
Africa, in antiquity assumed to make up one third of the world's landmass, besides Europe and Asia.
During the Islamic Middle Ages, Ibn Khaldun recorded that the Libu were known as the Lawata.
The name Libya was resuscitated in 1903 by the Italian geographer Federico Minutilli, who in 1903 used it as first in today's meaning in his work "Bibliografia della Libia", and later adopted by the Italian government in its "Regio Decreto di Annessione" (Royal Decree of Annexation) of the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica dating November 5, 1911. Following a coup d'état in 1969, the name of the state was changed to the Libyan Arab Republic ( ).
In 1977 the title of the state was changed to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ( ). Jamahiriya () is an Arabic term generally translated as "state of the masses". The term, a neologism coined by Muammar Gaddafi, is intended to be a generic term describing a type of state: a "republic ruled by the masses" or "people's republic". Within the United Nations and the Olympic movement, Libya is known as the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
The National Transitional Council established in 2011 refers to the state as the Libyan Republic
Rock paintings and carvings at Wadi Mathendous and the mountainous region of Jebel Acacus are the best sources of information about prehistoric Libya, and the pastoralist culture that settled there. The paintings reveal that the Libyan Sahara contained rivers, grassy plateaus and an abundance of wildlife such as giraffes, elephants and crocodiles.
Pockets of the Berber populations still remain in most of modern Libya. Dispersal in Africa from the Atlantic coast to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt seems to have followed, due to climatic changes which caused increasing desertification. It is thought that the indigenous Libyan civilization of the Garamantes, based in Germa, originated from this time, or may have done so even earlier when the Sahara was still green. The Garamantes were a Saharan people of Berber origin who used an elaborate underground irrigation system, and founded a kingdom in the Fezzan area of modern-day Libya. They were probably present as tribal people in the Fezzan by 1000 BC, and were a local power in the Sahara between 500 BC and 500 AD. By the time of contact with the Phoenicians, the first of the Semitic civilisations to arrive in Libya from the East, the Lebu, Garamantes, Bebers and other tribes that lived in the Sahara were already well established.
Phoenician and Greek colonial era
The Phoenicians were the first to establish trading posts in Libya, when the merchants of
Tyre (in present-day
Lebanon) developed commercial relations with the
Berber tribes and made treaties with them to ensure their cooperation in the exploitation of raw materials. By the 5th century BCE, the greatest of the Phoenician colonies,
Carthage, had extended its
hegemony across much of North Africa, where a distinctive civilization, known as
Punic, came into being. Punic settlements on the Libyan coast included Oea (later Tripoli), Libdah (later
Leptis Magna) and
Sabratha. These cities were in an area that was later called
Tripolis, or "Three Cities", from which Libya's modern capital Tripoli takes its name.
In 630 BC, the Ancient Greeks colonized Eastern Libya and founded the city of Cyrene. Within 200 years, four more important Greek cities were established in the area that became known as Cyrenaica: Barce (later Al Marj); Euhesperides (later Berenice, present-day Benghazi); Taucheira (later Arsinoe, present-day Tukrah); and Apollonia (later Susah), the port of Cyrene. Together with Cyrene, they were known as the Pentapolis (Five Cities). Cyrene became one of the greatest intellectual and artistic centers of the Greek world, and was famous for its medical school, learned academies, and architecture. The Greeks of the Pentapolis resisted encroachments by the Egyptians from the East, as well as by the Carthaginians from the West, but in 525 BC the Persian army of Cambyses II overran Cyrenaica, which for the next two centuries remained under Persian or Egyptian rule. Alexander the Great was greeted by the Greeks when he entered Cyrenaica in 331 BC, and Eastern Libya again fell under the control of the Greeks, this time as part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Later, a federation of the Pentapolis was formed that was customarily ruled by a king drawn from the Ptolemaic royal house.
Roman era
at
Leptis Magna. The patronage of Roman emperor Septimus Severus allowed the city to become one of the most prominent in Roman Africa.]] After the fall of
Carthage the Romans did not occupy immediately
Tripolitania (the region around Tripoli), but left it under control of the kings of
Numidia, until the coastal cities asked and obtained its protection.
Ptolemy Apion, the last Greek ruler, bequeathed Cyrenaica to Rome, which formally annexed the region in 74 BC and joined it to Crete as
a Roman province. During the
Roman civil wars Tripolitania (still not formally annexed) and Cyrenaica sustained
Pompey and
Marc Antony against respectively
Caesar and
Octavian. The Romans completed the conquest of the region under Augustus, occupying northern
Fezzan ("Fasania") with
Cornelius Balbus Minor. As part of the
Africa Nova province, Tripolitania was prosperous, and, although repopulated by Trajan with military colonies, as well as a centre for the trade of ivory and wild animals Until the 10th century the
African Romance remained in use in some Tripolitanian areas, mainly near the Tunisian border.
The decline of the Roman Empire saw the classical cities fall into ruin, a process hastened by the Vandals' destructive sweep though North Africa in the 5th century. The region's prosperity had shrunk under Vandal domination, and the old Roman political and social order, disrupted by the Vandals, could not be restored. In outlying areas neglected by the Vandals, the inhabitants had sought the protection of tribal chieftains and, having grown accustomed to their autonomy, resisted reassimilation into the imperial system.
When the Empire returned (now as East Romans) as part of Justinian's reconquests of the 6th century, efforts were made to strengthen the old cities, but it was only a last gasp before they collapsed into disuse. Cyrenaica, which had remained an outpost of the Byzantine Empire during the Vandal period, also took on the characteristics of an armed camp. Unpopular Byzantine governors imposed burdensome taxation to meet military costs, while the towns and public services—including the water system—were left to decay. Byzantine rule in Africa did prolong the Roman ideal of imperial unity there for another century and a half however, and prevented the ascendancy of the Berber nomads in the coastal region. By the beginning of the 7th century, Byzantine control over the region was weak, Berber rebellions were becoming more frequent, and there was little to oppose Muslim invasion.
