Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

[Aplomb]

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83404

BULGARIAN PRESIDENT PARDONS MEDICS

24 July 2007, Tuesday

Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency) | buy photo |

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov pardoned the six medics 45 minutes after they touched home soil at the Sofia international airport.

Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin read the presidential decree at the press conference after welcoming the medics back to Bulgaria.

"Certain of their innocence, in accordance with the powers vested in him, President Parvanov pardons the medics," Kalfin said.

The five nurses and the Palestinian doctor, who has received Bulgarian citizenship in the meantime, were allowed to leave Libya in the early hours of Tuesday, where they were jailed for more than eight years over accusations for the deliberate infection of 426 Libyan children with HIV.

The six medics are expected at the presidential residence in Boyana, where they will undergo a medical exam.

[Aplomb]

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83220

Sarkozy, Ferrero-Waldner Share Position on Libya-Jailed Bulgarian Nurses' Case

19 July 2007, Thursday

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and the EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said they share a common position on the case of the five Libya-jailed Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor.

The two discussed the issue at a meeting in Paris on Thursday.

Ferrero-Waldner said she would approve a visit to Libya of Sarkozy as actions aimed at bringing the six medics to Europe are "highly welcome".

President Sarkozy is scheduled to go to Libya on July 24, a Libyan official said on Wednesday, but the information is still not confirmed by the French authorities. According to Sarkozy's office, he might go to Libya at the invitation of Muammar Qaddafi himself.

Still, no other information is available from the meeting between the two officials, who see the case as problem the European Union.

[Aplomb]

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83428

Intl Fund for Assistance of HIV-Infected Libyan Kids Continues Work

24 July 2007, Tuesday

The International Fund for Assistance to the Families of the HIV-Infected Libyan Children will continue its work until finalizing the whole process of curing them, fund's member Ivan Chomakov said on Tuesday.

The process also includes building and equipping the Benghazi hospital and training of its staff, Chomakov, who is also the Plovdiv city mayor, added.

He reminded that he aims of the civic association for development of the Bulgarian-Libyan relations are exactly the same as the ones of the fund.

It was exactly the civic society that raised the question for helping the children in this particular ways in Bulgaria and Europe.

[Aplomb]

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83427

Palestinian Doctor Leaves for The Netherlands to Join Family

24 July 2007, Tuesday

The Palestinian doctor Ashraf Al-Hajuj is due to set out to the Netherlands to join his family, his lawyer announced.

Ashraf landed at Sofia Airport on Tuesday morning together with the Bulgarian medics, after all of them were allowed to leave Libya, where they spent more than eight years in prison on accusations for deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV.

The Palestinian's family went to the Netherlands in 2004, where they were granted citizenship.

"There shouldn't be any problems with Ashraf's going to the country. A visa is already expecting him," his lawyer said.

The Netherlands were ready to grant Ashraf a citizenship, but the Palestinian got a Bulgarian one last month.

[Aplomb]

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83430

Medics Release Ends Libya's Isolation, Opens Up Opportunities

24 July 2007, Tuesday

The release of seven Bulgarian medics after more than eight years in prison removes the last major obstacle in the way of ending Libya's international isolation.

The deal the North African country struck with the EU will allow oil-rich Libya to expand its trading ties with the bloc, as well as bring in much-needed investment.

It also gives ambitious Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who yearns to play a bigger role in regional politics, more clout to pursue his goals.

Crucially, better ties with the EU will help the country modernise key sectors of its economy and it is willing to spend billions of euros to that end - an opening that European companies are relishing to explore.

The underdeveloped exploration, refining and petrochemical sectors stand to gain most from the involvement of foreign companies.

Already a major exporter of oil to the EU, Libya needs the know-how to double its daily oil production to 3 million barrels daily over the next five years.

The bloc is the country's biggest trade partner, but the two parties have no partnership agreement in place, thwarted first by the Lockerbie bombing and then by the plight of the Bulgarian medics.

With those cases out of the way, the EU is now expected to include Libya into the network of ties it has with its Mediterranean neighbours.

Ancient Roman ruins and unspoilt beaches underline its tourist potential, but while its smaller neighbour Tunisia welcomes six millions of tourists annually, Libya is visited by 20 times fewer.

The restoration of archaeological sites is one area where Libya and the EU have already, reportedly, agreed to cooperate closely.

Another area where an accord has been reached is healthcare, going beyond life-ling treatment for the HIV-infected children.

In exchange, Libya is expected to push through important reforms in areas like public administration, human rights, democracy and immigration controls, a point especially salient for its EU neighbours Italy and Malta.

[RavenLyke]

The French are Saying this has nothing to do with the release, but color me skeptical.
See: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe...zy.libya.reut/

TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters) -- After agreeing to nuclear cooperation with Libya, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the West should trust Arab states to develop such technology for peaceful purposes or risk a war of civilizations.

