Dear Muammar

Dear Muammar: A Note to Muammar Gaddafi

On behalf of the 270 people killed aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988,

On behalf of all of those killed and victimized by Charles Taylor and the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, for whom you served as one of the key initial backers,

On behalf of all of those killed and victimized in Sierra Leone by Revolutionary United Front forces who attended guerrilla training camps in Libya,

On behalf of all those killed, victimized and displaced by the propagation of Arab supramacism in the Sudanese region of Darfur, which you helped create by aiding in the formation the Arab supremacist organisation Tajamu al-Arabi,

And on behalf of your own people, who you continue to victimize,

I sincerely hope, failing the proper processes against you by the International Criminal Court, that you soon come to the Benito Mussolini-like end that you so richly deserve.

Regards,

MD

LIBYA: ‘‘King of Kings’’ Gaddafi Tries to Flex Regional Muscles

LIBYA: ‘‘King of Kings’’ Gaddafi Tries to Flex Regional Muscles

By Michael Deibert

Inter Press Service

PARIS, Apr 24, 2009 (IPS) - Former pariah and now Europe’s cautious partner, Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi seems determined to flex new-found diplomatic muscles on issues ranging from trade to regional security, North Africa observers say.

Elected to a one-year term to lead the 53-nation African Union (AU) in February, Gaddafi has been acting energetically in that role and in his capacity as the guiding force behind the Communauté des Etats Sahélo-Sahariens (Community of Sahel-Saharan States, or CEN-SAD).

Promoting an idiosyncratic brand of pan-continental leadership, Gaddafi has been welcomed back into the European Union’s (EU) good books after Libya announced in 2003 that it was abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

He has made his presence felt in recent months on a host of subject affecting relations between Europe and Africa.

Read the full article here.

Controversy Follows Gaddafi's Rapprochement With Europe

Controversy Follows Gaddafi's Rapprochement With Europe

By Michael Deibert

Inter Press Service

PARIS, Dec 31, 2007 (IPS) - The re-emergence of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi into the diplomatic good graces of Europe has met with a decidedly mixed response, even in some of the governments ostensibly courting his favour.

Gaddafi's official visits to France and Spain earlier this month, the first in decades, come on the heels of an attendance at the European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon, also in December, and have lead to furious debates and soul searching about his past actions and the EU's much-professed commitment to human rights.

Read the full article here.

L'Affaire Libyenne Shows a New Policy

L'Affaire Libyenne Shows a New Policy

By Michael Deibert

Inter Press Service

PARIS, Aug 27 (IPS) - When the government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi freed five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor after eight years in prison last month, it marked not only the latest twist in Gaddafi's idiosyncratic rule, but was seen as the opening salvo of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's new diplomatic modus operandi in Africa and beyond.

Following long negotiations by the European Union (EU) to secure the release of the medical workers, who had been sentenced to death following the Libyan government's accusation that they intentionally infected more than 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus, Sarkozy's wife Cecilia swooped into Tripoli to leave with the six prisoners on a plane to Bulgaria.

EU commissioner for foreign affairs Benita Ferrero-Waldner who was on the plane was left to appear as if she were hitching a ride.

Read the full story here.