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I had
never wanted to write or publicly discuss what I am about to
narrate pertaining to my relationship with His Royal Highness
Prince Al-Hassan Al-Ridha Al-Sanussi, the late Crown Prince of
Libya (God bless his soul). I have continuously avoided doing so
in the past, however, I find myself obliged to practice my right
of self defence against the false accusations contained in the
article “The Constitutional Legitimacy between Facts and Personal
Whims”.
That
malicious article accused me of refraining from calling for the
late Crown Prince and pledging my allegiance to him following the
death of King Idris as the new bearer of the Constitutional
Legitimacy.
For the
sake of clarifying this ambiguity and to set the record straight I
find it unavoidable to briefly and carefully register the
following facts:
-
On 18
October 1989 I was contacted by Her Majesty Queen Fatima (May
God bless her with good health and long life). She informed me
of the Crown Prince’s decision never to return to Libya and that
he was going through financial hardship in his isolation away
from home. She gave me his telephone number in London and
entrusted me with handing him an amount of money as a gift from
her to him. I immediately contacted his Highness and we
arranged a time to visit him the following day. I was
accompanied by my brother Hisham. That was the first time I had
the honour of meeting him and since that day I, along with my
brother Hisham and my late brother Ali, put ourselves and our
humble resources at his service in order to alleviate the
burdens of his exile. By the grace and help of God Almighty,
that had a great effect on his morale and visibly raised his
spirits.
The
trust and respect that defined our new acquaintance soon
transformed it into a friendship, which encouraged me to disclose
to him that calling for him as heir to the Constitutional
Legitimacy was a duty which we would not shy away from. I also
added that it would immensely bolster the national case.
Furthermore, I told him that we could counter his public
relinquishing of the throne in September 1969 on the basis that it
was extracted under duress.
He
clarified his position to me by saying words to the following
effect:
By
relinquishing the throne he had in fact taken off his shoulder a
heavy burden that he had suffered the weight of for a very long
time. He went on to say that he was hard done by his appointment
to a position he never sought or wanted, a task which caused him a
great deal of anguish and misery. And that he only carried out its
responsibilities, which were contrary to his nature, out of his
sense of duty. He added that the task was made even more
tormenting by the vicious hostilities of certain elements of the
close circle around the King which he was no match for. Their
motive was envy for a position he never sought, wanted or became
attached to. He would never willingly go back to carrying that
responsibility after destiny had unshackled him of its burdens.
He, therefore, thanked me for my offer, but politely declined my
invitation. On various occasions that followed, he disclosed to
me some detailed secrets of that epoch which are out of the
context of this narration.
However, he sought my advice on how to contact some Arab rulers to
secure their financial assistance to help him after he took the
decision never to return to Libya. He disclosed to me that he had
already made a few approaches by sending his sons with written
letters to certain Arab notables, but his attempts were
unsuccessful, either because his letters never reached their
intended targets or that they were ignored.
I
immediately proceeded by organising a press campaign aimed at
embarrassing Arab rulers to prompt them to attend to the needs of
His Highness. The first step of this campaign was an open letter
to Colonel Gaddafi entitled “Gaddafi And the Libyan Crown Prince”[1]
which I published in the Guardian newspaper of 2 April 1992 as a
paid advertisement. (See appendix 1 below for the text of this
letter).
The
Guardian newspaper was the first to take interest in the matter.
It conducted an interview with me which was published on 6 April
1992
[2].
One of
the most important questions of the interview was “why did the LCU
not call for the Crown Prince as King of Libya following the death
of King Idris”? It was a legitimate and professional question
seeking clarifications of a vital issue before arriving at
preconceived conclusions, unlike the malicious way it was
presented by the author of the aforementioned article. Had he
(the author) been genuinely looking for facts and answers, he
would have found it in my reply to the interviewer, as a copy of
the interview could easily be found on the archive page of the LCU
[2]. It was the closing
sentence of that interview:
“We
would not make him take any steps he does not want to take, but if
he claimed his rights, we as Libyan citizens, have a duty to
follow”.
It is
worth noting here that the Guardian newspaper made an error which
it immediately acknowledged and published an apology for on the
following day’s issue. It put the name of the crown prince on the
caption under my photo. The photo was taken during the interview
at the newspaper’s offices by the newspaper’s photographer (Denis
Thorp).
It
seems that this error by the newspaper unleashed the enmity of
some, and encouraged antagonists to build scenarios that are far
from the truth.
I
followed this initiative with a campaign to highlight the plight
of the noble man and his family in the media. The campaign was
designed to target and force Arab rulers and notables to take note
of the Crown Prince’s desperate situation. This was achieved by
drawing Western public opinion’s attention to their failure to do
so thus far. It included press interviews with leading Arabic
newspapers which picked the news item after the Guardian newspaper
put it under the spot light. The media momentum that ensued
prompted concern by several Arab notables. The Crown Prince’s
family soon began to receive generous and praiseworthy financial
offers and services from numerous sources.
