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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
Separate British military governments were established in
Cyrenaica and in Tripolitania and continued to function until Libya
achieved independence. Each was divided into several districts
governed by civil affairs officers who reported to brigadiers at
senior headquarters in Binghazi and Tripoli. British authority was
exercised under the Hague Convention, which conveyed legislative,
administrative, and judicial power to an occupying country. It was
essentially a caretaker operation, the initial objective simply
being to maintain peace and order and facilitate the war effort.
British military officers and government emphatically stressed the
nonpolitical character of the occupation government.
The British administration began the training of a badly needed
Libyan civil service. Italian administrators continued to be
employed in Tripoli, however. The Italian legal code remained in
effect for the duration of the war. In the lightly populated Fezzan
region, a French military administration formed a counterpart to
the British operation. With British approval, Free French forces
moved north from Chad to take control of the territory in January
1943. French administration was directed by a staff stationed in
Sabha, but it was largely exercised through Fezzan notables of the
family of Sayf an Nasr. At the lower echelons, French troop
commanders acted in both military and civil capacities according to
customary French practice in the Algerian Sahara. In the west, Ghat
was attached to the French military region of southern Algeria and
Ghadamis to the French command of southern Tunisia--giving rise to
Libyan nationalist fears that French intentions might include the
ultimate detachment of Fezzan from Libya.
Data as of 1987
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