Stop the Cultural Genocide Carried out Against the Berber Nation of Libya by the Qadhafi Regime

In a previous article, titled "Libya, as Part of the Berber Nation, Must Withdraw from the Arab League. Report Submitted to UNESCO", I republished a first part of a comprehensive Report on the Berber character of Libya, a non-Arabic country that is forced by the Freemasonic regimes of Paris, London and Washington to carry out racist pan-Arabist campaigns because the fake Arab nation (to which the Libyans supposedly belong) is one of the most advanced machinations geared by the colonial powers of the West in order to promote the evilness of Islamic Terrorism.

In the present article, I republish further parts of the Report which was elaborated by the Tamazgha Foundation, represented by Mr. Masin Aferkal (founder) and Tawalt Foundation, represented by Mr. Madi Mohammed (founder), Mr. Amnay (Secretary), Mr. Mohammed Rabi Ashor (spokesperson). This Report demonstrates the need for immediate overthrowing of the grotesque, vulgar and cruel regime of Tripoli. (http://www.tawalt.com/united_nations/The-Berbers-of-Libya2004.pdf). I add again, in the beginning of this article, the Table of Contents. I will complete the republication of the entire Report in a forthcoming article.

The Berbers of Libya

Report Submitted to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

United Nations Economic and Social Council - International Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

64th Session of the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Geneva, from 23 February to 12 March 2004.

Contents

Preamble

Part I: Background

A. General

B. North Africa an Amazigh land.

C. Undeniable Linguistic and Cultural Presence.

Part II:

Main Violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

1. Official and constitutional exclusion of the Amazigh reality.

2. Programmed Arabicization and assimilation.

3. Official exclusion in the fields of culture and education.

4. An authoritarian and repressive anti-Berber policy.

5. Prohibitions.

6. Contradictions in Libya´s official report.

7. Libya: A state of all forms of discrimination.

Part III: Our Proposals to eliminate official discrimination.

(End of the Report´s Table of Contents)

Part II

Main Violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

1. Official and constitutional denial of the Amazigh (Berber) reality.

Anti-Berber discrimination is a deliberate and official fact which is present in the Libyan state institutions. It aims at denying the deep-rooted identity of the Berbers through their forced Arabicization and integration in the dominant and politically motivated concept of Arab-Muslim ideology.

Thus, the 11 December 1969 constitutional declaration illustrates the official discrimination suffered by the Berbers.

Article 1 of this declaration stressed that the Libyan people were part of the Arab nation. There was no hint or reference to the country´s Berber characteristics.

Article 2 of the same declaration referred to Islam as the religion of the state. It also stressed that Arabic was the country´s official language. Again, there was no mention of the Berber language, and accordingly Berber was not recognized despite the fact that it was, and still is, a living reality in Libya. The Berber language was officially excluded.

Article 5 which noted that all citizens were equal before law cannot be applied to the Berber-speakers who saw themselves deprived of their non-recognized language.

In its institutional reforms, education was one of the sectors to be affected. However, the reforms were announced in the following way: "[...] It means to reform the future citizens in a way to believe in their Islamic religion and to be proud of their Arabness". (See Taoufik Monastiri, "Chronique Sociale et Culturelle" Annuaire de l´ Afrique du Nord 1974, p. 479). Another measure excluding the Berber element. This is the case of various state texts based on the policy of Arabicization and the denial of Libya´s Amazigh identity.

The Libyan leader, Mu´ammar al-Qadhafi, has always been hostile towards the Berbers. For him, "... the will to use and maintain the Berber [language] is reactionary, inspired by colonialism ...". (See Ebert Gerlinde & Hans-Georg: Zu Einigen Aspekten der Sprachsituation und Politik un der SLAVJ - Libya- under Besonderer Berucksichtigung des Italienischen, p. 386).

"Al-Qadhafi´s virulent and unprecedented anti-Berber policy is well known", (See Salem Chaker: Une Decenie d´Etudes Berberes, 1980-1990, Bouchene, Alger, 1991, p. 123.

It is worth noting that the Libyan state´s official report made no mention of the country´s ethnic make-up or the languages used by the population. The report (CERD/C/431/Add.5) reduced Libyans to a mere Arab ethnic group and ignored anything else which could be different. It particularly ignored the presence of a people whose culture and civilization have survived thousands of years and are still alive.

Following its 1998 examination of the official Libyan 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th reports, the CERD expressed its concern about the fact that the Libyan state "stressed that there were no ethnic minorities on its territory and had particularly overlooked the presence of Berbers, Tuareg and Black Africans, who - according to some information - were victims of discrimination because of their ethnic origin". (CERD/C/304/Add.52, paragraph 12). In Paragraph 14 of the same document, the committee recommended to the concerned state to provide in its next report detailed information on the demographic make-up of its population [...]".

Libya persists in denying the presence of Berbers on its territory and refuses to provide information on the ethnic make-up of its population, thereby reducing Libyans to mere Arab ethnic group.

In its 2001 report on Libya, the US State Department noted a "number of examples of discrimination based on the status of the tribe, particularly against the Amazigh in the country´s heartland and the Tuareg in the south". The same report noted that in order to maintain its power, the Libyan government also manipulate and corrupts tribes.

