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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 March 1999 Issue No. 420 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 March 1999 Issue No. 420
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Special Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters On the road
By Nevine KhalilWith a bright warm sun shining every day this week, conditions were optimum for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to stage several outdoor events and excursions in the course of his seven-day visit to Egypt. Not one to be deterred by restrictions on mobility, Gaddafi set up a tent in the garden of the Qubba presidential palace for his Cairo engagements, traveled to Fayoum for a public rally with leading tribesmen from across the country, drove to 6 October city for a tour of the media production centre and is scheduled to visit Alexandria today before returning home.
But Gaddafi's agenda for the Cairo visit was not simply to put on a dazzling show. His sojourn came shortly after a one-month ultimatum was issued by the United States and Britain for handing over two Libyan nationals suspected of engineering the 1988 PanAm bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people were killed.
Libya's previous refusal to turn over the two suspects resulted in the UN arms and air embargo that has been in force since 1992. Last month, a breakthrough was made following Saudi Arabian and South African mediation efforts. The United States and Britain agreed to try the suspects in The Hague according to Scottish law, and Libya said that, if found guilty, the two men could serve sentence in a Scottish jail.
"All the indicators are positive," said Gaddafi this week. "All the parties have agreed on the principles for resolving the issue; what is left are simple matters regarding the guarantees."
Cairo, with an eye on regional stability, would like Gaddafi to seize this opportunity for resolving the standoff and join the world community once again. Tripoli still wants guarantees that the trial of the two suspects will not become a trial of the Libyan regime and its alleged support of terrorism. Libya also demands that UN sanctions be lifted, and not only suspended, as soon as the two men are turned over.
US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, after meeting Foreign Minister Amr Moussa on Tuesday, said that "the ball is now in Libya's court". Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid was optimistic after meeting with Gaddafi on Sunday. He described the current situation as "encouraging", and added that "since the beginning, the Libyans were flexible and ready for a peaceful resolution".
Arriving by car at the border city of Marsa Matrouh last Friday, Gaddafi decided to continue his journey to Cairo in a motorcade, rather than fly to the capital, perhaps to drive home the point that, even without a flight embargo, his preference lies with rough road transport. Gaddafi was met in Cairo by President Mubarak. The two immediately went into one-on-one talks in a tent put up on the lawn of the Qubba palace.
Talks between the two leaders, which spanned several meetings during the week, focused on ideas for resolving the Lockerbie issue. These ideas include a three-month extension of the ultimatum to secure guarantees that Libya's demands will be met or, alternatively, dispatching Arab ministers to Washington, London and The Hague to discuss the Libyan demands.
Apart from Lockerbie, Gaddafi, hailed in Cairo by his new title "the great leader of the Fateh Revolution", spent long hours discussing his views on several issues with businessmen, intellectuals, students and the press. Prominent among these was Gaddafi's desire for closer ties with Africa, a switch from his erstwhile pan-Arabism. Gaddafi has recently received several African leaders, who flew to Libya after the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) decided in September to ignore the UN-imposed air embargo.
Gaddafi denied that his change of heart was a result of African defiance of the UN sanctions, in contrast with Arab complacency toward the suffering of the Libyan people. He told intellectuals that his reasons were that the Arabs have "surrendered to the US-Zionist scheme", alluding to close Arab-US ties and Arab-Israeli relations.
Gaddafi strongly criticised the current state of Arab affairs, describing pan-Arabism as "the phoenix -- a myth that does not exist". He compared the Arab world to "a weak and diseased body" but also revived his proposal for Arab integration. "My project of an Arab Federation attempts to breathe life into the lifeless body of Arab unity," he argued. Gaddafi, who also suggested an immediate merger between Egypt and Libya, said that his harsh reproach of the Arabs was his attempt "to save pan-Arabism from a black fate...a disaster".
While Gaddafi was discussing the Lockerbie crisis with leading Egyptian writers and academics on Tuesday, a French court was hearing testimony in a case brought against six Libyan secret service agents, accused of engineering another mid-air explosion. Some 170 people died in the 1989 bombing of a French UTA DC-10 over the Sahara Desert in Niger. The six Libyans are being tried in absentia for "murder or complicity in murder connected with terrorism" -- charges which carry a sentence of life imprisonment under French law. Paris opted for a trial in absentia after Libyan authorities cooperated with a French anti-terrorism magistrate, who visited Tripoli and returned with a replica of the booby-trapped suitcases that destroyed the UTA and PanAm flights. (see p.2)
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