Arab Islamic rule 642–1551
in
Awjila is the oldest mosque in the
Sahara.]] Tenuous
Byzantine control over Libya was restricted to a few poorly defended coastal strongholds, and as such, the
Arab horsemen who first crossed into the Pentapolis of Cyrenaica in September 642 AD encountered little resistance. Under the command of
'Amr ibn al-'As, the armies of Islam conquered
Cyrenaica, and renamed the
Pentapolis,
Barqa. An army of 40,000 Arabs, led by
Abdullah ibn Saad, the foster-brother of Caliph
Uthman, penetrated deep into Western Libya and took Tripoli from the Byzantines. From Barqa, the
Fezzan (Libya's Southern region) was conquered by
Uqba ibn Nafi in 663 and Berber resistance was overcome. During the following centuries Libya came under the rule of several Islamic dynasties, under various levels of autonomy from
Ummayad,
Abbasid and
Fatimid caliphates of the time. Arab rule was easily imposed in the coastal farming areas and on the towns, which prospered again under Arab patronage. Townsmen valued the security that permitted them to practice their commerce and trade in peace, while the
punicized farmers recognized their affinity with the Semitic Arabs to whom they looked to protect their lands. In Cyrenaica,
Monophysite adherents of the
Coptic Church had welcomed the Muslim Arabs as liberators from Byzantine oppression. The Berber tribes of the hinterland accepted Islam, however they resisted Arab political rule.
For the next several decades, Libya was under the purview of the Ummayad Caliph of Damascus until the Abbasids overthrew the Ummayads in 750, and Libya came under the rule of Baghdad. When Caliph Harun al-Rashid appointed Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab as his governor of Ifriqiya in 800, Libya enjoyed considerable local autonomy under the Aghlabid dynasty. The Aghlabids were amongst the most attentive Islamic rulers of Libya; they brought about a measure of order to the region, and restored Roman irrigation systems, which brought prosperity to the area from the agricultural surplus. By the end of the 9th century, the Shiite Fatimids controlled Western Libya from their capital in Mahdia, before they ruled the entire region from their new capital of Cairo in 972 and appointed Bologhine ibn Ziri as governor. During Fatimid rule, Tripoli thrived on the trade in slaves and gold brought from the Sudan and on the sale of wool, leather, and salt shipped from its docks to Italy in exchange for wood and iron goods. Ibn Ziri's Berber Zirid Dynasty ultimately broke away from the Shiite Fatimids, and recognised the Sunni Abbasids of Baghdad as rightful Caliphs. In retaliation, the Fatimids brought about the migration of as many as 200,000 families from two Bedouin tribes, the Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal to North Africa—this act completely altered the fabric of Libyan cities, and cemented the cultural and linguistic Arabisation of the region.
was the first Norman King to rule Tripoli when he captured it in 1146.]] After the subsequent social unrest during Zirid rule, the coast of Libya was weakened and invaded by the Normans of Sicily. It was not until 1174 that the Ayyubid Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush reconquered Tripoli from European rule with an army of Turks and Bedouins. Afterward, a viceroy from the Almohads, Muhammad ibn Abu Hafs, ruled Libya from 1207 to 1221 before the later establishment of a Tunisian Hafsid dynasty By 1565, administrative authority as regent in Tripoli was vested in a pasha appointed directly by the sultan in Constantinople. In the 1580s, the rulers of Fezzan gave their allegiance to the sultan, and although Ottoman authority was absent in Cyrenaica, a bey was stationed in Benghazi late in the next century to act as agent of the government in Tripoli. The latter conquered also Cyrenaica. The most pronounced slavery activity involved the enslavement of black Africans who were brought via trans-Saharan trade routes. Even though the slave trade was officially abolished in Tripoli in 1853, in practice it continued until the 1890s.
of the Mediterranean Squadron capturing Tripolitan Corsair during the First Barbary War, 1801]] Lacking direction from the Ottoman government, Tripoli lapsed into a period of military anarchy during which coup followed coup and few deys survived in office more than a year. One such coup was led by Turkish officer Ahmed Karamanli. Anyway, order was not recovered easily, and the revolt of the Lybian under Abd-El-Gelil and Gûma ben Khalifa lasted until the death of the latter in 1858.
Italian colonial era and World War II 1911–1951
during World War II. Beginning on 10 April 1941, the
Siege of Tobruk lasted for 240 days.]] was the leader of Libyan resistance in Cyrenaica against the Italian colonization.]] From 1912 to 1927, the territory of Libya was known as
Italian North Africa. From 1927 to 1934, the territory was split into two colonies,
Italian Cyrenaica and
Italian Tripolitania, run by Italian governors. Some 150,000 Italians settled in Libya, constituting roughly 20% of the total population.
In 1934, Italy adopted the name "Libya" (used by the Greeks for all of North Africa, except Egypt) as the official name of the colony (made up of the three provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan). Idris al-Mahdi as-Senussi (later King Idris I), Emir of Cyrenaica, led Libyan resistance to Italian occupation between the two world wars. Ilan Pappé estimates that between 1928 and 1932 the Italian military "killed half the Bedouin population (directly or through disease and starvation in camps)." Italian historian Gentile sets to about fifty thousands the number of victims of the repression.
From 1943 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British administration, while the French controlled Fezzan. In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal of some aspects of foreign control in 1947. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya.
Independence and the Kingdom of Libya 1951–1969
On November 21, 1949, the
UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before January 1, 1952. Idris represented Libya in the subsequent UN negotiations. On December 24, 1951, Libya declared its independence as the
United Kingdom of Libya, a constitutional and hereditary
monarchy under King
Idris, Libya's first and only monarch.
1951 also saw the enactment of the Libyan Constitution. The Libyan National Assembly drafted the Constitution and passed a resolution accepting it in a meeting held in the city of Benghazi on Sunday, 6th Muharram, Hegiras 1371: October 7, 1951. Mohamed Abulas’ad El-Alem, President of the National Assembly and the two Vice-Presidents of the National Assembly, Omar Faiek Shennib and Abu Baker Ahmed Abu Baker executed and submitted the Constitution to King Idris following which it was published in the Official Gazette of Libya.