France agreed on Wednesday to help Libya develop a nuclear reactor to supply drinking water from desalinated sea water. The reactor might be supplied by French atomic energy firm Areva.
Sarkozy told reporters in Libya that to consider the Arab world "is not sensible enough to use civilian nuclear power" would, in the long run, risk a "war of civilizations".

I seem to recall the French helping the Arabs with Nuclear Power in the past, but the Israelis took care of that one for us. Later in the article:

Sarkozy, due to travel to Senegal on Thursday, denied any link between the nuclear deal and the release this week of six foreign medics who spent eight years in Libyan jails and were convicted of infecting hundreds of children with HIV.
He helped clinch the deal between Tripoli and the European Union to free the medics, removing a major obstacle hampering reconciliation between Libya and the West. "The only link one can make, is that if the nurses had not been released, I would not have come," he said.

[Jag]

SARKOZY MEETS GADHAFI

France to Build Nuclear Reactor in Libya

Now that the Bulgarian nurses have been released, the rush to do business with Libya has begun. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was first off the mark, flying to Tripoli to meet with Moammar Gadhafi and sign a number of agreements -- including a deal on building a French nuclear reactor in Libya.

AFP

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Tripoli to meet Moammar Gadhafi just 24 hours after the release of six foreign medics.



First his wife went to bring out the nurses, then the president went in to do some business. French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to Libya Wednesday to meet with long-time leader Moammar Gadhafi and promised to boost relations between the two countries.


The trip came just 24 hours after Cecilia Sarkozy accompanied five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor out of Libya on a French presidential plane. The six medics had been imprisoned for eight years on charges of infecting over 400 Libyan children with HIV in the late 1990s.

During Sarkozy's visit, which effectively ended Libya's pariah status, the two leaders signed a number of cooperation agreements including one on civilian nuclear power. "I am happy to be in your country to talk about the future!" the French president wrote in a guest book during his trip. And Sarkozy and Gadhafi released a joint statement affiriming their "desire to give new momentum to bilateral relations and to build a strategic partnership between the two countries."

The Libyans have been scrambling to get out of international isolation since accepting responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland and agreeing to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The move prompted the United States and European Union to lift sanctions, and Washington reopened its embassy there in 2006. Since then international investment has been flowing into Libya's oil sector, which provides the bulk of the country's gross domestic product.

But the continuing incarceration of the six foreign medics had been a stumbling block to further ties. Now, following their release, foreign investment in the North African country is likely to increase dramatically. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she also hoped to travel to Libya soon. "I know that American companies are very interested in working in Libya," she said.

While Sarkozy signed agreements on education, science and culture, the most important and controversial ones were on defense and nuclear energy. France has agreed to help the Libyans build a nuclear reactor to supply drinking water from desalinated sea water.

"If we dare to say that civilian nuclear energy is reserved for the northern coast of the Mediterranean and that the Arab world is not responsible enough for nuclear energy, then we are humiliating them and paving the way for a war of civilizations," Sarkozy told reporters on Wednesday. The deal also has benefits for France. After all, its nuclear industry needs uranium -- and, conveniently enough, Libya has 1,600 tons of uranium left over from its abandoned nuclear weapons program.

Slippery Slope to Nuclear Weapons?

French anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire accused Sarkozy of handing over nuclear technology to Libya in exchange for the nurses. "Civilian and military nuclear are inseparable," the group said in a statement.

"Delivering 'civilian' nuclear energy to Libya would amount to helping the country, sooner or later, to acquire nuclear weapons."

Meanwhile Libya has reacted angrily to Bulgaria's pardoning of the five nurses and the Palestinian doctor. The foreign ministry called in Bulgaria's top diplomat and complained that it was "in violation" of the agreement between the two countries.

The association representing the infected children's families expressed dismay at the release. "We deeply condemn and are deeply disappointed at the absurdity and disrespect shown," it told the Associated Press. The association has called on Interpol to arrest the medics in Bulgaria.

Three of the nurses who were released on Tuesday told a news conference in Sofia that they were prepared to testify against the Libyan officers they accuse of torturing them. "We can forgive but we cannot forget what has happened," said Nasya Nenova.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...496711,00.html

Jag

[Aplomb]

Yes, Ghaddafi seems always to come out the winner. Sarkozy is great news for France, though. I would hope that he gets what he wants before he ever starts following through on anything promised to this sly fox. There's got to be so much more here than we know. In fact, I'd bet Sarkozy isn't going to be duped, and this may have the affect of shaping Ghaddafi up some. There's bound to be so much time that has to pass before the nuclear plant is built and operational--for water, and at any point perhaps Sarkozy will prove to have the power in future negotiations. Just thinking. Just thinking about what the Gman wants that plant for. And just thinking that Sarkozy knows that.

