La « pacification » italienne de la Cyrénaïque (1929-1933)
The Italian “pacification” of Cyrenaica (1929-1933)This essay describes the methods of repression employed by facist Italy in its attempt to defeat the Lybian resistance forces in Cyrenaica between 1929 and 1933. As a first step, various anti-guerilla operations were planned and have been carried ou...
Enregistré dans:
| Auteurs principaux: | , |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Français |
| Publié: |
2008
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | The Italian “pacification” of Cyrenaica (1929-1933)This essay describes the methods of repression employed by facist Italy in its attempt to defeat the Lybian resistance forces in Cyrenaica between 1929 and 1933. As a first step, various anti-guerilla operations were planned and have been carried out to strike a hard blow on the “rebels” as part of the strategy to reconquest Tripolitania and Fezzan.Currently, massive aerial bombardments systematically hit civilian targets, intending to terrorize and incite them to renounce their support to the rebellion forces.In Cyrenaica, the resistance forces headed by Omar Al-Muchtar and supported by the politico-religious organization “Senoussia”, managed to repulse the Italian troops, in part due to their familiarity with the specific environmental conditions in Gebel plateau region. Then in 1930, the Lybian Governor (Field Marshal Pietro Bodoglio), the Vice-Governor of Cyrenaica and General Rodolfo Graziani decided to toughen their military policy against local nomad populations. Expropriation measures were taken against Senoussist zaouïas (religious buildings), summary justice was applied by “circuit trials”, livestock was decimated and crops destroyed. Many ethnic groups were deported and interned in order to isolate the resistors and deprive them of any assistance whatsoever. Approximately 100.000 nomads (almost 2/3 of the population) were deported to sixteen concentration camps. A 270 km barbed wire fence was built along the Egyptian border in the five months of May to September 1931 in order to prevent escapes or infiltrations. After the capture and execution of Al-Muchtar, following a “puppet” trial held in September 1931, the resistance movement was defeated within a few months’ time.In 1933, when the camps were abolished, few thousand nomads perished due to extreme hard labor in-situ and exhausting marches. As internees they were subjected to hunger, diseases, tortures and outright executions. |
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