The enactment of the Libyan Constitution was significant in that it was the first piece of legislation to formally entrench the rights of Libyan citizens following the post-war creation of the Libyan nation state. Following on from the intense UN debates during which Idris had argued that the creation of a single Libyan state would be of benefit to the regions of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica, the Libyan government was keen to formulate a constitution which contained many of the entrenched rights common to European and North American nation states. Thus, not creating a secular state - Article 5 proclaims Islam the religion of the State - the Libyan Constitution did formally set out rights such as equality before the law as well as equal civil and political rights, equal opportunities, and an equal responsibility for public duties and obligations, "without distinction of religion, belief, race, language, wealth, kinship or political or social opinions" (Article 11).
The discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959 and the subsequent income from petroleum sales enabled one of the world's poorest nations to establish an extremely wealthy state. Although oil drastically improved the Libyan government's finances, resentment among some factions began to build over the increased concentration of the nation's wealth in the hands of King Idris. This discontent mounted with the rise of Nasserism and Arab nationalism throughout North Africa and the Middle East, so while the continued presence of Americans, Italians and British in Libya aided in the increased levels of wealth and tourism following WWII, it was seen by some as a threat.
During this period, Britain was involved in extensive engineering projects in Libya and was also the country's biggest supplier of arms. The United States also maintained the large Wheelus Air Base in Libya.
Libya under Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi 1969–present
On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by the 27 year old army officer
Muammar Gaddafi staged a
coup d'état against King Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution. Gaddafi has since then been referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official Libyan press.
On the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad in 1973, Gaddafi delivered a "Five-Point Address". Gaddafi executed dissidents publicly and the executions were often rebroadcast on state television channels. Gaddafi employed his network of diplomats and recruits to assassinate dozens of critical refugees around the world. Amnesty International listed at least 25 assassinations between 1980 and 1987.
In 1977, Libya officially became the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Later that same year, Gaddafi ordered an artillery strike on Egypt in retaliation against Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's intent to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Sadat's forces triumphed easily in a four-day border war that came to be known as the Libyan-Egyptian War, leaving over 400 Libyans dead and Gaddafi's armored divisions in disarray.
In February 1977, Libya started delivering military supplies to Goukouni Oueddei and the People's Armed Forces in Chad. The Chadian–Libyan conflict began in earnest when Libya's support of rebel forces in northern Chad escalated into an invasion.
Hundreds of Libyans lost their lives in the war against Tanzania, when Gaddafi tried to save his friend Idi Amin. Gaddafi financed various other groups from anti-nuclear movements to Australian trade unions.
Much of the country’s income from oil, which soared in the 1970s, was spent on arms purchases and on sponsoring dozens of paramilitaries and terrorist groups around the world. By the early 2010s, in addition to attempting to assume a leadership role in the African Union, Libya was also viewed as having formed closer ties with Italy, one of its former colonial rulers, than any other country in the European Union.
2011 civil war and coalition intervention
After popular movements overturned the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt, its immediate neighbours to the west and east, Libya experienced a full-scale revolt beginning on February 17, 2011. By 20 February, the unrest had spread to Tripoli. In the early hours of 21 February 2011, Saif al-Islam Muammar Al-Gaddafi, oldest son of Muammar Gaddafi, spoke on Libyan television of his fears that the country would fragment and be replaced by "15 Islamic fundamentalist emirates" if the uprising engulfed the entire state. He warned that the country's economic wealth and recent prosperity was at risk, admitted that "mistakes had been made" in quelling recent protests and announced that a constitutional convention would begin on 23 February. Shortly after this speech, the Libyan Ambassador to India announced on BBC Radio 5 live that he had resigned in protest at the "massacre" of protesters.
Gaddafi appeared on Libyan state TV to deny the rumors that he had fled Libya, which had been voiced by the United Kingdom's foreign minister, William Hague. Gaddafi said, "I want to show that I'm in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Do not believe the (TV) channels belonging to stray dogs." His government has also portrayed the recent rebellion as being engineered by Western elements and Israel, and has been suspected of manipulating the Libyan news media through planted reports in newspapers and television. Two Libyan Air Force colonels flew their Mirage F1D jets to Malta and defected, claiming they refused orders to bomb protesters. The military of Russia claims it cannot verify a single airstrike against protesters has taken place since the unrest began.
As of early March 2011, much of Libya has tipped out of Gaddafi's control, coming under the aegis of a coalition of opposition forces, including soldiers who decided to support the rebels. Pro-Gaddafi forces have been able to militarily respond to rebel pushes in Western Libya and launched a counterattack on the strategic coastal towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega. The town of Zawiyah, 30 miles from Tripoli, was bombarded by planes and tanks and seized by pro-Gaddafi troops, "exercising a level of brutality not yet seen in the conflict." Eastern Libya, centered on the second city and vital port of Benghazi, is said to be firmly in the hands of the opposition, while Tripoli and its environs remain in dispute.
However, in several public appearances, Gaddafi has threatened to destroy the protest movement, and Al Jazeera and other agencies have reported his government is arming pro-Gaddafi militiamen to kill protesters and defectors against the regime in Tripoli. Organs of the United Nations, including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Human Rights Council, have condemned the crackdown as violating international law, with the latter body expelling Libya outright in an unprecedented action urged by Libya's own delegation to the UN. The United States imposed economic sanctions against Libya, followed shortly by Australia, Canada and the United Nations Security Council, which also voted to refer Gaddafi and other government officials to the International Criminal Court for investigation.