Here's more:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...tional/Africa/

West embraces Libya but victims' kin decry medics' pardon

ANNA MUDEVA
Reuters News Service
July 26, 2007



SOFIA -- Western diplomats rushed to rebuild ties with Libya yesterday after Tripoli freed six foreign medics convicted of infecting children with HIV, but the victims' families called for the medics to be returned to jail.


A day after setting the medical workers free and shrugging off a diplomatic millstone that has slowed its emergence from decades of isolation, Libya signed accords with France during a visit by President Nicolas Sarkozy.


But after the medics' eight-year imprisonment, decried by Western capitals as a miscarriage of justice, the case dragged on as diplomats voiced concern over the European Union's quick embrace of Libya and the victims' families demanded that Tripoli break ties with the medics' home country of Bulgaria.


Libya released the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian-born doctor on Tuesday after signing a partnership deal with the European Union. The group flew to Sofia, where they were pardoned by Bulgaria's President.



But yesterday, the families denounced the pardon.


"The families expressed their condemnation and resentment at the recklessness of the Bulgarian nation when the Bulgarian President pardoned the nurses," the Libyan Association for the Families of HIV-Infected Children said in a statement.


Looking dazed and tired, two of the nurses and the doctor held a news conference in Bulgaria. They gave few details of their ordeal but restated their innocence.


"We are innocent, that is why we are here. ... We just need to wait for the truth, it will come out soon," said Dr. Ashraf Alhajouj, who recently took Bulgarian citizenship.


The medics left Libya on a French plane with Mr. Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia, clearing the way for a visit by the President in which he sought to forge closer ties with the oil-exporting nation.


"I am happy to be in your country to talk about the future," Mr. Sarkozy wrote in a golden book at the residence.


Ministers of the two countries signed accords on a military-industrial partnership, a nuclear energy project and co-operation in science research and education, officials said.


A British spokesman said Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells was flying to Tripoli yesterday and would meet Libyan ministers to "advance our bilateral relationship."


Bulgaria also said it was considering writing off $54-million (U.S.) in Soviet-era debt it is owed by Libya to contribute to a deal that led to the release of the six medics.


But the warming ties were tempered by concern that the EU not compromise its human-rights credentials by easing pressure on Tripoli over mistreatment of detainees and suspects, and the lack of a free news media.

[Aplomb]

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/eu...zy.libya.reut/

Sarkozy: Trust Arab states with nuclear technology


TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters) -- After agreeing to nuclear cooperation with Libya, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the West should trust Arab states to develop such technology for peaceful purposes or risk a war of civilizations.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy says Arab states shouldn't be prevented from developing nuclear power.







France agreed on Wednesday to help Libya develop a nuclear reactor to supply drinking water from desalinated sea water. The reactor might be supplied by French atomic energy firm Areva.


Sarkozy told reporters in Libya that to consider the Arab world "is not sensible enough to use civilian nuclear power" would, in the long run, risk a "war of civilizations."


"Nuclear power is the energy of the future," he said. "If we don't give the energy of the future to the countries of the southern Mediterranean, how will they develop themselves? And if they don't develop, how will we fight terrorism and fanaticism?"


Many Middle Eastern countries, including some worried about Iran's nuclear program, are interested in developing atomic energy resources.



Claude Gueant, Sarkozy's chief of staff, noted the nuclear cooperation deal means "a country that respects international rules can obtain civilian nuclear energy."


Sarkozy, due to travel to Senegal on Thursday, denied any link between the nuclear deal and the release this week of six foreign medics who spent eight years in Libyan jails and were convicted of infecting hundreds of children with HIV.


He helped clinch the deal between Tripoli and the European Union to free the medics, removing a major obstacle hampering reconciliation between Libya and the West. "The only link one can make, is that if the nurses had not been released, I would not have come," he said.


Areva, the world's biggest maker of nuclear reactors, deals with the full nuclear cycle from mining to waste. Libya said in February it would join Areva in exploring and mining uranium.


Saudi Arabia, along with Gulf Cooperation Council partners Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, announced a joint project for peaceful nuclear energy, mainly for water desalination, in December last year.


Egypt, which suspended an earlier nuclear energy program after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, is looking to revive it to meet energy needs and conserve gas and oil reserves.


Libya and France also signed accords for a military-industrial partnership and cooperation in scientific research and higher education on Wednesday.


"I am trying to reassure a part of the Arab world," said Sarkozy. "There is Libya, but all the other Arab states are looking at the way Libya will be treated following the release of the nurses."


Relations between France and Libya deteriorated after an attack on a French airliner in 1989. France convicted six Libyans in absentia but Tripoli has denied responsibility.

