West should commend Qaddafi's reforms with caution

Western governments need to insist that the Libyan leader prove his good faith about democratic and judicial reform.

from the June 22, 2007 edition

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In April, a special British immigration court ruled that Britain couldn't send home two members of the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which opposes Qaddafi, because of a real risk that the Libyan government won't abide by promises of humanitarian treatment of returnees.

During past months, HRW, Amnesty International, and similar groups have insisted that hundreds of political opponents of Qaddafi remain incarcerated and are often tortured. Mr. Bush and other Western leaders have joined Bulgaria in urging release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been jailed since 1999, tortured, and twice sentenced to death for allegedly deliberately infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV-AIDS – a charge branded by leading international experts as false and a coverup for bad conditions in a Benghazi hospital.

In Britain's House of Commons, university lecturer George Joffee cited the medics' case as one of the "tragic contradictions" resulting from one-man leadership of Libya. Families of the children have asked for 10 million euros (about $13.3 million) for each child, and Libya may release the condemned medics if a deal is reached. Mr. Joffee indicated that the claim seems intended to offset compensation Libya has paid and still partially owes for admitting "legal responsibility" (but not guilt) for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988.

To complicate matters, relatives of victims of Pan Am 103 are demanding that Congress withhold State Department funding for improvement of US-Libyan ties until Tripoli pays delayed installments of compensation for families of the 270 victims. The Bush administration has requested $115.9 million to build an embassy in Tripoli and another $1.15 million in aid it says will help normalize relations with Qaddafi's realm.

Not only this, but several senior Scottish judges and prosecutors in the trial and conviction of Ali Megrahi, one of two Libyans accused of the Pan Am bombing, are now declaring that prosecution and trial were flawed by flimsy or fabricated evidence. If the Scottish appeal process should finally declare Mr. Megrahi innocent and release him, the entire compensation process might be placed in question.

Western governments should insist that Qaddafi prove his good faith about democratic and judicial reform. Qaddafi could make an excellent start by releasing the unfortunate medics and publishing facts about the scores of his opponents who have been jailed or "disappeared."

• John K. Cooley, a former Monitor correspondent, covered the Middle East and North Africa for more than 45 years. One of his books is "Libyan Sandstorm: The Complete Account of Qaddafi's Revolution."

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