On 26 February 2011, the National Transitional Council was established under the stewardship of Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Gaddafi's former justice minister, to administer the areas of Libya under rebel control. This marked the first serious effort to organize the broad-based opposition to the Gaddafi regime. While the council is presently based in Benghazi, it claims Tripoli as its capital. Hafiz Ghoga, a human rights lawyer, later assumed the role of spokesman for the council. On 10 March 2011 , France became the first state to recognise the National Libyan Council as the country's legitimate government.
On 17 March 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 with a 10–0 vote and five abstentions. Resolution 1973 sanctioned the establishment a no-fly zone and the use of "all means necessary" to protect civilians within Libya.
Shortly afterwards, Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa stated that "Libya has decided an immediate ceasefire and an immediate halt to all military operations". However, attacks against insurgent strongholds appear to have continued despite this claim.
On Saturday 19 March 2011, the first Allied act to secure the no-fly zone began when French military jets entered Libyan airspace on a reconnaissance mission heralding attacks on enemy targets. Allied military action to enforce the ceasefire commenced the same day when a French aircraft opened fire and destroyed an enemy vehicle on the ground. French jets also destroyed five enemy tanks belonging to the Gaddafi regime. The United States and United Kingdom launched attacks on over 20 "integrated air defense systems" using more than 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles during operations Odyssey Dawn and Ellamy.
Geography
area. Annual rainfall averages at between 400 and 600 millimetres (15.7 and 23.6 inches).]] Libya extends over , making it the
17th largest nation in the world by size. Libya is somewhat smaller than
Indonesia in land area, and roughly the size of the US state of
Alaska. It is bound to the north by the
Mediterranean Sea, the west by
Tunisia and
Algeria, the southwest by
Niger, the south by
Chad and
Sudan and to the east by
Egypt. Libya lies between latitudes
19° and
34°N, and longitudes
9° and
26°E.
At , Libya's coastline is the longest of any African country bordering the Mediterranean. The portion of the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya is often called the Libyan Sea. The climate is mostly dry and desertlike in nature. However, the northern regions enjoy a milder Mediterranean climate.
Natural hazards come in the form of hot, dry, dust-laden sirocco (known in Libya as the gibli). This is a southern wind blowing from one to four days in spring and autumn. There are also dust storms and sandstorms. Oases can also be found scattered throughout Libya, the most important of which are Ghadames and Kufra.
Libyan Desert
The
Libyan Desert, which covers much of Libya, is one of the most arid places on earth. There is a large
depression, the
Qattara Depression, just to the south of the northernmost scarp, with
Siwa Oasis at its western extremity. The depression continues in a shallower form west, to the
oases of
Jaghbub and
Jalo.
Likewise, the temperature in the Libyan desert can be extreme; on September 13, 1922 the town of Al 'Aziziyah, which is located southwest of Tripoli, recorded an air temperature of , generally accepted as the highest recorded naturally occurring air temperature reached on Earth.
There are a few scattered uninhabited small oases, usually linked to the major depressions, where water can be found by digging to a few feet in depth. In the west there is a widely dispersed group of oases in unconnected shallow depressions, the Kufra group, consisting of Tazerbo, Rebianae and Kufra. The country is also home to the Arkenu craters, double impact craters found in the desert.
Government and politics
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
There are two branches of government in the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The "revolutionary sector" comprises Revolutionary Leader Gaddafi, the Revolutionary Committees and the remaining members of the 12-person
Revolutionary Command Council, which was established in 1969. The historical revolutionary leadership is not elected and cannot be voted out of office; they are in power by virtue of their involvement in the revolution.
The second sector, the Jamahiriya sector, comprises Basic People's Congresses in each of the 1,500 urban wards, 32 Sha'biyat People's Congresses for the regions, and the National General People's Congress. These legislative bodies are represented by corresponding executive bodies (Local People's Committees, Sha'biyat People's Committees and the National General People's Committee/Cabinet).
Every four years, the membership of the Basic People's Congresses elects their own leaders and the secretaries for the People's Committees, sometimes after many debates and a critical vote. The leadership of the Local People's Congress represents the local congress at the People's Congress of the next level. The members of the National General People's Congress elect the members of the National General People's Committee (the Cabinet) at their annual meeting.
The government controls both state-run and semi-autonomous media. In cases involving a violation of "certain taboos", the private press, like The Tripoli Post has been censored, although articles that are critical of policies have been requested and intentionally published by the revolutionary leadership itself as a means of initiating reforms.
Libya is the most censored country in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Freedom of the Press Index.
Political parties were banned by the 1972 Prohibition of Party Politics Act Number 71. According to the Association Act of 1971, the establishment of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is allowed. However, because they are required to conform to the goals of the revolution, their numbers are small in comparison with those in neighbouring countries. Trade unions do not exist, but numerous professional associations are integrated into the state structure as a third pillar, along with the People's Congresses and Committees. These associations do not have the right to strike. Professional associations send delegates to the General People's Congress, where they have a representative mandate.
The Libyan Army numbered 25,000 men—before the uprise—plus the same number of conscripts. Its equipment comprises weapons mainly of Soviet/Russian origin.
Libyan Republic
The
Libyan Republic is the territory governed by the self-proclaimed
Transitional National Council during the
2011 Libyan civil war. On 5 March 2011 the council declared itself to be the "sole representative of all Libya". It is currently recognized by 16 countries, including France, Qatar, Italy, Germany and Canada. It is also supported by several other Arab and European countries. The council formed an interim government on 23 March 2011 with Mahmoud Jibril as prime minister.
Foreign relations
Kingdom of Libya
Libya's foreign policies have fluctuated since 1951. As a Kingdom, Libya maintained a definitively pro-Western stance, and was recognized as belonging to the conservative traditionalist bloc in the League of Arab States (the present-day
Arab League), of which it became a member in 1953. The government was also friendly towards Western countries such as the
United Kingdom,
United States,
France,
Italy,
Greece, and established full diplomatic relations with the
Soviet Union in 1955.
Although the government supported Arab causes, including the Moroccan and Algerian independence movements, it took little active part in the Arab-Israeli dispute or the tumultuous inter-Arab politics of the 1950s and early 1960s. The Kingdom was noted for its close association with the West, while it steered a conservative course at home.