The West lifted sanctions on Libya after it abandoned its weapons of mass destruction programs and world powers are jostling for position in the hope of grabbing lucrative infrastructure contracts from the oil-rich country.

[Aplomb]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/wo...tml?ref=europe

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER
Published: July 26, 2007


SOFIA, Bulgaria, July 25 — Two Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor said Wednesday that they wanted to move on with their lives but were still too shaken after more than eight years in a Libyan prison.


“We are shocked both by freedom and all of the other things that have happened,” one of the nurses, Kristiana Valcheva, said at a news conference. “We are still quite disoriented and confused. We were transferred from hell to heaven.” The doctor, Ashraf al-Hazouz, said, “Now it’s time to relax and think about our lives.”


But Dr. Hazouz criticized the Arab world for failing to speak out against the treatment of the medical workers. “I’m really disappointed with the whole Arab world and how they have treated our case,” said Dr. Hazouz, who was granted Bulgarian citizenship last month. “Only foreigners were accused in this case because they are Christians, and this is against our morals.”


The three others who were freed at the same time did not attend the news conference — the first public appearance by any of the six since they were released and flown to Sofia on a French government plane on Tuesday — because they were reported to be not feeling well. The director of the military hospital where all six medical workers were examined after they arrived said there were no signs so far of serious health problems.


For the other nurse at the news conference, Nasya Nenova, the worst moment was in 1999, when she was told that she was accused of having infected more than 400 children with H.I.V. “If it wasn’t me, they told me, I knew who did,” she said. “And throughout all these difficult years I was asking myself, ‘Why was it me that was chosen to be accused of this evil deed?’ ”


On Tuesday, Ms. Valcheva said, the nurses were awakened at 4 a.m. and told they had three hours to get ready to leave, “because the wife of the French president was going to take us home with a French airplane.” Cécilia Sarkozy, the wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, had flown to Tripoli, Libya, to accompany the six medical workers to Bulgaria after joining the talks that led to the end of their ordeal. All six had been condemned to death.


In contrast to the apartment-like quarters in the prison where the women were kept, Dr. Hazouz said he was separated from them after the 2004 death sentence and confined in isolation in a six-foot-by-six-foot cell. Early on Tuesday, the director of the prison told him he was free to go to Bulgaria if he wanted. “I said, ‘For sure,’ ” Dr. Hazouz recalled, in halting English. “I don’t want to be here anymore in the Arab world.”


President Sarkozy arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday, on the first state visit of a French head of state in Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Libya. French and Libyan officials signed agreements on the environment, migration, economic cooperation and Libya’s cultural heritage. Among the agreements, officials said, was a memorandum of understanding for the installation of a nuclear reactor in Libya for the desalination of water, Reuters reported.


The nurses did not want to speak in detail about the torture they said they had suffered to force confessions. Several said they were denied visits by Bulgarian diplomats during the first months of their captivity, while their wounds were still visible. Ms. Nenova said that when she met a Bulgarian presidential envoy, Hristo Danov, in April 2000, “I managed to whisper into his ear what happened to me in the previous months.”


In a handwritten declaration to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry in 2003, Snezhana Dimitrova, a nurse who was not at the news conference, detailed her two months of torture after her arrest in February 1999. She recounted having her arms tied behind her back and being hung from a door by her arms. “Even when I wasn’t on the door anymore but on the floor, I thought I had no arms,” her statement said. “Tens of men’s legs kicked me, then they made me stand up and started to slap me. Everything hurt.” Ms. Dimitrova wrote that the interpreter was shouting, “Confess, or you will die here.”


Asked if they were ready to testify in a Bulgarian court in a future case against her torturers, Ms. Valcheva said calmly, “Yes, we are ready.”


But she said: “We should always forgive. Whether I will look for revenge, I don’t know. There are so many things I have to think about. These individuals were serving a state. I think I could forgive them. They were not the main reason for everything bad happening to us.”


Ariane Bernard contributed reporting from Paris.

[Aplomb]

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story...&IssueID=30128

Bulgaria pardon sparks outrage

TRIPOLI: Libya yesterday summoned a top Bulgarian diplomat in Tripoli to protest the pardon granted to six medical workers extradited to Bulgaria earlier in the week, an official said.


The formal protest was delivered by Libya's deputy foreign minister in charge of European affairs, Abdelati Laabidi, to the first secretary of the Bulgarian embassy in Tripoli.


"Tripoli protests Sofia's non-compliance with the extradition treaty signed between the two countries in 1984," the memorandum said.


Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov on Tuesday pardoned the nurses involved in an Aids-tainted blood scandal in Libya because, he said, they were innocent.


The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian-born doctor spent eight and a half years in a Libyan jail, half of it on death row after being convicted of deliberately infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus.


The death sentences were commuted to life in prison last week following a financial settlement of $1 million (BD377,000) each to 460 HIV victims' families.


