Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004
Colonel Muammer Gadaffi warned yesterday that Libya was prepared to sponsor and harbour "freedom fighters" if his offer to the west of peace, including his decision to give up weapons of mass destruction, was rejected.
"I hope we shall not be prompted or obliged by any evil to go back or to look backwards," the Libyan leader told an audience in Brussels of European Union officials, journalists and security guards.
Beginning a landmark visit to Europe that ends years of isolation, Mr Gadaffi defended his support for "freedom fighters" and said he hoped "we shall not be obliged or forced one day to go back to those days when we bomb our cars or put explosive belts around our beds and around our women so that we will not be searched and not be harassed in our bedrooms and in our homes, as it is taking place now in Iraq and in Palestine".
The remarks caught his hosts by surprise. Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, had spent most of his short speech praising the Libyan leader, mentioning in passing German and Bulgarian disputes and other human rights violations.
Germany, however, has taken a tougher line, being prepared to block Libya joining the "Barcelona process" that brings together most of the north African and Middle Eastern countries under an EU umbrella. Only recently Mr Gadaffi said he would recognise Israel - a condition for membership of the group.
However, Germany also wants Libya to compensate victims of the bombing of the La Belle disco in Berlin in 1986.
Bulgaria - a candidate for EU membership - has been seeking the release of six Bulgarian medical workers arrested in Libya five years ago, accused of spreading the HIV/Aids virus.
Nevertheless, Mr Prodi said he was "happy" with Mr Gadaffi's visit. Flanked by the colonel, behind whom stood three female bodyguards in blue uniforms, he added: "This is the result of five years of personal contacts and discussions between the two of us." Since becoming Commission president in 2000, Mr Prodi has been criticised by several EU countries for seeking official contacts with Mr Gadaffi, in spite of the UN and EU embargo.
Mr Gadaffi responded to Mr Prodi's short, prepared statement, by briefly dwelling on "the hospitality accorded to me".
He then moved on to a rambling criticism of the colonial period. He singled out Europeans "who used the Mediterranean for troops, soldiers, occupation and colonialisation. This result was negative. Both parties lost", he said.
The Arabs were criticised too. "They had occupied Spain for 800 years to no avail. What is left is only ruins and remains, just for sightseeing. No one would repeat that experience once more," warned Mr Gadaffi.
In another taunt for the west, he said his decision to get rid of weapons of mass destruction was a signal to the US and China to do the same. Now that Libya was no longer isolated, he added, the Europeans needed the country for its oil and gas and business. Europe also needed young immigrants because Europe's population was ageing.
Libya "is a gateway to Europe and a gateway to Africa. There is no security without Libya", he said.
By JUDY DEMPSEY
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