TUNIS, 7 December 2003 — A summit of European and North African nations ended yesterday with pledges to fight terrorism and illegal immigration but the gathering was marked by internal disputes that thwarted any real breakthroughs.
“The countries reiterated their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms,” said a statement issued at the end of a two-day summit that brought together five southern European countries and five of their counterparts from across the Mediterranean.
Leaders from the 10 nations confirmed their commitment to join forces to crackdown on illegal immigration, money laundering and drug and arms trafficking.
But the summit in this seaside North African capital was marked mainly by discord, notably one between France and Libya over greater compensation for French families of victims of a 1989 airliner bombing.
The UTA plane was downed in a bomb attack over the Niger desert, killing 170 people. Six Libyans — including the son-in-law of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi — were convicted in absentia for the attack by a Paris court. On-again, off-again talks have failed to win demands for greater compensation.
French President Jacques Chirac said that talks between the Libyan negotiating team and the victims’ families have restarted but there was still no agreement. “Relations with Libya are always very complicated,” Chirac told a press conference in unusually candid comments that showed the French leader’s frustration.
The lack of an agreement “could certainly and unfortunately have a negative effect on the relaunch of our bilateral relations and, as a result, on the reintegration of Libya in the international community,” Chirac said.
A partial deal was signed Sept. 10, which cleared the way for a United Nations vote that lifted 11-year-old sanctions against Libya. However, the accord did not set a compensation amount. Victims’ families are seeking additional compensation on top of $33 million that Libya already paid in 1999. Libya offered an extra $1 million for each family, but that was rejected.
Qaddafi, the only leader who did not applaud Chirac’s two speeches at the summit, told reporters that negotiations were progressing. “This problem is on the way to being resolved,” he said after the summit closed. Qaddafi was also the only leader who did not give his own speech at the summit’s opening ceremony on Friday.
Asked why he chose not to address his peers, Qaddafi replied: “Words are silver, but silence is gold.” The “5 plus 5 summit,” as the grouping is called, was a rare chance for leaders from North Africa — Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania and Libya - to meet for friendly talks with leaders from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta.
Regional cooperation in North Africa has been thwarted for decades by a dispute over Western Sahara, a territory on Africa’s Atlantic Coast. Morocco claims the territory as its own.
On Friday, Chirac urged the countries to work harder to resolve their differences, a remark that seemed directed at Morocco and Algeria, which are at odds in the dispute. “I want to ... make a solemn call to our North African partners to deepen their dialogue,” Chirac said.
For European leaders, the meeting also offered a chance to show they haven’t forgotten their Muslim neighbors to the south as the European Union expands to take in 10 new members in 2004. At the closest point, Europe and North Africa are separated only by a 12-kilometer stretch of water between Spain and Morocco.
