Global Arab Network | .77 trillion compensation from West for Africa, says Libyan leader

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$7.77 trillion compensation from West for Africa, says Libyan leader

Global Arab Network - - Adam Turner

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 17:43

Global Arab Network - Libyan leader Moamer Al-Gathafi on Wednesday berated the West in a diatribe at the United Nations, demanding 7.77 trillion dollars for Africa and reform to the "terrorist" global body.

Paying his first-ever visit to the annual UN General Assembly, the Libyan leader Al-Gathafi was introduced to the podium by the title "King of Kings" as he took the podium after US President Barack Obama.

Sporting a sand-hued tribal robe with an oversized lapel pin in the shape of Africa, Al-Gathafi flagrantly defied orders by the General Assembly's chair -- a fellow Libyan -- to speak for 15 minutes and rambled on for more than an hour.

Al-Gathafi, who said he was speaking "in the name of 1,000 African kingdoms," demanded compensation from the West for colonization of the continent and provided a precise figure 7.77 trillion dollars.

"7.77 trillion dollars -- that is the compensation the Africans deserve from the countries that colonized Africa," said Al-Gathafi, who briefly put on a translation headset before giving up.

"The Africans will call for that and if you don't give that amount -- 7.77 trillion -- the Africans will go to where you have taken these trillions. They have the right and they will bring the money back," he said.

Al-Gathafi added, however, that he was not impugning Libya's former colonial power Italy which he said had accepted responsibility for past misdeeds.

Al-Gathafi also demanded fundamental changes to the United Nations, likening the General Assembly to the famed Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park where people of all stripes are free to vent.

He denounced the Security Council -- where five nations have veto power -- for its monopoly on the right to declare when matters pose a threat to international security, saying it amounted to "terrorism."

"Superpowers have interests and they use the power of the United Nations to protect their interests. The third world is terrified and being terrorized and living in fear," he said.

Al-Gathafi, long a pariah, has been reconciling with the West after renouncing Libya's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

Al-Gathafi also thanked the United States -- with which Libya re-established relations last year -- as the host of the United Nations. But he said that the United Nations should take a turn in the eastern hemisphere.

Al-Gathafi began his activities with a visit to the UN headquarters in New York, notably to the office of the president of the General Assembly, veteran Libyan diplomat Ali Triki, and then the UN Security Council.

This is the first visit of the Libyan leader to the UN headquarters in New York since the launch of the revolution of Al Fatah on 1 September 1969.

According to the Libya press agency, JANA, Al-Gathafi has also met with South African President Jacob Zuma, to discuss African issues; the Libyan community in the US as well as the leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farakhan, who brought to him a warm welcome from the millions of black American Muslims, Farakhan also assured the Libyan leader of the support of African Americans in his efforts to ensure the emergence of the United States of Africa.

From New York, the Libyan leader will head to Venezuela to take part in the second Africa-Latin America summit, scheduled to hold 26-27 September on the island of Margarita. (Africa news, JANA, AFP)

Global Arab Network

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