The case of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor convicted by Libya for deliberately infecting children with the HIV virus brings together complex political and ethical issues. The six were finally released last week after eight years in detention.
The innocents in this case are first and foremost the 426 children who were infected of whom 56 have now died. They are closely followed by the nurses and the doctor who were chosen as convenient scapegoats by the Libyan authorities. The idea that they could have infected the children deliberately is absurd (quite apart from the fact that the infections occurred before their arrival at the hospital). The idea that they did this because they must have been Mossad agents is sadly both predictable and preposterous. The confessions obtained by torture are also unfortunately part of a predictable course. The political and economic gain obtained by Col. Qaddafi by this travesty of justice is at once admirable for its audacity and shameful for its ruthlessness.
As for the West, it was faced with a familiar dilemma. Here was an underdeveloped oil-rich country led by a man who did not abide by their rules. In other words, here was a country laden with opportunity if only Col. Qaddafi could magically be transformed from pariah to a man we can do business with as Margaret Thatcher famously said of Mikhail Gorbatchev.
In today’s world Thatcher is a man by the name of Nicholas Sarkozy. The president of France was quick to see and seize the opportunity to do business with Libya. He is by no means the first to knock on Libya’s door, quite the opposite. The US is about to send its first ambassador to Tripoli in 35 years. Britain’s then Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Tripoli back in 2005 and was energetic in bringing Libya back into the political fold. But the case of the Bulgarian medics stood in the way of full economic and political ties with the EU. Something had to be done. Where Blair failed, Sarkozy triumphed — with a little help from his wife Cecilia.
The role of the Sarkozys in the release of the Bulgarian medics has been criticized and even ridiculed. What was Cecilia Sarkozy — unelected and without official credentials — doing at the negotiating table in Tripoli? One MEP went as far as to refer to it as a form of marital therapy. Others have accused France of grandstanding. The EU commissioner for external affairs — Benita Ferrero-Walder — has worked ferociously hard to secure the medics’ release. She has made countless trips to Tripoli and brokered a complex deal that delivered both the release of the medics and the full normalization of relations between the EU and Libya. No mean deal. On the last stretch, she was helped by Cecilia Sarkozy.
As the wife of one the most powerful men in Europe, Cecilia Sarkozy was in a unique position as a negotiator; she had access to power without the ties of office. This made her the perfect catalyst for success.
The fact that the medics were flown home on a French government plane is no doubt a great public relations coup for the French presidency. It has rightly annoyed some who worked hard behind the scenes, but that’s politics.
Hot on his wife’s footsteps, Sarkozy arrived in Tripoli this week to secure the deal. Among other things, France is to help Libya build a nuclear reactor in a project that will turn salinated water into drinking water. The combination of the words “nuclear” and Libya was bound to get people screaming foul. Sarkozy’s reply is splendid: “Nuclear power is the energy of the future. If we don’t give the energy of the future to the countries of the Southern Mediterranean, how will they develop themselves? And if they don’t develop how will we fight terrorism and fanaticism? And if we don’t consider Arab countries sensible enough to use civilian nuclear power, the West risks a war of civilizations.”
In other words, if we consider Arab countries our friends, trust them. Wow. I, for one, am speechless.
All I can say is welcome back Libya to the international fold and welcome back France to its rightful place on the international stage. Long may it last.