Their extradition was made possible by a treaty signed between Sofia and Tripoli in 1984, which according to a Libyan official has no provision for people convicted of crimes to be pardoned.


The families of the infected children also condemned Bulgaria's "recklessness".


An association of the families said Libya should deport all Bulgarian nationals and stop dealing with Bulgarian companies and demanded the nurses be re-arrested.


"The families expressed their condemnation and resentment at the recklessness of the Bulgarian nation when the president pardoned the nurses," the Libyan Association for the Families of HIV-Infected Children said.


More than 56 children have died and emotions are still strong in the city of Benghazi where the outbreak occurred.


Libya was under heavy pressure to release the nurses or risk hurting its efforts to emerge from decades of diplomatic isolation imposed for what the West called its support of terrorism.


The final deal brokered by the EU, involved the establishment of an international fund to care for the children and EU help to upgrade two hospitals and a medical centre in Benghazi.


Human rights advocates raised concerns yesterday over the pact and said the bloc must not reward Tripoli with full ties. There were concerns that the EU should not compromise its human rights credentials by easing pressure on Tripoli over alleged abuses such as mistreatment of detainees and suspects and the lack of a free media.


Amnesty and Human Rights Watch stressed that while the political deal was to be welcomed, it did not address the shortfalls in the Libyan judiciary system which they argue landed the nurses in jail in the first place.


"We think it is important for the international community to engage with Libya," said Reed Brody, legal counsel for Human Rights Watch.

[Aplomb]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3410568

U.S. says Libya to benefit from medics' release


By Sue Pleming
Jul 24, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice applauded on Tuesday Libya's decision to free six foreign medics and said it opened a path to better relations between Tripoli and the West.


"The United States had repeatedly urged Libya to find a way to allow the medics to return home. This is an important step in Libya's continuing positive re-engagement with the international community," Rice said in a statement.



The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, returned to Bulgaria on Tuesday after a deal between Tripoli and the European Union ended their eight-year ordeal.


"We applaud today's decision," said Rice, who spoke to Bulgaria's foreign minister soon after the six arrived home. The Palestinian doctor recently took Bulgarian citizenship.


Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov called U.S. President George W. Bush to thank him for U.S. help in securing the return of the six, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.


The case had held back Libya's full resumption of normal relations with the United States even though ties had dramatically improved between the two countries since Tripoli gave up weapons of mass destruction in 2003.


"This was a constant reminder that Libya does not play by the same rules," said Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.


"Having this out of the way means that one can deal with Libya merely as a difficult government and not a delusional one," he added.


Rice spokesman Sean McCormack said the top U.S. diplomat had raised the issue of the medics in every meeting she had with the Libyans.


The six medics had always said they were innocent, and foreign HIV experts said the infections were most likely the result of poor hygiene.


UNRESOLVED ISSUES
When it became clear that the medics' case would soon be resolved, U.S. President George W. Bush this month nominated a U.S. ambassador to Libya.



There are still other unresolved issues between the two countries, including compensation for U.S. relatives of victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.



"We want to see the right thing done by American citizens. Ultimately though, the outcome of those discussions is going to be dependent on the Libyan government and the representatives of those families," said McCormack.


Libya has been pushing for a visit by Rice to Tripoli, which would be an obvious sign of improved ties between the two countries. "She will take a look at when is the right time to take a visit there," said McCormack.


The United States helped establish a fund for the HIV victims from the case as part of an international incentive to get the Libyan government to free the foreign medics.


Last week Libya commuted the death sentences against the six to life imprisonment following the payment of a $460 million financial settlement -- $1 million to each HIV victim's family.


The State Department said Washington had given $300,000 to Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine for a pediatric AIDS program it ran in Libya.


"We remain concerned about these young victims and will continue our support for their treatment," said Rice.


Copyright 2007 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Aplomb]

http://www.pr-inside.com/bulgarian-m...on-r184535.htm

Bulgarian medics call for legal action against Libyan officers

2007-07-25 20:06:34 -

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Bulgarian nurses freed by Libya after being held for more than eight years said Wednesday they wanted legal action to be taken against the people they say tortured them while they were held in prison.

«We can forgive, but we cannot forget what has happened to us,» Nasya Nenova, one of the six medics, told a news conference.

Kristiana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova and Ashraf al Hazouz said they were ready to testify in an investigation into 11 Libyan police officers,
which Bulgaria started last January for alleged torture of the medics.

Libya had accused the six of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV; 50 of the children died. The medics, jailed since 1999, were initially sentenced to death, but later had their sentence commuted to life imprisonment. They deny the charge and say their confessions were extracted under torture.

Speaking on Wednesday at their first press conference after returning home, the medics said they could forgive those who tortured them but said they want them tried.

