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97-464: From 1911 until the establishment of a unified colony in 1934, the territory of the two colonies was sometimes referred to as "Italian Libya" or Italian North Africa ( Africa Settentrionale Italiana , or ASI). Both names were also used after the unification, with Italian Libya becoming the official name of the newly combined colony. It had a population of around 150,000 Italians . The Italian colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were taken by Italy from

194-524: A war of aggression , or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances. Because the definition of a state of "war" may be debated, the term "war crime" itself has seen different usage under different systems of international and military law. It has some degree of application outside of what some may consider being a state of "war", but in areas where conflicts persist enough to constitute social instability. The legalities of war have sometimes been accused of containing favoritism toward

291-670: A Semitic people, distantly related to the Arabs and Jews). Of special interest were the Roman colonies of Leptis Magna and Sabratha , and the preparation of these sites for archaeological tourism . Tourism was further promoted by the creation of the Tripoli Grand Prix , a racing car event of international importance. After independence, most Italian settlers still remained in Libya; there were 35,000 Italo-Libyans in 1962. However,

388-739: A broad land bridge between Libya and Italian East Africa . During World War II , there was strong support for Italy from many Muslim Libyans, who enrolled in the Italian Army . Other Libyan troops (the Savari [cavalry regiments] and the Spahi or mounted police) had been fighting for the Kingdom of Italy since the 1920s. A number of major battles took place in Libya during the North African Campaign of World War II. In September 1940,

485-421: A decree law transformed the commissariats into provinces within the metropolitan territory of the Kingdom of Italy. Libya was thus formally annexed to Italy and the coastal area was nicknamed the " Fourth Shore " ( Quarta Sponda ). Key towns and wards of the colony became Italian municipalities ( comune ) governed by a podestà . In 1939, key population figures for Italian Libya were as follows: Population of

582-523: A duty to prevent" criminal behaviour by a military force. Despite having argued that he had obeyed superior orders , von Hagenbach was convicted, condemned to death , and beheaded. The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague , Netherlands, in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among

679-602: A few hundred Italians were allowed to return to Libya between 2000 and 2010. In 2006 the Italian embassy in Tripoli calculated that there were approximately 1,000 original Libyan Italians in Libya, mostly elderly people and assimilated Muslim living in Tripoli and Benghazi. Italian heritage in Libya can be dated back to Ancient Rome , when the Romans controlled and colonized Libya for a period of more than five centuries prior to

776-563: A historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi . Under its terms, Italy would pay $ 5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation. In exchange, Libya would take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies. The treaty was ratified by Italy on 6 February 2009, and by Libya on 2 March, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi. Cooperation ended in February 2011 as

873-658: A legal basis and framework for the conduct of war under international law. Every single member state of the United Nations has currently ratified the conventions, which are universally accepted as customary international law , applicable to every situation of armed conflict in the world. The Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions adopted in 1977 containing the most pertinent, detailed and comprehensive protections of international humanitarian law for persons and objects in modern warfare are still not ratified by several states continuously engaged in armed conflicts, namely

970-480: A military objective are governed under principles such as of proportionality and military necessity and can be permissible. Military necessity "permits the destruction of life of ... persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable by the armed conflicts of the war; ... it does not permit the killing of innocent inhabitants for purposes of revenge or the satisfaction of a lust to kill. The destruction of property to be lawful must be imperatively demanded by

1067-474: A plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes". To date, the present and former heads of state and heads of government that have been charged with war crimes include: War crimes are serious violations of the rules of customary and treaty law concerning international humanitarian law , criminal offenses for which there is individual responsibility. Colloquial definitions of war crime include violations of established protections of

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1164-573: A result of the Libyan Civil War which overthrew Gaddafi. At the signing ceremony of the document, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recognized historic atrocities and repression committed by the state of Italy against the Libyan people during colonial rule, stating: " In this historic document, Italy apologizes for its killing, destruction and repression of the Libyan people during the period of colonial rule. " and went on to say that this

1261-607: A tobacco factory, tanneries, bakeries, lime, brick and cement works, Esparto grass industry, mechanical saw mills, and the Petrolibya Society (Trye 1998). Italian investment in her colony was to take advantage of new colonists and to make it more self-sufficient. (General Staff War Office 1939, 165/b). By 1939, the Italians had built 400 kilometres (250 mi) of new railroads and 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) of new roads. The most important and largest highway project

