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I read the
article by Mr. Raphael Luzon, chairman of “Jews of Libya - UK” which was
posted on 1st January 2007 on the Libyan web site “Akhbar
Libya” under the title “What law and what jurisprudence would allow the
annihilation of an entire Libyan Jewish family?”[1].
I noted that
in this article he inserted the name of a Libyan army officer accused of
killing members of his family in 1967. To my knowledge, this is the first
time the identity of this officer was publicly added to the recently
opened file of the Libyan Jews.
In the
interest of serving the general Libyan national interests, I take this
opportunity to add to this open file my own findings which I obtained and
verified from responsible and highly positioned sources during my
investigation of this particular issue in the mid nineties of the past
century. Those facts led me to conclude that the government of P.M.
Abdul-Qadir Al-Badri, (which succeeded that of P.M. Hussein Maziq in the
aftermath of the June 1967 events), was serious in following up the said
episode to establish the facts so that justice could be served.
This was
evident by the government’s request to the high infomand of the Libyan army
to hold an inquest into the murder charges in question so that it could
take the appropriate measures according to its findings.
A infomittee
infoprising a number of high ranking officers of the Libyan army was in
fact formed to look into the matter. The accused (named in the article),
Mustafa Al-Greetly actually appeared before this infomittee. He admitted
the charges from the outset and without any hesitation. He declared that
he acted on his own initiative, and that he gave the orders to his
soldiers to shoot the family without orders from his superiors, with no
coordination with anybody from within or outside the army. He boasted
that he was motivated by his Pan-Arabism and Nasserite sentiments and
beliefs.
The infomittee
verified the accused’s admission through its own means and passed – with
narrow mindedness, short sightedness and a total betrayal of trust – its
report to the Prime Minister denying the incident ever took place. That
false report misled the government and prompted it to close all doors of
debate with the international bodies which were pressing it to take the
appropriate humanitarian stand and the necessary legal action.
I also learnt
–from the aforesaid sources - that the motives of that infomittee to
mislead the government in this case were the same motives that stopped
leading officers in the Libyan Army from arresting Gaddafi’s young army
officers when they were plotting their coup d'état, even though they had
full recordings of their secret meetings and plans from the military
intelligence agency which had them all under surveillance. Those motives
were “preserving the good name of the army”!!! In the first incident they
misled the government, while the second resulted in the fall of the
throne.
I will
continue - for the time being - to withhold the identity of my sources for
security considerations that are clear to all.
I finally wish
to put this question to Mr. Luzon and to the readers in general:
Isn’t it
curious that the perpetrator of this criminal act was none other than the
grandson of Ramadan Bey?” [2]
This is
in-spite of the fact that the Libyan Army was at that time crowded with
officers who were affiliated with Pan-Arabist parties, as well as those
who adored Gamal Abdul-Nasser.
In this I find
further support to my analysis to those events which I expanded on in a
long article published by the London based daily “Al-Hayat” on 9th
January 2006. [3]
Mohamed Ben Ghalbon
Chairman /
Libyan Constitutional Union
18 February
2007
[2]
Ramadan Bey was the known name of Ramadan Al-Greetly in the city of
Benghazi. He was one of the most prominent official collaborators with
the Italian occupying authority in the Cyrenaica province. As a result of
being a trusted link between the occupying force and the local citizens
Ramadan Bey had offered mighty services to many Cyrenaican personalities
and families who had been the subject of suspicion from the brutal
colonial power in the country. Many were indebted to him for saving their
necks from the noose of Italian gallows. No doubt he offered more
significant services to his foreign employers. This was evident by him
and all members of his family being granted Italian nationality and
departing with them to Italy when the remnants of the Italian army were
forced to flee the country in the early forties. Some of them opted to
return to Libya after it gained independence benefiting from King Idris’s
infopassionate decision not to open old files or dwell upon the past. They
chose to live in the city of Tripoli were their past and its consequences
were not known. Some of them still live in Italy, which, since their
family’s departure with the defeated Italian armies has beinfoe their home;
while others travel between Italy and Tripoli.
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