Bevin_Sforza plan
Do you know that the partition of Eritrea between Ethiopia
and Sudan (Bezin-Sforza Plan of 1949) was averted by sheer luck?
After Italy was defeated in World War II, it was forced to
abandon its former colonies of Eritrea, Somalia and Libya. Various proposals
were put forward on how to deal with the former colonies. The British foreign
secretary then Ernest Bevin and the Italian foreign minister, Count Carlo
Sforza came up with a joint package plan for the colonies on 10 May 1949, hence
the plan was known as Bevin-Sforza plan after them. As for Eritrea, the plan
proposed the partition of the country between Sudan and Ethiopia. The western
lowlands was to be part of the Sudan and the rest was to be given to Ethiopia
but for the plan to be approved, the whole package for all the colonies had to
be approved as one piece.
Ethiopia was for the partition plan with some initial ‘reluctance’.
Eritrean delegations representing parties opposed to unity with Ethiopia were
present at the UN corridors to foil the plan. But Eritrean opposition was
not counting much. It was mainly due to other factors that the partition of
Eritrea was averted.
A 15-Nation sub-committee reviewed all the proposals but preferred the
Bevin-Sforza plan for the former Italian colonies. Vote on the Bevin-Sforza
plan was 10 for, with 4 against and 1 abstention. Then the plan was
submitted to the First Committee of the United Nations.
On 17 May, 1949, the First Committee introduced a few changes and
presented the plan to the UN General Assembly. The UN General Assembly
reviewed the plan and was highly expected to adopt without any problem the
recommendation of the First Committee because every UN member state had a representative
in that important committee and it seemed little would change. The partition
plan of Eritrea was passed in the General Assembly by 37 votes in favour of the
Bevin-Sforza plan, 11 against and 10 abstentions. It thus seemed that the fate
of the “former Italian colony of Eritrea” was sealed.
The Libyan issue had a number of sub-proposals. The General Assembly
voted for reunited Libya’s independence after 10 years with 48 votes for, 8
against and 1 abstention. However, what was important was who should rule the
three parts of Libya during the 10-year trusteeship period. It was proposed
that Libya in the interim period was to be administered by Britain, Italy and
France which was rejected by Libyans and the Arab countries but, the proposal of Italian trusteeship over
Tripolitania was short of one vote to obtain the required two-thirds majority
in the General Assembly. Haiti, which was NOT expected to vote against
the Bevin –Sforza package on former Italian colonies voted AGAINST plan. Again when the question of Italian
trusteeship over Somalia was put to voting, the Haitian delegate to the United
Nations, Senator St. Lot, voted AGAINST. Senator St. Lot had direct
instructions from the Haitian president of the day to vote for the Bevin-Sforza
Plan, but the man opposed his head of state and voted as he saw it right.
(He later justified his voting to had been based on his anti-colonialist
feeling - against the return of Italy to Somalia and part of Libya. Others
alleged that he was ‘bribed’ by Arab delegates who opposed the delay to grant
independence to Libya.).
This meant that the General Assembly would not go ahead with its
decision already reached regarding Eritrea and the two provinces of Libya
(Cyrenaica and Fezzan) because the fate of Tripolitania was left pending. In a
final vote on the package, the Bevin-Sforza plan was, ironically, rejected
by 37 votes against, 14 in favour and 7 abstentions.
Thus the partition of Eritrea was averted by mere luck and a new
proposal had to be forwarded and that was when all the Eritrean parties opposed
to the Unity of with Ethiopia formed the Independence Bloc and a new round of
proposal were made possible which ended up in the Federation decision.
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