1358-529: Is a legitimate ruse of war , though fighting in combat or assassinating individuals behind enemy lines while so disguised is not, as it constitutes unlawful perfidy . Attacking enemy troops while they are being deployed by way of a parachute is not a war crime. Protocol I, Article 42 of the Geneva Conventions explicitly forbids attacking parachutists who eject from disabled aircraft and surrendering parachutists once landed. Article 30 of

1455-419: Is called scorched earth policy for the military purpose of denying the use of ground for the enemy. The German troops retreating from Finnish Lapland believed Finland would be occupied by Soviet troops and destroyed many settlements while retreating to Norway under the command of Rendulic. He overestimated the perceived risk but argued that Hague IV authorized the destruction because it was necessary to war. He

1552-472: Is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing , the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity . The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the codification of the customary international law that applied to warfare between sovereign states , such as

1649-569: Is unlawful. For aerial strikes, pilots generally have to rely on information supplied by external sources (headquarters, ground troops) that a specific position is in fact a military target. In the case of former Yugoslavia , NATO pilots hit a civilian object (the Chinese embassy in Belgrade ) that was of no military significance, but the pilots had no idea of determining it aside from their orders. The committee ruled that "the aircrew involved in

1746-431: The 1947 Paris Peace Treaty . Italian efforts to colonise Libya began in 1911, and were characterised initially by major struggles with Muslim native Libyans that lasted until 1931. During this period, the Italian government controlled only the coastal areas. Between 1911 and 1912, over 1,000 Somalis from Mogadishu , the then capital of Italian Somaliland , served in combat units along with Eritrean and Italian soldiers in

1843-624: The British and French collaborated with the small new resistance. France and the United Kingdom decided to make King Idris the Emir of an independent Libya in 1951. Libya would finally become independent in 1951. From 1943 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British military administration , while the French controlled Fezzan . Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with

1940-590: The Italian invasion of Egypt was launched from Libya. Starting in December of the same year, the British Eighth Army launched a counterattack called Operation Compass and the Italian forces were pushed back into Libya. After losing all of Cyrenaica and almost all of its Tenth Army , Italy asked for German assistance to aid the failing campaign With German support, the lost Libyan territory

2037-631: The Italo-Turkish War . Most of the Somali troops remained in Libya until they were transferred back to Italian Somaliland in preparation for the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. After the Italian Empire 's conquest of Ottoman Tripolitania (Ottoman Libya), in the 1911–12 Italo-Turkish War , much of the early colonial period had Italy waging a war of subjugation against Libya's population. Ottoman Turkey surrendered its control of Libya in

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2134-939: The Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army in the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for international war. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the war-crime trials of the leaders of the Axis powers established the Nuremberg principles of law, such as that international criminal law defines what is a war crime. In 1949, the Geneva Conventions legally defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals. In

2231-880: The Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Trials have been convened. Recent examples are the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , which were established by the UN Security Council acting under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter . Under the Nuremberg Principles , war crimes are different from crimes against peace . Crimes against peace include planning, preparing, initiating, or waging

2328-637: The Oltre Giuba and France agreed to give some Saharan territories to Italian Libya. After prolonged discussions through the 1920s, in 1935 under the Mussolini-Laval agreement Italy received the Aouzou strip , which was added to Libya. However, this agreement was not ratified later by France . In 1931, the towns of El Tag and Al Jawf were taken over by Italy. British Egypt had ceded Kufra and Jarabub to Italian Libya on December 6, 1925, but it

2425-660: The Ottoman Empire during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, and run by Italian governors. In 1923, indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order organized the Libyan resistance movement against Italian settlement in Libya, mainly in Cyrenaica. The rebellion was put down by Italian forces in 1932, after the pacification campaign , which resulted in the deaths of a quarter of Cyrenaica's population. In 1934,

2522-721: The Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt spelled doom for the Axis forces in Libya and meant the end of the Western Desert Campaign . In February 1943, retreating German and Italian forces were forced to abandon Libya as they were pushed out of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, thus ending Italian jurisdiction and control over Libya. The Fezzan was occupied by the Free French in 1943. At the close of World War II ,