«I could forgive those who tortured us because they were tools in the hands of others who issued the orders,» said Kristiana Valcheva.

Recalling the first months in prison, Nenova said «it was horrifying.

«They tortured us, they did not allow us to have a lawyer. It was only after 13 months that we could meet with our lawyer and try to whisper what they were doing to us.

The Libyans will be investigated for allegedly using coercion, torture and threats _ between February and May 1999 _ to extract false confessions from the medics, which subsequently led to their death sentences, prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov said.

There has been no indication Libya would allow the officers to travel to Bulgaria to take part in any trial.

The medics were sentenced to death twice_ in 2004 and again in 2006, following a Supreme Court appeal. The death sentences were based on the nurses' alleged confessions, but some of the nurses say they are innocent and were beaten and tortured to admit guilt.

In 2005, the nurses had filed suits for torture against 10 Libyan officers, but the charges were rejected by a Libyan court.

On Wednesday, only three of the six medics attend the news conference. A doctor who was accompanying them said the other could not come because of post-traumatic stress.

The medics received an emotional welcome Tuesday from family members, government officials and hundreds of ordinary Bulgarians. They were immediately granted a presidential pardon.

The five nurses _ all mothers _ traveled to Libya nearly a decade ago, attracted by promises of higher paying jobs. They were sent through a Bulgarian recruitment agency to al-Fath Children's Hospital in Libya's second-largest city of Benghazi. They were arrested the year after their arrival.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said that Bulgaria may write off Libya's foreign debt to the country as part of humanitarian aid measures.

Canceling the US$54 million (¤39 million) debt would not be pay back for the release of the five nurses and a Palestinian doctor, Stanishev said.

It should not be viewed «as paying ransom, or admitting (the medical workers') guilt, but rather as a humanitarian gesture,» he said.

Until now, Bulgaria has vehemently rejected the idea of paying compensation to the families, or writing off some of Libya's debt, saying such a move would be seen as an admission of the guilt of the nurses.

European countries have promised millions of dollars to a fund for HIV-infected children in Libya.




«The fund, chaired by an EU representative, is aimed at helping the families of the Libyan HIV-infected children, by providing medical care, medical facilities and training of medical personnel,» Stanishev said.

Libya's decision to allow the six to return to Bulgaria _ nominally to serve out the rest of their life sentences _ came after months of pressure from the United States and the EU, who made clear to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that resolving the issue was key to normalizing relations, a key Libyan goal.

Stanishev said that the return of the medics to Bulgaria shows the positive implications of EU membership for Bulgarian citizens.

«Without EU support we would have hardly achieved this result on our own,» Stanishev said.

Behind Tuesday's dramatic release were secretive negotiations, with the French president's wife as a key protagonist.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin told [COLOR=#0000CC ! important][COLOR=#0000CC ! important]journalists[/COLOR][/COLOR] that the last 48 hours were the most dramatic in the release efforts.

«At 2 a.m. on Tuesday, just hours before their departure, Mrs. Cecilia Sarkozy threatened to break off the negotiations and leave Tripoli,» Kalfin said, adding that this was the decisive moment in the medics' release.

[COLOR=#0000CC ! important][COLOR=#0000CC ! important]Nurse[/COLOR][/COLOR] Kristiana Valcheva said that during her first trip to Libya Cecilia Sarkozy had promised them they will be free soon.

«She kept her promise,» Valcheva said.

[Aplomb]

http://www.huliq.com/28254/bulgaria-...ff-libyas-debt

Bulgaria may write off Libya's debt

Submitted by Dinka on Wed, 2007-07-25 16:48. Posted under:

• World
• Bulgaria
• HIV-infected children
• Libya

Bulgaria may write off the $54 million debt Libya owes it, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said Wednesday. He said the move must not be seen as the Bulgarian government's response to Libya's decision to release five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, now a Bulgarian national.


"It must not be regarded as payment to the Libyan authorities for the release of our citizens or as recognition of their guilt. It is, rather, an act of humanitarian aid," he said.


The medics, who were convicted and sentenced to death for infecting Libyan children with HIV, arrived in the Bulgarian capital Sofia Tuesday after being freed by Libya under a deal with the European Union on medical aid, trade and improved political ties.


Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul-Rahman Shalqam said his country and the EU agreed to pursue a "full partnership" after the medics' release. Under the agreement, the EU pledged to provide "life-long treatment" to the infected children as well as assistance to "improve the Benghazi Hospital" where the children were infected, Shalqam said.


The six medics have been imprisoned in the North African country since 1999 over the infection of over 400 children with the deadly virus in the Mediterranean town of Benghazi, despite intense international pressure to free them.


The medics were found guilty and sentenced to death twice, first in 2004 and then in 2006 after a court appeal.