Libya under Gaddafi
After the 1969
coup,
Muammar Gaddafi closed American and British bases and partly
nationalized foreign oil and commercial interests in Libya.
On 11 June 1972, Gaddafi announced that any Arab wishing to volunteer for Palestinian armed groups "can register his name at any Libyan embassy will be given adequate training for combat". He also promised financial support for attacks.
On 7 October 1972, Gaddafi praised the Lod Airport massacre, carried out by the Japanese Red Army, and demanded Palestinian terrorist groups to carry out similar attacks.
In 1973 the Irish Naval Service intercepted the vessel Claudia in Irish territorial waters, which carried Soviet arms from Libya to the Provisional IRA. In 1976 after a series of terror attacks by the Provisional IRA, Gaddafi announced that "the bombs which are convulsing Britain and breaking its spirit are the bombs of Libyan people. We have sent them to the Irish revolutionaries so that the British will pay the price for their past deeds". Gaddafi was not alone – the Soviet Union armed Amin and East German Stasi agents came to build Amin's repression machinery. Gaddafi shipped troops to fight against Tanzania on behalf of Idi Amin. About 600 Libyan soldiers lost their lives attempting to defend the collapsing presidency of Amin, during which Amin's government killed hundreds of thousands of Ugandans.
Gaddafi aided Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the Emperor of the Central African Empire.
Together with Moscow and Fidel Castro, Gaddafi supported Soviet protege Haile Mariam Mengistu,
Neighboring Arab countries and the United States became concerned of Gaddafi's policies, and they made a deal to increase in military credits and training.
In April 1984, Libyan refugees in London protested against execution of two dissidents. Libyan diplomats shot at 11 people and killed a British policewoman. The incident led to the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Libya for over a decade.
Gaddafi asserted in June 1984 that he wanted his agents to assassinate dissident refugees even when they were on pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca. In August 1984, one Libyan plot in Mecca was thwarted by Saudi Arabian police.
After December 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, which killed 19 and wounded around 140, Gaddafi indicated that he would continue to support the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army as long as European countries support anti-Gaddafi Libyans. The Foreign Minister of Libya also called the massacres "heroic acts".
In 1986 Libyan state television announced that Libya was training suicide squads to attack American and European interests.
Gaddafi claimed the Gulf of Sidra as his territorial water and his navy was involved in a conflict from January to March 1986.
On 5 April 1986, Libyan agents bombed "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin, killing three people and injuring 229 people who were spending the evening there. Gaddafi's plan was intercepted by Western intelligence. More detailed information was retrieved years later when Stasi archives were investigated by the reunited Germany. Libyan agents who had carried out the operation from the Libyan embassy in East Germany were prosecuted by reunited Germany in the 1990s.
Germany and the United States learned that the bombing in West Berlin had been ordered from Tripoli. On 14 April 1986, the United States carried out Operation El Dorado Canyon against Gaddafi and members of his regime. Air defenses, three army bases, and two airfields in Tripoli and Benghazi were bombed. The surgical strikes failed to kill Gaddafi but he lost a few dozen military officers.
Gaddafi announced that he had won a spectacular military victory over the United States and the country was officially renamed the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah".
Gaddafi fueled paramilitaries in the Oceania. He attempted to radicalized New Zealand's Maoris.
In late 1987 French authorities stopped a merchant vessel, the MV Eksund, which was delivering a 150 ton Libyan arms shipment to European terrorist groups.
In 1991, two Libyan intelligence agents were indicted by prosecutors in the United States and United Kingdom for their involvement in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Six other Libyans were put on trial in absentia for the 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 over Chad and Niger. The UN Security Council demanded that Libya surrender the suspects, cooperate with the Pan Am 103 and UTA 772 investigations, pay compensation to the victims' families, and cease all support for terrorism. Libya's refusal to comply led to the approval of Security Council Resolution 748 on March 31, 1992, imposing international sanctions on the state designed to bring about Libyan compliance. Continued Libyan defiance led to further sanctions by the UN against Libya in November 1993.
Gaddafi trained and supported Charles Taylor, who was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone.
Libya had close ties with Slobodan Milošević's regime. Gaddafi aligned himself with the Orthodox Serbs against Bosnia's Muslims and Kosovo's Albanians. Gaddafi supported Milošević even when Milošević was charged with large-scale ethnic cleansing against Albanians in Kosovo.
In 1999, less than a decade after the sanctions were put in place, Libya began to make dramatic policy changes in regard to the Western world, including turning over the Lockerbie suspects for trial. This diplomatic breakthrough followed years of negotiation, including a visit by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to Libya in December 1998, and personal appeals by Nelson Mandela. Eventually UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook persuaded the Americans to accept a trial of the suspects in the Netherlands under Scottish law, with the UN Security Council agreeing to suspend sanctions as soon as the suspects arrived in the Netherlands for trial. The decision was welcomed by many western nations and was seen as an important step toward Libya rejoining the international community. Since 2003 the country has made efforts to normalize its ties with the European Union and the United States and has even coined the catchphrase, 'The Libya Model', an example intended to show the world what can be achieved through negotiation, rather than force, when there is goodwill on both sides. By 2004 George W. Bush had lifted the economic sanctions and official relations resumed with the United States. Libya opened a liaison office in Washington, and the United States opened an office in Tripoli. In January 2004, Congressman Tom Lantos led the first official Congressional delegation visit to Libya.
Libya has supported Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir despite charges of a genocide in Darfur.
The release, in 2007, of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who had been held since 1999, charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV, was seen as marking a new stage in Libyan-Western relations.
The United States removed Gaddafi's regime, after 27 years, from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.
On October 16, 2007, Libya was elected to serve on the United Nations Security Council for two years starting in January 2008. In February 2009, Gaddafi was selected to be chairman of the African Union for one year.