2619-645: The U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1820 , which noted that "rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide"; see also wartime sexual violence . In 2016, the International Criminal Court convicted someone of sexual violence for the first time; specifically, they added rape to a war crimes conviction of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo . War crimes also included deliberate attacks on citizens and property of neutral states , such as

2716-705: The United Kingdom of Libya , a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. 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). The colony was subdivided into four provincial governatores ( Commissariato Generale Provinciale ) and a southern military territory ( Territorio Militare del Sud or Territorio del Sahara Libico ): The general provincial commissionerships were further divided into wards ( circondari ). On 9 January 1939,

2813-587: The laws of war , but also include failures to adhere to norms of procedure and rules of battle, such as attacking those displaying a peaceful flag of truce , or using that same flag as a ruse to mount an attack on enemy troops. The use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare are also prohibited by numerous chemical arms control agreements and the Biological Weapons Convention . Wearing enemy uniforms or civilian clothes to infiltrate enemy lines for espionage or sabotage missions

2910-761: The "Lieber Code." A small number of German military personnel of the First World War were tried in 1921 by the German Supreme Court for alleged war crimes. The modern concept of war crime was further developed under the auspices of the Nuremberg trials based on the definition in the London Charter that was published on August 8, 1945 (see Nuremberg principles ). Along with war crimes the charter also defined crimes against peace and crimes against humanity , which are often committed during wars and in concert with war crimes. Also known as

3007-698: The 1907 Hague Convention IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land explicitly forbids belligerents to punish enemy spies without previous trial . The rule of war, also known as the Law of Armed Conflict , permits belligerents to engage in combat. A war crime occurs when superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering is inflicted upon an enemy. War crimes also include such acts as mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians . War crimes are sometimes part of instances of mass murder and genocide though these crimes are more broadly covered under international humanitarian law described as crimes against humanity . In 2008,

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3104-770: The 1912 Treaty of Lausanne , but fierce resistance to the Italians continued from the Senussi political-religious order, a strongly nationalistic group of Sunni Muslims . This group, first under the leadership of Omar Al Mukhtar and centered in the Jebel Akhdar Mountains of Cyrenaica, led the Libyan resistance movement against Italian settlement in Libya. Italian forces under Generals Pietro Badoglio and Rodolfo Graziani waged punitive pacification campaigns using chemical weapons , mass executions of soldiers and civilians and concentration camps . One-quarter of Cyrenaica's population of 225,000 people died during

3201-439: The 1st and 2nd Libyan Divisions were formed. These Libyan infantry divisions were organized along the lines of the binary Italian infantry division. The 5th Italian Army received the 2nd Libyan Infantry Division, which it incorporated into the 13th Corps. The Italian 10th Army received the 1st Libyan Infantry Division, which it incorporated into the reserve. The Italian Libyan infantry divisions were colonial formations ("colonial" in

3298-578: The Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya. There were discussions to maintain the province of Tripolitania as the last Italian colony, but these were not successful. Although Britain and France had intended to divide the nation between their empires, on November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before January 1, 1952. On December 24, 1951, Libya declared its independence as

3395-585: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, who considered the area worthless and so an act of cheap appeasement to Benito Mussolini 's attempts at an empire . During this time, the Italian colonial forces built a World War I –style fort in El Tag in the mid-1930s. In 1939 some Libyans were granted special (though limited) Italian citizenship by Royal Decree No. 70 on 9 January 1939. This citizenship was necessary for any Libyan with ambitions to rise in

3492-642: The Blitz as well as the indiscriminate attacks on Allied cities with V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets , nor the Japanese for the aerial attacks on crowded Chinese cities. Controversy arose when the Allies re-designated German POWs (under the protection of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War ) as Disarmed Enemy Forces (allegedly unprotected by the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War), many of which were then used for forced labor such as clearing minefields . By December 1945, six months after

3589-518: The British colony of Sudan and a territorial agreement with Egypt . The Kufra district was nominally attached to British-occupied Egypt until 1925, but in fact, remained a headquarters for the Senussi resistance until conquered by the Italians in 1931. The Kingdom of Italy at the 1919 Paris "Conference of Peace" received nothing from German colonies, but as a compensation Great Britain gave it