Bulgaria, the European Union and the United States insisted that the defendants were being used as scapegoats to deflect attention from the poor state of Libya's health service.


Foreign experts, backed up by international scientific reports, testified in court that the infections began before the medics' arrival, and were caused by poor hygiene in the Benghazi hospital.


Libya's Supreme Court overturned the last possible appeal July 11, upholding the death sentences, but the Libyan High Judicial Council's ruling later in July commuted the foreign nationals' sentences to life imprisonment, and Libyan authorities suggested that deportation to Bulgaria was a possibility.


Bulgaria made an official request last Thursday for Tripoli to repatriate the medics to serve their sentences in Bulgaria. Bulgarian President Georgi

Parvanov pardoned the medics immediately upon their arrival in the country.


Compensation totaling $1 million for each infected child has been paid to the 460 children's families. Fifty-six of the children have died. The cash was raised by an international fund financed mainly by the EU and the U.S. - RIA Novosti

[Aplomb]

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Kadhafi..._07252007.html

Kadhafi thanks Qatar for mediating end to medics' row

Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi has thanked the Qatari emir for helping to mediate a deal that led to the release of six foreign medics convicted of infecting children with the AIDS virus, state-run JANA news agency reported Wednesday.


Kadhafi phoned Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani late Tuesday and "thanked him for the role he played in the efforts made by France to secure an agreement with the Kadhafi Foundation ... and the European Commission," JANA said.


The agency did not elaborate but said Sheikh Hamad expressed his "happiness" and said the role he played "reflected the profound links between Qatar and Libya."


France and the European Commission had also paid homage to the emir's mediation, which led to the release Tuesday of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor after eight years of detention in Libya.


A source close to the negotiations in Tripoli said French President Nicolas Sarkozy had asked the Qatari emir to intervene with Kadhafi to help secure a deal for the release of the medics.


The six had been given death sentences, commuted to life imprisonment, for allegedly infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood in a Libyan hospital, despite testimony by internationally respected AIDS researchers that poor hygiene was to blame. Fifty-six of the children have since died.


The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who also has Bulgarian citizenship were released early Tuesday and were flown to Sofia on board a French government jet.


They were accompanied by French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy and European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who had both been working hard for their release.


"What kept me going was the fact that I am innocent and that I believe that if there is no human justice, there is God's justice and it will come some day," one nurse, Kristiana Valcheva, told Bulgarian television.


"In the coming days I will try to learn how to be free. Thank God it is over. I hope to start my life anew."


Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov immediately pardoned the six, and lashed out at Libya.


"It is a pity that the Libyan judiciary did not take into account the undeniable judicial and scientific evidence of the medics' innocence. It did not consider the glaring abuses of our compatriots' human rights," he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Europe had not paid "the slightest financial compensation" for the medics' release.


But others, including Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham, said that both Paris and Brussels had contributed to the deal's bottom line.


The Kadhafi Foundation, run by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif
al-Islam, said that about one million dollars per infected child had been paid.


An EU "memorandum" unveiled by Ferrero-Waldner committed the European Commission to paying 461 million dollars from a fund it had set up -- named after the Libyan town of Benghazi where the HIV infections occurred -- to a Libyan economic and social development fund.


Ferrero-Waldner said the money, which may be added to by member states, was not too high a price.


"It's about the lives of people who were in jail for eight and a half years," she said. "From a tragic situation we have hope for a whole region."


A spokesman for the families of the HIV-infected children, Idriss Lagha, told AFP in Libya that some families were already spending their compensation.


He said some now drove luxury cars, others had made donations to a pediatric hospital and a mosque, and a few of the men had opted to take a second wife.


The international community was quick to hail the outcome -- credit for which was widely claimed.


Sarkozy, who is to visit Tripoli on Wednesday, said: "We solved a problem.... We had to get them out, we got them out. That is what counts."


German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stressed that much of the "long and difficult" negotiations had been conducted in the first half of this year, when Germany held the rotating EU presidency.


The White House said Bulgaria had thanked President George W. Bush "for the assistance and support of the United States resulting in the safe return of the Bulgarian nurses and doctor."


Russia's foreign ministry praised Tripoli for its "constructive approach" and said: "Russia was among the first countries Sofia turned to for aid in resolving this drama, and throughout Russia was taking steps both political and otherwise to ease the fate of jailed medics."


Rights groups, though, were outraged at the treatment experienced by the medics, who said their confessions early in the case were extracted under torture.


This was a "case that has been riddled with injustice and caused enormous suffering to all involved," Amnesty International said in a statement.


Physicians for Human Rights warned that "there is nothing to prevent the future scapegoating of foreign health workers and holding them hostage in exchange for foreign aid."


One of the freed nurses speaking to Bulgarian television, Snezhana Dimitrova, said: "I want to forget the horror we lived through, I do not want to talk about it, I even spared my family the details about what we really went through."


