Libyan Foreign Minister Omar al-Muntasser warned in an interview published
Friday that tightening UN sanctions against Libya over the Lockerbie affair
would put at risk the livelihood of around a million foreign workers in the
country.
Talking to pan-Arab al-Hayat's New York correspondent Ms Ragheda Dergham,
Muntasser said Tripoli was prepared to place the two Libyans indicted by the
U.S. and Britain in connection with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over
Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people died, under the jurisdiction of the
Arab League and to discuss other alternatives to break the deadlock provided the
pair are not made to stand trial in the United States or Scotland against their
will.
() WORKERS: Muntasser said tightening the UN sanctions imposed on Libya two
and a half years ago because of its refusal to hand over the two men for trial
in the United States or Britain would also damage the interests of Washington's
Western allies.
Increasing the sanctions and banning Libyan oil sales, as the United States
favors, would obviously hurt the Libyans, Muntasser said. But it would also hurt
Tunisia, Egypt, Chad, Niger and other neighboring countries whose nationals work
in Libya.
"If there is an oil embargo, we will have no revenue or job opportunities
for the nationals of these countries, which have around one million workers in
Libya," he said. "We will be forced to ask them to return (to their countries)
or to stay in Libya without work."
The United States' and Britain's allies also have interests in Libya,
Muntasser noted. They buy Libyan oil and have investments in the country. Italy,
for instance, has huge investments in the oil sector, he said, adding that the
Mideast Mirror, October 14, 1994
Italian firm Agip operates the biggest oil fields in Libya. So do German, French
and Spanish firms.
Moreover, said Muntasser, "and this has always surprised me, our economic
ties with Britain were never severed and the volume of trade with it is bigger
than with any other European country, except for oil (sales). The volume of
(bilateral trade) with Britain stands at around $ :500 million and the British
expatriate community is the biggest European community in the jamahiriyyah. If
they are blind even to their interests, they should ask their citizens if what
they are doing serves British interests."
But Muntasser told al-Hayat that Libya would give Britain more information
on its dealings with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) at a meeting expected to
take place in Cairo later this month.
Libya, complying with a UN Security Council resolution, gave Britain some
information on arms shipments to the IRA at meetings in Cairo and Geneva in 1992
and Britain then asked for more details.
Muntasser said the dispute with Britain over the IRA should have ended now
that the IRA has announced a cease-fire and a peace process is under way in
Northern Ireland.
Mideast Mirror, October 14, 1994
But he added: "The information they asked for has been given and the
meetings are continuing. We hope there will be a meeting this month with the
British to complete all the questions which they raised." The meeting would be
held in Cairo at ambassador level.
() OPTION: Libya has offered to try the two Lockerbie suspects -- Abdelbaset
al -Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah -- at the International Court of Justice
in The Hague under Scottish law.
Muntasser said the two men had agreed to be tried by a Scottish tribunal
under Scottish law albeit outside Scotland. He said they refused to stand trial
either in the U.S. or Scotland, chiefly because the "media and political climate
(there) is hostile to them," and Tripoli could not force them to go to either
place against their will.
Asked if it was right that the entire Libyan people should be held hostage
to two men who refuse to stand trial in a court in a specific country, Muntasser
said: "It is wrong (to put it this way). Even assuming that the two accused did
commit the Lockerbie crime, it is wrong to punish an entire people for the deed
of two individuals."
Mideast Mirror, October 14, 1994
Pressed to say if there was any new proposal that could break the stalemate,
Muntasser said Libya had discussed with an Arab League committee the option of
delivering the two suspects to the League, which would decide on the location of
the trial, after consultations with the Security Council and the UN
secretary-general, provided it was outside the United States and the United
Kingdom.
What was new in this formula, he said, is that the two men would no longer
be under Libyan jurisdiction. The Arab League would have authority over them, so
that any agreement reached on a formula for the trial would be implemented
without Libyan interference.
Muntasser said there could be other options, but he did not want to go into
them so as not to leave the Libyans open to the charge that they are changing
their mind. "But we are prepared to discuss with them (Americans and British) if
they have any other options provided the two suspects are not taken to Scotland
or the United States against their will."
The Libyan foreign minister said his country was ready to engage in a
dialogue with any side, "but unfortunately, with America in particular, there is
a dialogue of the deaf."
Mideast Mirror, October 14, 1994
Pointing to the Libyan envoy to the UN, Muntasser said, "If (Washington's UN
Ambassador) Madeleine Albright walks by now and he tells her 'good morning', she
will not answer. It's become childish."
() DOMESTIC: On domestic issues, Muntasser dismissed a question on why
second -in-command Maj. Abdessalam Jalloud had dropped out of sight for a long
time before reappearing recently, fuelling speculation of a rift in the Libyan
leadership.
"Disappeared? He (Jalloud) has been there all the time. This is the figment
of some people's imagination. As far as we are concerned, Jalloud did not
disappear. He did not hold a specific post even in the past... Jalloud is a
revolutionary who contributed to the revolution and has an ongoing role."
Asked if and when the Libyan official discourse would stop labelling the
opposition with epithets such as "stray dogs," Muntasser said: "As long as they
are there they will be labelled stray dogs. This is because the opposition as it
stands now amounts to an escape from reality. They are escapees. Many of them
were state employees who contributed to the (1969) revolution, and when their
personal interests were affected by the revolutionary movement they turned into
opposition."
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