3686-883: The Field (Lieber Code) was written by Franz Lieber , a German lawyer , political philosopher , and veteran of the Napoleonic Wars . Lincoln made the Code military law for all wartime conduct of the Union Army . It defined command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as stated the military responsibilities of the Union soldier fighting the Confederate States of America . The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent

3783-816: The Italian army. In March 1940, two divisions of Libyan colonial troops (for a total of 30,090 native Muslim soldiers) were created and in summer 1940 the first and second Divisions of Fanteria Libica (Libyan infantry) participated in the Italian offensive against the British Empire 's Egypt: 1st Libyan Division and 2nd Libyan Division . In 1936, the main sectors of economic activity in Italian Libya (by number of employees) were industry (30.4%), public administration (29.8%), agriculture and fishing (16.7%), commerce (10.7%), transports (5.8%), domestic work (3.8%), legal profession and private teaching (1.3%), banking and insurance (1.1%). Italians greatly developed

3880-543: The Italian colonies of Tripolitania , Cyrenaica and the Fezzan into one single country named "Libia" in Italian. Libya was considered the new "America" for the Italian emigrants in the 1930s, substituting the United States . The Italians in Libya numbered 108,419 (12.37% of the total population) at the time of the 1939 census. They were concentrated in the coast around the city of Tripoli (they constituted 37% of

3977-455: The Italian consulate in Benghazi was closed following protests after Minister Roberto Calderoli appeared on television wearing a T-shirt depicting one of the caricatures of Muhammad . The protests resulted in the deaths of 11 Libyans and the wounding of 60 others, as well as damage to the Italian consulate. According to official figures, in 2007 there were 598 Italians in Libya. Almost all

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4074-434: The Italian population virtually disappeared after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered the expulsion of remaining Italians (about 20,000) in 1970. Only a few hundred of them were allowed to return to Libya in the 2000s. In 2004, there were 22,530 Italians in Libya. Italy maintained diplomatic relations with Libya and imported a significant quantity of its oil from the country. Relations between Italy and Libya warmed in

4171-470: The Italians in Libya built a significant amount of public works (roads, railways, buildings, ports, etc.) and the Libyan economy flourished. They even created the Tripoli Grand Prix , an international motor racing event first held in 1925 on a racing circuit outside Tripoli (it lasted until 1940). Italian farmers cultivated lands that had returned to native desert for many centuries, and improved Italian Libya's agriculture to international standards (even with

4268-540: The Italians in Libya were evacuated at the start of the first Civil War in 2011, on special flights and by ship. A few Italians returned to Libya after 2012, mainly oil technicians, humanitarian workers and diplomats, but most of these left at the start of the second Civil War in 2014. There are also many descendants (probably 10,000, according to estimates of Italian historian Vidali) of Italian settlers who married Arabs and/or Berbers, and Libyans of mixed Italian and Arab/Berber blood may be considered Arabs or Berbers in

4365-425: The Italians moved to Libya during the Italian colonial period . The Italian population virtually disappeared after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered the expulsion of Italians in 1970 . After the nationalization of Italian companies, only a small number of Italians remained in Libya. On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi. Only

4462-482: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . As the attack on Pearl Harbor happened while the U.S. and Japan were at peace and without a just cause for self-defense, the attack was declared by the Tokyo Trials to go beyond justification of military necessity and therefore constituted a war crime. War crimes are significant in international humanitarian law because it is an area where international tribunals such as

4559-778: The Libyan census. At present, the Libyan Italians are organized in the Associazione Italiani Rimpatriati dalla Libia . They are involved in a struggle to have their confiscated properties returned. War crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war , torture , taking hostages , unnecessarily destroying civilian property , deception by perfidy , wartime sexual violence , pillaging , and for any individual that

4656-501: The Libyan people during the period of colonial rule. " and went on to say that this was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era". Only a few hundred Italians were allowed to return to Libya between 2000 and 2010. In 2006 the Italian embassy in Tripoli calculated that there were approximately 1,000 original Libyan Italians in Libya, mostly elderly people and assimilated Muslim living in Tripoli and Benghazi. On 16 February 2006,