In 2009 the United Kingdom and Libya signed a prisoner-exchange agreement and then Libya requested the transfer of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, who finally returned home in August 2009. Hillary Clinton with Libyan National Security Adviser Moatessem-Billal al-Gaddafi in 2009]]
As of October 25, 2009, Canadian visa requests were being denied and Canadian travelers were told they were not welcome in Libya, in an apparent reprisal for Canada's near tongue-lashing of Gaddafi. Specifically, Harper's government was planning to publicly criticize Gadhafi for praising the convicted Lockerbie bomber.
Libyan-Swiss relations strongly suffered after the arrest of Hannibal Gadhafi for beating up his domestic servants in Geneva in 2008. In response, Gaddafi removed all his money held in Swiss banks and asked the United Nations to vote to abolish Switzerland as a sovereign nation.
Libya still provides bounties for heads of refugees who have criticized Gaddafi, including 1 million dollars for Ashur Shamis, a Libyan-British journalist.
Cooperation with Italy
On August 30, 2008, Gaddafi and
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in
Benghazi. Under its terms, Italy will pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former
military occupation. In exchange, Libya will take measures to combat
illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies. The treaty was ratified by Italy on February 6, 2009, In June Gaddafi made his first visit to
Rome, where he met Prime Minister Berlusconi,
President Giorgio Napolitano,
Senate President Renato Schifani, and
Chamber President Gianfranco Fini, among others. and many protests were staged throughout Italy by human rights organizations and the
Italian Radicals. Gaddafi also took part in the
35th G8 summit in
L'Aquila in July 2009 as
Chairman of the African Union.
On 4 April 2011, Italy formally switched its diplomatic recognition of the Libyan government from the Tripoli-based jamahiriya to the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council.
Human rights
According to the
US Department of State’s annual
human rights report for 2007, Libya’s
authoritarian regime continued to have a poor record in the area of human rights. Some of the numerous and serious abuses on the part of the government include poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and prisoners held incommunicado, and
political prisoners held for many years without charge or trial. The judiciary is controlled by the government, and there is no right to a fair public trial. Libyans do not have the right to change their government.
Freedom of speech,
press,
assembly,
association, and
religion are restricted. Independent human rights organizations are prohibited. Ethnic and tribal minorities suffer discrimination, and the state continues to restrict the
labor rights of foreign jobs.
In 2005 Freedom House rated both political rights and civil liberties in Libya as "7" (1 representing the most free and 7 the least free rating), and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free".
In May, 2010, Libya was elected by the UN General Assembly to a three-year term on the UN's Human Rights Council. It was suspended from the Human Rights Council in March, 2011.
Libya's human rights record was put in the spotlight in February 2011, due to the government's violent response to pro-democracy protesters, which killed hundreds of demonstrators.
Administrative divisions and cities
Historically the area of Libya was considered three provinces (or states), Tripolitania in the northwest, Barka (Cyrenaica) in the east, and Fezzan in the southwest. It was the conquest by Italy in the Italo-Turkish War that united them in a single political unit. Under the Italians Libya, in 1934, was divided into four provinces and one territory (in the south): Tripoli, Misrata, Benghazi, Al Bayda, and the Territory of the Libyan Sahara.
After independence, Libya was divided into three governorates (muhafazat) and then in 1963 into ten governorates. The governorates were legally abolished in February 1975, and nine "control bureaus" were set up to deal directly with the nine areas, respectively: education, health, housing, social services, labor, agricultural services, communications, financial services, and economy, each under their own ministry. However, the courts and some other agencies continued to operate as if the governorate structure were still in place. In 1995, Libya was divided into thirteen districts (shabiyah), in 1998 into twenty-six districts, and in 2001 into thirty-two districts. These were then further rearranged into twenty-two districts in 2007:
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right" |- ! Arabic ! Transliteration ! Pop (2006) ! Land area (km2) ! Number |- | style="text-align:center;"| البطنان || style="text-align:center;"| Al Butnan ||align="right"| 159,536 || |83,860 || 1 |- | style="text-align:center;"| درنة || style="text-align:center;"| Darnah ||align="right"| 163,351 || |19,630 || 2 |- | style="text-align:center;"| الجبل الاخضر || style="text-align:center;"| Al Jabal al Akhdar ||align="right"| 206,180 || |7,800 || 3 |- | style="text-align:center;"| المرج || style="text-align:center;"| Al Marj ||align="right"| 185,848 || |10,000 || 4 |- | style="text-align:center;"| بنغازي || style="text-align:center;"| Benghazi ||align="right"| 670,797 || |43,535 || 5 |- | style="text-align:center;"| الواحات || style="text-align:center;"| Al Wahat ||align="right"| 177,047 || | || 6 |- | style="text-align:center;"| الكفرة || style="text-align:center;"| Al Kufrah ||align="right"| 50,104 || |483,510 || 7 |- | style="text-align:center;"| سرت || style="text-align:center;"| Sirt/Surt||align="right"| 141,378 || |77,660 || 8 |- | style="text-align:center;"| مرزق || style="text-align:center;"| Murzuq ||align="right"| 78,621 || |349,790 || 22 |- | style="text-align:center;"| سبها || style="text-align:center;"| Sabha ||align="right"| 134,162 || |15,330 || 19 |- | style="text-align:center;"| وادي الحياة || style="text-align:center;"| Wadi Al Hayaa ||align="right"| 76,858 || |31,890 || 20 |- | style="text-align:center;"| مصراتة || style="text-align:center;"| Misrata ||align="right"| 550,938 || | || 9 |- | style="text-align:center;"| المرقب || style="text-align:center;"| Al Murgub ||align="right"| 432,202 || | || 10 |- | style="text-align:center;"| طرابلس || style="text-align:center;"| Tarabulus ||align="right"| 1,065,405 || | || 11 |- | style="text-align:center;"| الجفارة || style="text-align:center;"| Al Jfara ||align="right"| 453,198 || |1,940 || 12 |- | style="text-align:center;"| الزاوية || style="text-align:center;"| Az Zawiyah ||align="right"| 290,993 || |2,890 || 13 |- | style="text-align:center;"| النقاط الخمس || style="text-align:center;"| An Nuqat al Khams ||align="right"| 287,662 || |5,250 ||14 |- | style="text-align:center;"|الجبل الغربي || style="text-align:center;"| Al Jabal al Gharbi ||align="right"| 304,159 || | || 15 |- | style="text-align:center;"| نالوت || style="text-align:center;"| Nalut ||align="right"| 93,224 || | || 16 |- | style="text-align:center;"| غات || style="text-align:center;"| Ghat ||align="right"| 23,518 || |72,700 || 21 |- | style="text-align:center;"| الجفرة || style="text-align:center;"| Al Jufrah ||align="right"| 52,342 || |117,410 || 17 |- | style="text-align:center;"| وادي الشاطئ || style="text-align:center;"| Wadi Al Shatii ||align="right"| 78,532 || |97,160 || 18 |}
Libyan districts are further subdivided into Basic People's Congresses which act as townships or boroughs.