God
Almighty’s undisputable Will ordained that he chose the noble man
to his nearness a few days prior to the arrival of the first of
those gifts. He passed away in the afternoon of 28 April 1992 to
depart from this world unburdened by any of its bounties to be -by
the grace of Allah- fully rewarded for his plight, which he
endured for two decades in dignity, with his wish of securing a
safe future for his family fully achieved. I was present at his
home with my brother Hisham that sad afternoon having accepted his
kind invitation the previous day to come and dine with him on that
day and discuss the latest developments of the campaign. He was
transferred to hospital a few hours before our arrival. We
received the sad news of his death with his family.
My
association with his family ended on the second day of his death.
None of them inherited my friendship with Him (May Allah Bless His
Soul).
It is
perhaps worth emphasising in this context the following points:
-
During the life of the Crown Prince I knew his son Prince
Mohamed very well and from close quarters. And although I
never supported his ambitions nor collaborated with him in the
past to achieve them, I never hindered him in any way or impeded
these ambitions, nor would I do so in the future. I have
previously made this public in statements to the press during
the nineties [3].
-
His
(Prince Mohamed Al-Hassan’s) endeavour to acquire a new
Constitutional Legitimacy mandated by the Libyan people is a
much better option than holding on to an old and vulnerable
legacy which would be vigorously challenged, with documents, by
his opponents whenever they feel they need to do so.
Before
I close, it is worth mentioning to the author of that malicious
article that my personal stances as well as those of the LCU have
always been based on solid facts and documented information.
Therefore, he (the author) should tread carefully and be very
cautious when attempting to challenge those stances.
I would
also like to re-iterate to readers of this testimony that I was
only compelled to reveal the facts contained herein by the duty of
self defence. This is in view of the fact that the doubts cast in
the said article took the form of the printed words, which would
become historical material referred to by researchers and
historians, if they were not quashed at their inception.
Furthermore, I would like to put on record that I never bothered
to counter those doubts when they were being circulated verbally
soon after the death of the Crown Prince. Had his son volunteered
the testimony I publicly asked of him regarding any aspect of my
relationship with his father, he would have spared me (and
himself) being forced to document the late Crown Prince’s decline
of my pledge of allegiance to him [4].
Finally, I take this opportunity to attach a collection of photos
with His Royal Highness (God bless his soul and make Paradise his
final resting place). Some of these photos were taken in my home
in Manchester and the others in his home in London.
[1]
The original Arabic
text of the “Open Letter to Gaddafi”
http://www.lcu-libya.co.uk/Gu2ndApril1992.htm
[2]
The full interview with the Guardian newspaper:
http://www.lcu-libya.co.uk/gurd060492.htm
[3]
Link to an article by the London based “Sawt Al-Kuwait” newspaper
(22 June 1992) entitled “We have no knowledge of Al-Hassan Al-Rida’s
Will”. It was said in that article: “While Sheikh Ben Ghalbon
wished the late prince’s sons good luck in their new endeavour, he
emphasised that he has no knowledge of their political plans or
projects, nor is there any organisational link to the LCU with
what took place in the previous two days”.
http://www.lcu-libya.co.uk/SwtKuwt22Jun92CrPrince.gif
[4]
The original Arabic text of the Open Letter to Prince Mohamed Al-Hassan
Al-Rida Al-Sanussi
http://www.libya-watanona.com/news/lcu/lc03016a.htm
[Click
here for English translation]
Appendix (1)
Advertisement
Gaddafi and the
Libyan Crown Prince
An Open Letter to Col. Gadafi
Misfortune brought one of the Arab noblemen to
remain under your rule for more than twenty years. His Royal
Highness Prince Al-Hassan Al-Rida AI-Sanusi, the Crown Prince to
the Kingdom of Libya, lived since September 1969 enduring your
injustice and cruelty. The Prince spent the first of many years of
misery in a prison cell in one of your several institutions where
he was subjected to all kinds of physical and mental torture which
forced him to surrender to you publicly on the television screen
his right of succession to the throne. He was then taken to live
with his family under house arrest in a residence you had
confiscated from a Libyan national. In addition to the bestiality
of your guards, the family suffered extreme poverty and hardship,
and the children were denied opportunities to proper education. In
the middle of one night in 1984, the Prince and his family were
thrown out of their beds into the street by one of your
"Revolutionary Committees". The horror-stricken family were made
to stand and watch the frenzied mob burn down their house and its
contents. After several days with nowhere to stay they were
provided with two single cabins on one of Tripoli's public beaches
(not built or equipped for families). They lived in these
intolerable conditions until 1986 when the Prince suffered a
stroke which left him paralysed.
In one of your publicity stunts to promote your
so-called policy of reconciliation, in 1988 you sent the sick
Prince accompanied by his family to the U.K. for the medical
treatment not available in Libya. According to your instructions,
your London office covered the expense of the medical treatment
for the Prince and rented a two-bedroom flat for the noble family
of eight members and restricted their living allowance to a level
sufficient only for a couple. The family never complained because
these meagre provisions were far better than what you allowed them
in Libya.
Your London representative has now informed the
Prince of your decision, as a security measure in view of your
latest international crisis, to terminate the arrangement for the
unfinished medical treatment and send him back to Tripoli
immediately. On the same day, the office actually stopped payments
for medication and discontinued the inadequate living allowance.
How can a man reach this level of fiendish
behaviour? And Why?
Mohamed Ben-Ghalbon
Chairman
Issued by the
Libyan Constitutional
Union
The Guardian:
2nd April 1992
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