4753-467: The Libyans with some initial education but minimally improved native administration. The Italian population (about 10% of the total population) had 81 elementary schools in 1939–1940, while the Libyans (more than 85% of total population) had 97. There were only three secondary schools for Libyans by 1940, two in Tripoli and one in Benghazi. The Libyan economy substantially grew in the late 1930s, mainly in

4850-736: The Tokyo Trial, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal or simply as the Tribunal, it was convened on May 3, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" (crimes against peace), "Class B" (war crimes), and "Class C" (crimes against humanity), committed during World War II . On July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court (ICC), a treaty-based court located in The Hague , came into being for

4947-462: The United Kingdom of Libya, a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The Italian population virtually disappeared after the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered the expulsion of remaining Italians (about 20,000) in 1970 . After the nationalization of Italian companies, only a small number of Italians remained in Libya. In 1986, after the political crisis between the United States and Libya,

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5044-399: The United States, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and others. Accordingly, states retain different codes and values about wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way that either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws' formalities and principles. The first three conventions have been revised and expanded, with

5141-683: The agricultural sector. Even some manufacturing activities were developed, mostly related to the food industry. Building construction increased immensely. Furthermore, the Italians made modern medical care available for the first time in Libya and improved sanitary conditions in the towns. The Italians started numerous and diverse businesses in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. These included an explosives factory, railway workshops, Fiat Motor works, various food processing plants, electrical engineering workshops, ironworks, water plants, agricultural machinery factories, breweries, distilleries, biscuit factories,

5238-478: The attack should not be assigned any responsibility for the fact they were given the wrong target and that it is inappropriate to attempt to assign criminal responsibility for the incident to senior leaders because they were provided with wrong information by officials of another agency". The report also notes that "Much of the material submitted to the OTP consisted of reports that civilians had been killed, often inviting

5335-413: The best Italian infantry formations in North Africa. The Libyan divisions were loyal to Italy and provided a good combat record. After the enlargement of Italian Libya with the Aouzou Strip , Fascist Italy aimed at further extension to the south. Indeed Italian plans, in the case of a war against France and Great Britain, projected the extension of Libya as far south as Lake Chad and the establishment of

5432-409: The campaign of reprisals known as the "pacification campaign" , the Italian government changed policy toward the local population: in December 1934, individual freedom, inviolability of home and property, the right to join the military or civil administrations, and the right to freely pursue a career or employment were promised to the Libyans. In a trip by Mussolini to Libya in 1937, a propaganda event

5529-413: The camps of Soluch and Sisi Ahmed el Magrun with an estimated 33,000 internees having only one doctor between them. Typhus and other diseases spread rapidly in the camps as the people were physically weakened by meagre food rations and forced labour . By the time the camps closed in September 1933, 40,000 of the 100,000 total internees had died in the camps. The colony expanded after concessions from

5626-581: The city's population) and Benghazi (31%). In 1938, Governor Balbo brought 20,000 Italian farmers to colonize Libya, and 26 new villages were founded for them, mainly in Cyrenaica. In 1938 20,000 Italian colonists settled in coastal Libya. Italian authorities created 26 new agricultural villages for them: Olivetti, Bianchi, Giordani, Micca, Tazzoli, Breviglieri, Marconi, Garabulli, Crispi, Corradini, Garibaldi, Littoriano, Castel Benito , Filzi, Baracca, Maddalena, Aro, Oberdan, D’Annunzio, Razza, Mameli, Battisti, Berta, Luigi di Savoia and Gioda. On 9 January 1939,

5723-436: The coast) in Libya. The construction of the railway Tripoli- Bengazi was blocked by the start of WW2 : only a few dozen kms were built between Tripoli and Misurata. In 1940 World War II broke out between Italy and Great Britain . The defeat of the Axis forces in the North African Campaigns of World War II meant Italy lost Libya to British and French control. After these Western Desert Campaign defeats in 1943, Italy

5820-447: The colonies were unified by governor Italo Balbo , with Tripoli as the capital. During World War II, Italian Libya became the setting for the North African Campaign . Although the Italians were defeated there by the Allies in 1943, many of the Italian settlers still remained in Libya. Libya was administered by the United Kingdom and France until its independence in 1951, though Italy did not officially relinquish its claim until

