LIBYA AT A GLANCE
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Official Name--Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, or “state of the masses.”
Population--3.9 million.
Official Language--Arabic.
Ethnic Divisions--97% Arab and Berber.
Religion--97% Sunni Muslim.
Government--Officially, a republic governed by a General People’s Congress, drawn from popularly elected local councils; in fact, a military dictatorship.
Leader--Col. Moammar Kadafi, military strongman who holds no governmental title.
Political Parties--None.
Political Background--Under Ottoman Turkish control for four centuries, then an Italian colony from 1912 until Allied victory in World War II; an independent, generally pro-Western monarchy from 1949 until radical officers under Kadafi took power and set up a revolutionary, military-governed regime in 1969.
Economy--Largely based on oil, which dominates exports and brought in $4.5 billion in1986, roughly half the country’s total revenue. Other industries: agriculture, fishing, food processing.
Capital--Tripoli.
Area--679,358 square miles, somewhat larger than Alaska.
Climate--Mediterranean along coast, desert in interior.
Sources: The World Factbook, 1988; Political Handbook of the World, 1988
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