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Dakar: Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi called on Europe to pay reparations to Africa for years of colonial mistreatment.
Wearing a green shirt and a green handkerchief - the colour of the Libyan revolution - Gaddafi addressed Senegal on Wednesday, telling its people to organise themselves into committees to claim their payback from France, their colonial master.
"The people of Africa deserve reparations for the damages and abuses that they were subjected to during colonialism," Gaddafi said on the occasion of Senegal's independence day. "Colonisation must never be repeated. We need to force the colonisers to pay."
'Reclaim resources'
The Libyan dictator, who has ruled his country for 30 years, was one of the guests of honour at the independence celebration, held a day after the inauguration of President Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's 80-year-old patriarch who was recently re-elected to a second term.
To prevent Africa from being ruled by outsiders again, Gaddafi said it is imperative to create a "United States of Africa", protected by a single, unified army.
He criticised Europe for turning back thousands of illegal immigrants, many of whom leave in flimsy wooden boats from Senegal's shore.
"They call it illegal immigration. But when they came here from Europe to occupy us, did they call it illegal immigration? We need to go and reclaim our pillaged resources. They left us in poverty, with our mines empty. With the riches the stole from us, they built their industrial powers," he said.
Gaddafi was one of roughly 20 heads of state invited by Wade to attend his inauguration. Senegal won its independence from France 47 years ago.
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