The grey-haired, hollow-cheeked woman added that "I left there a country (Libya) with a vicious problem. I regret that I was chosen as one of the scapegoats for solving it."

[Aplomb]

http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL27757020.html

Libya seen to ask Arab League to cut Bulgaria ties

Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:37 GMT

RABAT (Reuters) - Libya has called on other Arab countries to cut diplomatic and economic ties with Bulgaria after it pardoned six medics that Libya had jailed for infecting hundreds of children with HIV, a news Web site said on Friday.


"Libya yesterday asked for an urgent meeting of the Arab League to see if it can take a united decision to cut all diplomatic relations with Bulgaria as well as financial and economic relations," London-based Arabic online newspaper Libya al-Youm (Libya Today) reported.


It said the demand was made by Abdelmounaim al Houni, Libya's permanent representative at the Arab League, in a formal note given to the League's Secretary General Amr Moussa and would be discussed on Monday at the league's regular meeting.

No Libyan officials were immediately available for comment.


The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were freed as soon as they arrived in Bulgaria after the European Union struck a cooperation deal with Tripoli that ended their eight-year imprisonment.


Libya said the pardon violated earlier agreements with Bulgaria and the HIV victims' families condemned Bulgaria's "recklessness", demanding the medical workers be re-arrested by Interpol. Bulgarian officials said the pardon was legal.


A diplomatic source said Libya had intended the medics to serve their remaining sentences after their transfer and referred to an article in the prisoner exchange agreement to that effect.


"There is no official claim from Libya asking for breaking off diplomatic relations with Bulgaria," Bulgarian deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev told national radio BNR on Friday. "We have also no official information the country has appealed to the Arab League either."


Jailed since 1999, the six were twice condemned to death. Last week Libya commuted the sentences to life in prison after the 460 HIV victims' families were paid $1 million (492,000 pounds) each in a settlement financed by an international fund.


(Additional reporting by Kremena Miteva in Sofia)

[Aplomb]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26876366.htm

Palestinian doctor will not forgive Libyan jailors
26 Jul 2007 17:17:43 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Anna Mudeva SOFIA, July 26 (Reuters) - Palestinian doctor Ashraf Alhajouj says he will never forgive Libyan jailors who he says tortured him and five Bulgarian nurses to confess they deliberately infected hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. "We were treated like animals. We were tortured in an awful way, with electricity, we were beaten, deprived of sleep," the grey-haired 38-year-old said. "We cannot forget. Only God can forgive, I will never forgive". The Palestinian, who recently received Bulgarian citizenship, and the nurses were freed on Tuesday after more than eight years in detention, under a cooperation deal between Libya and the European Union. The six, who were sentenced to death on two occasions, have always maintained their innocence and said they confessed under torture. Bulgaria and other European governments had also said the medics were innocent and pushed for their release. "Up to the last moment in my life I will be trying to clear my name and prove that we are innocent,"

Alhajouj told reporters on Thursday at a government residential complex on the outskirts of Sofia. "I grew up in Libya, I never had anything against the Libyan people. We were scapegoats, there was not a shred of evidence against us," he said, looking tired and emotional. The North African country jailed Alhajouj, who was born in Egypt but spent most of his life in Libya, in 1999 just two months before he was due to complete his internship in a hospital in the city of Benghazi where the outbreak occurred. He and the Bulgarian nurses were charged with intentionally infecting more than 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS. The doctor said his jailors tortured him into putting his fingerprints on blank paper on which they later wrote that he had confessed to deliberately starting the epidemic. BLAMES POOR HOSPITAL HYGIENE He said he was convinced that Libya's inefficient healthcare system was to blame for the HIV epidemic. "The hospital was like a place for livestock. It was very dirty, there was a huge shortage of medical supplies," he said. Relatives of the sick children say the infections were part of a Western attempt to undermine Muslims and Libya. More than 50 children died. Last week, Libya commuted the medics' death sentences to life imprisonment after the 460 HIV victims' families were paid $1 million each in a settlement financed by an international fund. But emotions still run high in Benghazi where the families condemned Bulgaria for pardoning the six upon their transfer to Sofia on Tuesday. Alhajouj said he was disappointed at the lack of support in the Islamic world during his ordeal. "I had no government to protect me ... Arab media started recognising my existence only after I received Bulgarian citizenship," the doctor said. His parents and four sisters left Libya for the Netherlands in 2005 because of growing animosity. He has not decided yet whether he will join his family or stay in Bulgaria. "I'm a free man at last, I have a huge choice," the doctor said. "I just want to think about good things now."

[American Patriot]

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/08/0...ame-old-libya/

Aplomb -- Watch, listen and be proud that the word is OUT.

Good work.

Rick