The Berbers are scattered in a number of regions in Libya. Today. They are particularly concentrated in Adrar Infusan - the toponymy is being Arabicized to become al-Jabal Al-gharbi. The costal city of Zwara. There is also the Oasis of Ghadames and Ghat.

Decreeing Arabic as the only national and official language of the Libyan state explains the authorities´ will to Arabicize the Berber-speaking populations. The Berber language has no official status and all Libya´s Amazigh foundations have been deliberately ignored. Given this policy, an important section of the Libyan population is de jure excluded from history. This treatment which is contrary to the text and the spirit of the International Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination constitutes an intolerable attack against one of the basic rights of the Libyan Berbers who have been subjected to an oppressive Arabicization.

Texts dealing with Libya´s history do not even refer to the country´s Berber origin, or the Berber origin of North Africa in general. Such texts falsify history since they refuse to acknowledge that the first inhabitants of the country were Berbers; a fact which is hard to deny since all historians pinpoint the presence of Berbers on these territories since time immemorial.

For the Libyan state, the Berbers, their history, language, culture and civilization had never existed. Libyan history school books refer to the original Berber inhabitants of the territory as "ancient Arabs". This is a deliberate will to deny the existence of the Berber characteristics and a part of the state´s Arabicization policy which aims to bury all signs of the country´s Berber identity.

2. Programmed Arabicization and assimilation.

Even if the Berber language in Libya, as is the case in the entire North Africa, had been able to resist almost all the conquering empires (Phoenicians, Byzantines, Romans etc.), Arabic, the language of the Koran, had succeeded in weakening it and seriously threatening its survival. Today, more than two thirds of Libyans are completely Arabicized and have lost the use of their ancestral language which had resisted in isolated areas (mountains, desert, oases etc..).

Libya´s language policy would lead to a slow death of the Berber language, while Arabic enjoys considerable cultural power in the land of the "Great Jamahiriyah". It is the language of the nation, of the religion and of the school (...). Being also the language of radio and television, Arabic surrounded the Berber from all sides and pushed it back to its last retreat, which is its use within family and in the Berber villages and oases.

This is the worrying state of the Berber language in Libya. The only responsible for this situation is the Libyan state which, with its exclusion policy, violates the most basic principles of the International Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination.

By persisting in this forced Arabicization and assimilation of Berbers, the Libyan state commits one of the most terrible crimes, namely depriving the country of an important component of its history, culture and identity. The entire humanity would be deprived of thousands of years of history. This represents wealth not only to Libya but to the entire humankind.

The Libyan state needs to make all the necessary efforts in order to protect this Berber-speaking minority, its language and culture.

3. Official exclusion from the fields of culture and education.

It is obvious that the Berber language does not benefit from Libya´s education system. There is no mention of the Berber history and civilization in the Libyan school books. Programmes for developing and promoting culture have overlooked the Berber culture. Only arts of Arabic expression benefit from state´s aid. Worse, not only Berber heritage is being ignored but also banned. Despite the fact that there is no official text which bans Berber culture, it is very well known that in Libya Berbers do not dare to express their difference or work to safeguard and promote their culture within a legal framework.

Known to be a repressive regime, the Libyan state does not tolerate any individual or collective attempt to express Berber identity. Any will to take charge of Berber culture is being smothered. Expressing Berber identity is tantamount to an attack against the state´s interests and integrity.

The Libyan state cannot justify this state of affairs and cannot continue to pretend to ignore the lamentable state in which Berber-speaking communities are living. The state is responsible for the slow death of the Berber language and culture. It needs to urgently review its linguistic and cultural policy.

All these facts pinpoint the cultural and language discrimination suffered by at least 10 per cent of Libyans.

4. Repressive and authoritarian anti-Berber policy.

According to testimonies by Libyan Berbers who have been, for years, living in exile in Europe and in the US, the Berbers are the subject of repression even for the fact that a family turning down the marriage of their daughter to Al-Qadhafi. This very same testimony (an excerpt of which is in Appendix 5), speaks about various forms of repression, including physical elimination of opponents who dare to express their attachment to their Berber identity.

Berber toponyms are systematically Arabicized. Books referring to Berber are set to fire in public places. Berber is banned in schools, in the administration and in the public service.

At one time telephone conversations in Berber were systematically interrupted as soon as they were intercepted.

A propaganda is being orchestrated to encourage mixed marriages as a way to Arabicize Berbers.

The Libyan state transfers Berber-speaking civil servants and employees from their regions of birth to Arabic-speaking regions. It also sends Arabic-speaking civil servants to Berber-speaking regions in order to implement the strict use of Arabic language.

The Libyan state brings together population of different communities (Arabic-speaking and Berber-speaking) in the same municipalities in order to control Berber-speakers.

Repression of Berber-speakers´ religious practices such as the Ibadite rite (Non-orthodox minority Muslim rite practiced by some Berber groups in Libya, southern Tunisia and southern Algeria).

Note

Picture: Monuments from the great Berber Antiquity preserved in the Tripoli Museum, but undeservedly downgraded (although they are constituent elements of today´s Libyans´ culture and identity)