5917-405: The colony of Libya was incorporated into metropolitan Italy and thereafter considered an integral part of the Italian state. Libya, as the Fourth Shore , was to be part of the Imperial Italy , desired by the Italian irredentists . By 1939 the Libyan Italians had built 400 km of new railroads and 4,000 km of new roads (the largest and most important was the one from Tripoli to Tobruk, on

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6014-418: The conclusion to be drawn that crimes had therefore been committed. Collateral casualties to civilians and collateral damage to civilian objects can occur for a variety of reasons." The Rendulic Rule is a standard by which commanders are judged. German General Lothar Rendulic was charged for ordering extensive destruction of civilian buildings and lands while retreating from a suspected enemy attack in what

6111-455: The conflict. After nearly two decades of suppression campaigns the Italian colonial forces claimed victory. In the 1930s, the policy of Italian fascism toward Libya began to change, and both Italian Cyrenaica and Tripolitania , along with Fezzan , were merged into Italian Libya in 1934. In 1923, indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order organized the Libyan resistance movement against Italian settlement in Libya. The rebellion

6208-444: The course of fighting. The United Nations defines war crimes as described in Article 8 of the Rome statute , the treaty that established the International Criminal Court: Under the law of armed conflict (LOAC), the death of non-combatants is not necessarily a violation; there are many things to take into account. Civilians cannot be made the object of an attack, but the death/injury of civilians while conducting an attack on

6305-456: The creation of new farm villages). Catholicism experienced a huge growth in those years, with many new churches built for the growing Italian community: in the late 1920s the two catholic Cathedrals of Tripoli and Benghazi were built. The one in Benghazi was considered the biggest in north Africa. The governor Italo Balbo is attributed with the creation of modern Libya in 1934, when he convinced Italian leader Benito Mussolini to unite

6402-476: The end of the nineties. Only a few hundred of them were allowed to return to Libya in the 2000s. On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi. Under its terms, Italy would pay $ 5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation. In exchange, Libya would take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies. The treaty

6499-432: The establishment of new industries and a dozen new agricultural villages. The massive Italian investment did little to improve Libyan quality of life, since the purpose was to develop the economy for the benefit of Italy and Italian settlers. The Italian aim was to drive the local population to the marginal land in the interior and to resettle the Italian population in the most fertile lands of Libya. The Italians did provide

6596-415: The fall of the Roman Empire and its takeover by Arab and Turkish civilizations. But predominantly Italian heritage in Libya refers to modern-day Italians. In 1911, the Kingdom of Italy waged war on the Ottoman Empire and captured Libya as a colony. Italian settlers were encouraged to come to Libya and did so from 1911 until the outbreak of World War II . In less than thirty years (1911–1940),

6693-455: The first decade of the 21st century, when they entered co-operative arrangements to deal with illegal immigration into Italy. Libya agreed to aggressively prevent migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from using the country as a transit route to Italy, in return for foreign aid and Italy's successful attempts to have the European Union lift its trade sanctions on Libya. On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed

6790-418: The first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international law . The Lieber Code was written early in the American Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln issued as General Order 100 on April 24, 1863, just months after the military executions at Mankato, Minnesota . General Order 100, Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in

6887-407: The fourth one added in 1949: Two Additional Protocols were adopted in 1977 with the third one added in 2005, completing and updating the Geneva Conventions: Just after WWI, world governments started to try and systematically create a code for how war crimes would be defined. Their first outline of a law was " Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field" —also known as

6984-476: The late 20th century and early 21st century, international courts extrapolated and defined additional categories of war crimes applicable to a civil war . In 1474, the first trial for a war crime was that of Peter von Hagenbach , realised by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire , for his command responsibility for the actions of his soldiers, because "he, as a knight, was deemed to have

7081-406: The legal question of whether the expected incidental harm is excessive may be very subjective. For this reason, States have chosen to apply a "clearly excessive" standard for determining whether a criminal violation has occurred. When there is no justification for military action, such as civilians being made the object of attack, a proportionality analysis is unnecessary to conclude that the attack

7178-622: The main urban centres: Many Italians were encouraged to settle in Libya during the Fascist period, notably in the coastal areas. The annexation of Libya's coastal provinces in 1939 brought them to be an integral part of metropolitan Italy and the focus of Italian settlement. The population of Italian settlers in Libya increased rapidly after the Great Depression: in 1927, there were just about 26,000, by 1931 44,600, 66,525 in 1936 and eventually, in 1939, they numbered 119,139, or 13% of