The following table shows the largest cities, in this case with population size being identical with the surrounding district (see above).
{| class="wikitable" |- ! No. !City ! Population(2006) In the early 1980s, Libya was one of the wealthiest countries in the world; its GDP per capita was higher than that of developed countries such as Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and New Zealand.
Today, high oil revenues and a small population give Libya one of the highest GDPs per capita in Africa and have allowed the Libyan state to provide an extensive level of social security, particularly in the fields of housing and education. Many problems still beset Libya's economy however; unemployment is the highest in the region at 21%, according to the latest census figures.
Compared to its neighbors, Libya enjoys a low level of both absolute and relative poverty. Libyan officials in the past six years have carried out economic reforms as part of a broader campaign to reintegrate the country into the global capitalist economy. This effort picked up steam after UN sanctions were lifted in September 2003, and as Libya announced in December 2003 that it would abandon programmes to build weapons of mass destruction.
Libya has begun some market-oriented reforms. Initial steps have included applying for membership of the World Trade Organization, reducing subsidies, and announcing plans for privatisation. Authorities have privatised more than 100 government owned companies since 2003 in industries including oil refining, tourism and real estate, of which 29 are 100% foreign owned. The non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for about 20% of GDP, have expanded from processing mostly agricultural products to include the production of petrochemicals, iron, steel and aluminum.
Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit agricultural output, and Libya imports about 75% of its food. The Great Manmade River project is tapping into vast underground aquifers of fresh water discovered during the quest for oil, and is intended to improve the country's agricultural output.
Under the previous Prime Minister, Shukri Ghanem, and current Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi, Libya is undergoing a business boom. Many government-run industries are being privatised. Many international oil companies have returned to the country, including oil giants Shell and ExxonMobil.
Tourism is on the rise, bringing increased demand for hotel accommodation and for capacity at airports such as Tripoli International. A multi-million dollar renovation of Libyan airports has recently been approved by the government to help meet such demands. At present 130,000 people visit the country annually; the Libyan government hopes to increase this figure to 10,000,000 tourists. However there is little evidence to suggest the current administration is taking active steps to meet this figure. Libya has long been a notoriously difficult country for western tourists to visit due to stringent visa requirements. Since the 2011 protests there has been revived hope that an open society will encourage the return of tourists. Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the second-eldest son of Muammar Gaddafi, is involved in a green development project called the Green Mountain Sustainable Development Area, which seeks to bring tourism to Cyrene and to preserve Greek ruins in the area.
Demographics
Fareed Zakaria said in 2011 that "The unusual thing about Libya is that it's a very large country with a very small population, but the population is actually concentrated very narrowly along the coast." Population density is about 50 persons per km² (130/sq. mi.) in the two northern regions of
Tripolitania and
Cyrenaica, but falls to less than one person per km² (2.6/sq. mi.) elsewhere. Ninety percent of the people live in less than 10% of the area, primarily along the coast. About 88% of the population is urban, mostly concentrated in the three largest cities,
Tripoli ,
Benghazi and
Misrata. Libya has a population of about 6.5 million, around half of whom are under the age of 15. In 1984 the population reached 3.6 million and was growing at about 4% a year, one of the highest rates in the world. The 1984 population total was an increase from the 1.54 million reported in 1964.
Native Libyans are primarily Arab or a mixture of Arab and Berber ethnicities, with a small minority of Berber-speaking tribal groups and small black African groups like Tuareg and Tebu, which are nomadic or seminomadic. Among foreign residents, the largest groups are citizens of other African nations, including North Africans (primarily Egyptians), and Sub-Saharan Africans. In 2011, there were also an estimated 60,000 Bangladeshis, 30,000 Chinese and 30,000 Filipinos in Libya. Libya is home to a large illegal population which numbers more than one million, mostly Egyptians and Sub-Saharan Africans. Libya has a small Italian minority. Previously, there was a visible presence of Italian settlers, but many left after independence in 1947 and many more left in 1970 after the accession of Muammar Gaddafi.
The main language spoken in Libya is Arabic (Libyan dialect) by 95% of the Libyans, and Modern Standard Arabic is also the official language; the Berber languages spoken by 5% (i.e. Berber and Tuareg languages), which do not have official status, are spoken by Berbers and Tuaregs in the south part of the country beside Arabic language. Berber speakers live above all in the Jebel Nafusa region (Tripolitania), the town of Zuwarah on the coast, and the city-oases of Ghadames, Ghat and Awjila. In addition, Tuaregs speak Tamahaq, the only known Northern Tamasheq language, also Toubou is spoken in some pockets in Qatroun village and Koffra city. Italian and English are sometimes spoken in the big cities, although Italian speakers are mainly among the older generation.
There are about 140 tribes and clans in Libya. Family life is important for Libyan families, the majority of which live in apartment blocks and other independent housing units, with precise modes of housing depending on their income and wealth. Although the Libyan Arabs traditionally lived nomadic lifestyles in tents, they have now settled in various towns and cities. Because of this, their old ways of life are gradually fading out. An unknown small number of Libyans still live in the desert as their families have done for centuries. Most of the population has occupations in industry and services, and a small percentage is in agriculture.
