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Books on Libya
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
1,759,540
Population
5,499,074
Capital
Tripoli
Currency
Libyan dinar
Leader
Col Mu'amar al-Qadhafi
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Update No: 020 - (01/07/05)
Immigration Control and an Appearance from the
Opposition
In a follow-up to discussions held earlier in the year, Libya and the
European Union (EU) have agreed to take a joint stand against illegal
immigration having finally reached a cooperation plan. Italy was one of the
countries from the European side that was most eager to see the plan go though,
as of the illegal migrants are reaching its shores - often the island of
Lampedusa - from the long Libyan coast and specifically the city of Zu'wara.
Indeed, Italy has been criticized lately for human rights violations after it
sent groups of migrants back to Libya to meet an uncertain fate. Nevertheless, a
EU delegation will head to Tripoli shortly to open direct talks with the Libyan
government over concrete immigration control measures. Among the main items on
the table are the training of administrative personnel, the establishment of
naval and air units to monitor waters and the highly controversial, detention-centres,
which would be built in the Libyan desert to stop potential migrants before they
can reach the coast. In this context, Europe would also help train Libyan border
police and provide military equipment and vehicles to facilitate the task.
Libya, in turn, would have to guarantee that it would respect human rights,
collaborate with UNHCR and agree to cooperation terms established in the
Barcelona Process, the mechanism favouring dialogue between the European and
Middle Eastern - North African states on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Nevertheless, as hinted in the June update, the European Union has threatened to
decline cooperation with Libya if there was no satisfactory resolution to the
trial of the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian medic accused of infecting
400 children with AIDS at a Benghazi hospital in 1999. The Libyan courts have
been dilly-dallying with the outcome, by postponing the final verdict on several
occasions. The group of six currently faces a death sentence, which is under
appeal. At the end of last May, the Bulgarian president visited Tripoli to add
pressure, while the EU warned Libya, that if the sentence were not repealed, it
would cut many ties. Indeed, the pressure had some effect, as Libya postponed
the verdict to November 15 leaving room to sign agreements with the EU while not
quite bowing to pressure. The EU has confirmed that cooperation would begin in
matters relating to immigration control. Jonathan Faull, general Director for
Justice, Freedom and Security of the Commission (who works directly under Franco
Frattini, EU Commissioner for justice, and former Italian foreign affairs
minister noted for toeing the conservative party line in matter of immigration)
said that "it would be irresponsible to wait until November, there are
people dying in the Mediterranean."
Italy is the true winner, as its proposals, which were not supported by many EU
members, will pass. The cooperation with Libya will have its costs and these
will be shared by the EU as a whole, given that the migrants are using Italy as
merely their point of entry to the wider EU. The Libyan -EU cooperation plan on
immigration will serve as a model to be extended to other North African
countries. Nevertheless, the sentence of the Bulgarian nurses looms over the
deal and uncertainty prevails. Both the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov and
the EU commissioner for external relations Beneta Valdner welcomed the decision,
but the families of the infected children demonstrated before the court in
protest of the decision to postpone the sentence chanting slogans "we do
not want compensation; we want death penalty for the killers." While many
demonstrations in Libya are stage managed, the confrontations suggest Libya is
not yet ready to give in to Europe. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian government doubted
the effectiveness of the Libyan judiciary after three Libyan police officers
accused by the nurses of having tortured them to extract false confessions were
found not guilty. Therefore, while there is some satisfaction that the sentence
has been postponed, there is also frustration over a perceived failure of
justice by the Libyan justice system. Bulgaria will maintain pressure, as
Parvanov said he would appoint a special envoy to EU commissioner for external
relations to be responsible for the communication between the two institutions
concerning the AIDS trial in Libya. Parvanov is working in conjunction with the
EU and wants to establish communications directly with the families of the
victims of the AIDS debacle.
The Libyan opposition returns - with an interesting statement
Although less organized than opposition movements elsewhere in the Arab
world, there are a number of small movements with ambitions to topple the
Qadhafi regime in Libya. However, whereas unlike opposition elements (such as
the Iraqi Kurds and self-proclaimed democrats such as Ahmed Chalabi, or the
Lebanese and Syrian resistance working with Washington), the Libyan groups
overwhelmingly rejected the option of foreign and, specifically American aid to
topple the regime. Some 300 Libyan oppositionists said they would not
"return back on the deck of an American tank to Tripoli" to achieve
their objectives of toppling the regime of the Libyan President Muammar al-Qadhafi,
as a first step to establish "rule of law" Libya. The opposition met
in London and asked that Qadhafi leave peacefully. The opposition would then
establish an interim government and a constitution (Libya's current
constitutional arrangement might be said to be the 'Green Book') backed by the
election of a constituent national society. That constitution would be inspired
from the constitution of 1951, which was approved and ratified by the
constituent national society under the supervision of the UN Security Council on
Libya. The participants were adamant in refuting any notion of military foreign
intervention to achieve the desired political reforms in the country. Some of
the groups in attendance were the National Alliance; the National Front for
Libya's Rescue; the Republican Coalition for Democracy and Justice, the Libyan
National Front, the Libyan Movement for Change and Reforms, and the Islamic
Coalition, among others of various political colours including moderate
Islamists.
Oil - Shell to add exploration rights in Libya
Royal Dutch/Shell Group is expected to bid for more oil and gas exploration
rights after having secured, in May, rights to drill in a
20,000-square-kilometer area in Libya, as part of a contract to increase the
North African state's gas production. Shell is evaluating the data from about 44
plots offered in Libya's second auction for drilling rights. The winners will be
announced on Oct. 2. The rising price of oil suggests that Libya should have no
trouble achieving its desired investment target of US$ 30 billion to double
production capacity to 3 mm bpd before the end of the decade. Shell said it
would invest $637m in Libya, to search for gas in five plots covering an
enormous area (roughly the size of Holland) and to maintain and increase the
capacity of the country's only gas liquefaction plant, built in 1971. The
contract came through talks between Shell and Libya's state-owned National Oil
Corp outside of the recently held tenders. Shell, as well as other European oil
majors, lost to US bids on the last round but the separate acreage it has been
given to explore is in the area of Sirte, which the company says is very
prolific.
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