7275-537: The military or civil organizations. The recipients were officially referred to as Moslem Italians. Libya had become "the fourth shore of Italy" (Trye 1998). The incorporation of Libya into the Italian Empire gave the Italian Army a greater ability to exploit native Libyans for military service. Native Libyans served in Italian formations from the beginning of the Italian occupation of Libya. On 1 March 1940,

7372-489: The necessities of war." For example, conducting an operation on an ammunition depot or a terrorist training camp would not be prohibited because a farmer is plowing a field in the area; the farmer is not the object of attack and the operations would adhere to proportionality and military necessity. On the other hand, an extraordinary military advantage would be necessary to justify an operation posing risks of collateral death or injury to thousands of civilians. In "grayer" cases

7469-565: The nomadic peoples of northern Cyrenaica were forcibly removed from the region and relocated to huge concentration camps in the Cyrenaican lowlands. Fascist regime propaganda proclaimed the camps as hygienic and efficiently run oases of modern civilization. However in reality the camps had poor sanitary conditions and an average of about 20,000 Beduoins, together with their camels and other animals, crowded into an area of one square kilometre. The camps held only rudimentary medical services, with

7566-515: The number of Italians decreased even further, reaching an all-time low of 1,500 people, that is, less than 0.1% of the population. In the 1990s and 2000s, with the end of the economic embargo, some Colonial-era Italians (a few dozen pensioners) returned to Libya. In 2004 there were 22,530 Italians in Libya, almost the same number as in 1962, mainly skilled workers in the oil industries (principally in Eni , which has been present in Libya since 1953) arrived at

7663-460: The population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements, slated to be given to Italian settlers. The Italian occupation also reduced livestock numbers, killing, confiscating or driving the animals from their pastoral land to inhospitable land near the concentration camps. The number of sheep fell from 810,000 in 1926 to 98,000 in 1933, goats from 70,000 to 25,000 and camels from 75,000 to 2,000. From 1930 to 1931, 12,000 Cyrenaicans were executed and all

7760-539: The prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, have criticized the court. The United States still participates as an observer. Article 12 of the Rome Statute provides jurisdiction over the citizens of non-contracting states if they are accused of committing crimes in the territory of one of the state parties. The ICC only has jurisdiction over these crimes when they are "part of

7857-526: The region. Before 1911, no archeological research was done in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. By the late 1920s the Italian government had started funding excavations in the main Roman cities of Leptis Magna and Sabratha (Cyrenaica was left for later excavations because of the ongoing colonial war against Muslim rebels in that province). A result of the Fascist takeover was that all foreign archaeological expeditions were forced out of Libya, and all archeological work

7954-635: The same time indigenous Libyans were granted "Special Italian Citizenship" which required such people to be literate and confined this type of citizenship to be valid in Libya only. In 1939, laws were passed that allowed Muslims to be permitted to join the National Fascist Party and in particular the Muslim Association of the Lictor ( Associazione Musulmana del Littorio ). This allowed the creation of Libyan military units within

8051-471: The sense of consisting of native troops). These formations had Italian officers commanding them, with Libyan NCOs and soldiers. These native Libyan formations were made up of people drawn from the coastal Libyan populations. The training and readiness of these divisions was on an equal footing with the regular Italian formations in North Africa. Their professionalism and 'esprit de corps' made them some of

8148-523: The total population. They were concentrated on the Mediterranean coast, especially in the main urban centres and in the farmlands around Tripoli, where they constituted 41% of the city's population, and in Benghazi 35%. Settlers found jobs in the construction boom fuelled by Fascist interventionist policies. In 1938, Governor Italo Balbo brought 20,000 Italian farmers to settle in Libya, and 27 new villages were founded, mainly in Cyrenaica. After

8245-599: The two main cities of Libya, Tripoli and Benghazi, with new ports and airports, new hospitals and schools and many new roads & buildings. Also tourism was improved and a huge & modern "Grand Hotel" was built in Tripoli and in Bengasi. The Fascist regime, especially during Depression years, emphasized infrastructure improvements and public works. In particular, Governor Italo Balbo greatly expanded Libyan railway and road networks from 1934 to 1940, building hundreds of kilometers of new roads and railways and encouraging