According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Libya hosted a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 16,000 in 2007. Of this group, approximately 9,000 persons were from the Former Palestine, 3,200 from Sudan, 2,500 from Somalia and 1,100 from Iraq.
Education
Libya's population includes 1.7 million students, over 270,000 of whom study at the
tertiary level. Basic education in Libya is free for all citizens, and compulsory to
secondary level. The literacy rate is the highest in North Africa; over 82% of the population can read and write. 's first campus, founded by royal decree in 1955]]
After Libya's independence in 1951, its first university, the University of Libya, was established in Benghazi by royal decree. In academic year 1975/76 the number of university students was estimated to be 13,418. As of 2004, this number has increased to more than 200,000, with an extra 70,000 enrolled in the higher technical and vocational sector. The vast majority of Libyan Muslims adhere to Sunni Islam, which provides both a spiritual guide for individuals and a keystone for government policy, but a minority (between 5 and 10%) adhere to Ibadism (a branch of Kharijism), above all in the Jebel Nefusa and the town of Zuwarah, west of Tripoli.
Before the 1930s, the Senussi Movement was the primary Islamic movement in Libya. This was a religious revival adapted to desert life. Its zawaaya (lodges) were found in Tripolitania and Fezzan, but Senussi influence was strongest in Cyrenaica. Rescuing the region from unrest and anarchy, the Senussi movement gave the Cyrenaican tribal people a religious attachment and feelings of unity and purpose.
This Islamic movement, which was eventually destroyed by both Italian invasion and later the Gaddafi government, A Libyan form of Sufism is also common in parts of the country.
Other than the overwhelming majority of Sunni Muslims, there are also small foreign communities of Christians. Coptic Orthodox Christianity, which is the Christian Church of Egypt, is the largest and most historical Christian denomination in Libya. There are over 60,000 Egyptian Copts in Libya, as they comprise over 1% of the population. There are an estimated 40,000 Roman Catholics in Libya who are served by two Bishops, one in Tripoli (serving the Italian community) and one in Benghazi (serving the Maltese community). There is also a small Anglican community, made up mostly of African immigrant workers in Tripoli; it is part of the Anglican Diocese of Egypt.
Libya was until recent times the home of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, dating back to at least 300 BC. In 1942 the Italian Fascist authorities set up forced labour camps south of Tripoli for the Jews, including Giado (about 3,000 Jews) and Gharyan, Jeren, and Tigrinna. In Giado some 500 Jews died of weakness, hunger, and disease. In 1942, Jews who were not in the concentration camps were heavily restricted in their economic activity and all men between 18 and 45 years were drafted for forced labour. In August 1942, Jews from Tripolitania were interned in a concentration camp at Sidi Azaz. In the three years after November 1945, more than 140 Jews were murdered, and hundreds more wounded, in a series of pogroms. By 1948, about 38,000 Jews remained in the country. Upon Libya's independence in 1951, most of the Jewish community emigrated. (See History of the Jews in Libya.)
Culture
. Libya has a number of World Heritage Sites from the ancient Greek and Roman eras, which are popular tourist destinations.]] , Libya's second-largest city. With the longest
Mediterranean coastline among African nations, Libya's mostly unspoilt beaches are a social gathering place.]]
Libya is culturally similar to its neighboring Maghrebian states. Libyans consider themselves very much a part of a wider Arab community. The Libyan state tends to strengthen this feeling by considering Arabic as the only official language, and forbidding the teaching and even the use of the Berber language. Libyan Arabs have a heritage in the traditions of the nomadic Bedouin and associate themselves with a particular Bedouin tribe.
Libya boasts few theatres or art galleries. For many years there have been no public theatres, and only a few cinemas showing foreign films. The tradition of folk culture is still alive and well, with troupes performing music and dance at frequent festivals, both in Libya and abroad.
The main output of Libyan television is devoted to showing various styles of traditional Libyan music. Tuareg music and dance are popular in Ghadames and the south. Libyan television programmes are mostly in Arabic with a 30-minute news broadcast each evening in English and French. The government maintains strict control over all media outlets. A new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found Libya’s media the most tightly controlled in the Arab world.
Many Libyans frequent the country's beach and they also visit Libya's archaeological sites—especially Leptis Magna, which is widely considered to be one of the best preserved Roman archaeological sites in the world.
The nation's capital, Tripoli, boasts many museums and archives; these include the Government Library, the Ethnographic Museum, the Archaeological Museum, the National Archives, the Epigraphy Museum and the Islamic Museum. The Jamahiriya Museum, built in consultation with UNESCO, may be the country's most famous.
Contemporary travel
The most common form of public transport between cities is the bus, but many people travel by automobile. There are no railway services in Libya. In many undeveloped areas and small towns, restaurants may be nonexistent, and food stores may be the only source to obtain food products.
There are four main ingredients of traditional Libyan food: olives (and olive oil), palm dates, grains and milk. Grains are roasted, ground, sieved and used for making bread, cakes, soups and bazeen. Dates are harvested, dried and can be eaten as they are, made into syrup or slightly fried and eaten with bsisa and milk. After eating, Libyans often drink black tea. This is normally repeated a second time (for the second glass of tea), and in the third round the tea is served with roasted peanuts or roasted almonds (mixed with the tea in the same glass).[ ]
See also
Jamahiriya List of heads of government of Libya List of Libyans Transitional National Council of the Libyan Republic
Notes
References
External links
Category:African countries Category:Member states of the African Union Category:Member states of the Arab League Category:Arabic-speaking countries and territories Category:Countries of the Mediterranean Sea Category:Military dictatorship Category:Socialist states Category:Member states of OPEC Category:Member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference Category:Political engineering by coup Category:States and territories established in 1951 Category:Member states of the United Nations