8342-417: The war had ended, it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were still being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents. The wording of the 1949 Third Geneva Convention was intentionally altered from that of the 1929 convention so that soldiers who "fall into the power" following surrender or mass capitulation of an enemy are now protected as well as those taken prisoner in

8439-563: The winners (" Victor's justice "), as some controversies have not been ruled as war crimes. Some examples include the Allies ' destruction of Axis cities during World War II , such as the firebombing of Dresden , the Operation Meetinghouse raid on Tokyo (the most destructive single bombing raid in history), and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . In regard to the strategic bombing during World War II , there

8536-477: Was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era". Italian settlers in Libya Italian Libyans ( Italian : Italo-libici ) are Libyan -born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Libya during the Italian diaspora , or Italian-born people in Libya. Most of

8633-561: Was consolidated under a centralised Italian excavation policy, which exclusively benefitted Italian museums and journals. After Cyrenaica's full 'pacification', the Italian archaeological efforts in the 1930s were more focused on the former Greek colony of Cyrenaica than in Tripolitania, which was a Punic colony during the Greek period. The rejection of Phoenician research was partly because of anti-Semitic reasons (the Phoenicians were

8730-562: Was created where Mussolini met with Muslim Arab dignitaries, who gave him an honorary sword (that had actually been made in Florence ) which was to symbolize Mussolini as a protector of the Muslim Arab peoples there. In January 1939, Italy annexed territories in Libya that it considered Italy's Fourth Shore with Libya's four coastal provinces of Tripoli, Misurata, Bengazi, and Derna becoming an integral part of metropolitan Italy. At

8827-641: Was forced to abandon its colonial intentions and projects, but most of the Italian settlers remained in Libya. From 1947 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British administration, while the French controlled Fezzan. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya. On 21 November 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before 1 January 1952. On 24 December 1951, Libya declared its independence as

8924-457: Was no international treaty or instrument protecting a civilian population specifically from attack by aircraft, therefore the aerial attacks on civilians were not officially war crimes. The Allies at the trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo never prosecuted the Germans, including Luftwaffe commander-in-chief Hermann Göring , for the bombing raids on Warsaw , Rotterdam , and British cities during

9021-469: Was not until the early 1930s that Italy was in full control of the place. In 1931, during the campaign of Cyrenaica, General Rodolfo Graziani easily conquered Kufra District, considered a strategic region, leading about 3,000 soldiers from infantry and artillery, supported by about twenty bombers. Ma'tan as-Sarra was turned over to Italy in 1934 as part of the Sarra Triangle to colonial Italy by

9118-571: Was put down by Italian forces in 1932, after the so-called " pacification campaign ", which resulted in the deaths of a quarter of Cyrenaica's population of 225,000. Italy committed major war crimes during the conflict, including the use of illegal chemical weapons , episodes of refusing to take prisoners of war and instead executing surrendering combatants, and mass executions of civilians. Italian authorities committed ethnic cleansing by forcibly expelling 100,000 Bedouin Cyrenaicans, almost half

9215-580: Was ratified by Italy on 6 February 2009, and by Libya on 2 March, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi. Co-operation ended in February 2011 as a result of the Libyan Civil War which overthrew Gaddafi. At the signing ceremony of the document, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi recognized historic atrocities and repression committed by the state of Italy against the Libyan people during colonial rule, stating: In this historic document, Italy apologizes for its killing, destruction and repression of

9312-503: Was regained during Operation Sonnenblume and by the conclusion of Operation Brevity , German and Italian forces were entering Egypt . The first Siege of Tobruk in April 1941 marked the first failure of Rommel's Blitzkrieg tactics. In 1942 there was the Battle of Gazala when the Axis troops finally conquered Tobruk and pushed the defeated British troops inside Egypt again. Defeat during

9409-569: Was the Via Balbia , an east-west coastal route connecting Tripoli in western Italian Tripolitania to Tobruk in eastern Italian Cyrenaica. The last railway development in Libya done by the Italians was the Tripoli-Benghazi line that was started in 1941 and was never completed because of the Italian defeat during World War II. Classical archaeology was used by the Italian authorities as a propaganda tool to justify their presence in

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