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Gadhafi's son bears a grudge
By DOUG SAUNDERS
From Friday's Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041210.wxlibya1210/BNStory/International/
Libya has made peace with America and the West. It has apologized for having jetliners bombed and paid billions to the victims. It has accepted Israel, and allowed the United States to help it demolish uranium refineries and weapons caches.
But Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's powerful son has one grudge still to settle. He is angry with Canada. And he wants payback.
That surprising message was delivered Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail by Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, Col. Gadhafi's second son and presumed successor and the leading figure in Libya's rapprochement with the West.
â Å“The people in Canada, and even the Canadian government â †they should be aware that we are not happy with Canada,â ? Mr. Gadhafi said, speaking in fluent English with a soft Arabic accent amid the Bengal tigers and peacocks of his compound outside Tripoli.
â Å“And for quite a long time we have regarded Canada as an enemy to Libya, and as just a follower for the Americans.â ?
Prime Minister Paul Martin arrives in Libya Dec. 19 for a two-day visit focused on investment. It could turn into an embarrassment if Col. Gadhafi's soft-spoken, charismatic 32-year-old son makes an issue of Ottawa's past treatment of Libya and his own failure to obtain a visa to study in Canada.
Not only is Mr. Gadhafi the most prominent son of Col. Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya since seizing power in 1969, he is almost single-handedly responsible for turning the country from a menacing rogue state into a force of change in the Arab world. And on top of his growing leadership role, he acknowledged Thursday that he hopes to become Libya's first popularly chosen head of government.
Canada's mistake, he said, was to join the United States and many other countries in adhering to United Nations-imposed sanctions against Libya after the 1988 bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.
Two Canadians were among the victims. Libya accepted responsibility last year and agreed to pay $2.7-billion (U.S.) in compensation to families of those killed.
But Mr. Gadhafi said Canada's adoption of sanctions was unjust, since the bombing was part of a conflict between Libya and the United States in which Canada had no part.
â Å“Really we were quite astonished because we said we had no problem with the Canadians, we haven't attacked Canada, we haven't even harmed any Canadian citizens, and they are so unfriendly with us,â ? Mr. Gadhafi said. â Å“Therefore, Canada should pay the price for that.â ?
He suggested that business opportunities in Libya, where Canadian firms already have investments worth billions of dollars, could be limited unless an apology is offered.
â Å“We have to settle accounts with the Canadians. And I think now is the moment when we have to tell them frankly and directly that you made a mistake, and you have to correct that, and you promise not to repeat it, not today or tomorrow and not with the future generations.â ?
Mr. Gadhafi said Canada appeared to be taking its cue from the United States in the Lockerbie affair. â Å“You cannot adopt an American point of view and you can't be American even sometimes more than the Americans are.â ?
The UN sanctions were selective, including an arms embargo and the banning of flights to and from Libya. They also restricted the travel of suspected Libyan terrorists.
Mr. Gadhafi said that as a 25-year-old he had hoped to attend graduate school in Canada, and asked for a visa at the Canadian embassy in Rome. He said officials rebuffed him, citing the sanctions.
Switzerland and Britain also rejected his requests. Mr. Gadhafi has acknowledged that the rejections spurred him to set up the family charity that last year began negotiating Libya's surprisingly rapid disavowal of terrorism and its embrace of the West, including the Lockerbie settlement and rejection of weapons of mass destruction.
Nevertheless, Mr. Gadhafi said, Canada needs to make amends for what his family regards as an inappropriate gesture.
â Å“The problem is that in the past you followed American policy, and you followed a very bad approach to young students like me at the time,â ? he said. â Å“Now I am in a position to ask you, tell me why I did not get a visa 10 years ago. And you have to answer me. Someone is going to ask him [Mr. Martin] that.â ?
Moreover, he said, Canada is guilty of hypocrisy because Canadian businesses continued to operate in Libya while the government left sanctions in place and maintained no diplomatic representation.
â Å“The Canadians, they play a very clever game,â ? Mr. Gadhafi said. â Å“They didn't stop exploiting any economic opportunity in Libya, but politically they're very anti-Libyan. And therefore they didn't even open an embassy or have any political ties with Libya. But if there is an economic option, they are the first to seize the opportunity.â ?
At another point, he said: â Å“Now, the moment we solve the issue with the Americans, the Lockerbie and WMD â â€now the Canadians are running and coming to Libya, and they want to have a piece of the Libyan cake...Okay, we have nothing against having a piece of our cake, but now we have to settle the issue of our past.â ?
Petro-Canada, which currently controls almost one-tenth of Libya's oil output, has been involved there for at least five years. The engineering firm SNC-Lavalin has played a major role in building Libya's Great Man-Made River, a huge water-diversion project.
Canadian government officials said Thursday they were puzzled by Mr. Gadhafi's accusations.
â Å“There is nothing at all unusual about a country condemning the human-rights practices of another while its companies do business with it,â ? one official with knowledge of the situation said. â Å“And what Petro-Canada and other companies were doing was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Libya. Is that something he really wants to jeopardize?â ?
Officials involved in the Prime Minister's visit said an apology is unlikely. â Å“We are not going to apologize for enforcing our laws,â ? one said.
By conventional rules of diplomatic protocol, Mr. Martin would have neither reason nor opportunity to address Mr. Gadhafi's concerns. Col. Gadhafi, who transformed Libya into a socialist state based on his idiosyncratic theories after seizing power at the age of 27, holds no rank in the Libyan government. His son, who also holds no government position, is not scheduled to meet Mr. Martin.
But the Gadhafis are inseparable from the Libyan state. Mr. Gadhafi meets senior U.S. officials on behalf of the government and organized a regional election earlier this year.
On Thursday he displayed a knowledge of the dynamics of Canada's Liberal Party. He advised Mr. Martin to let Libya know he has made a break with the policies of his predecessor, Jean Chrétien.
â Å“This is a chance for him to show the Libyan people that he is a different person and a different prime minister and he has a different government and a different approach to the Libyan people,â ? he said. â Å“Just like I cannot compare the [U.S.] Republicans today to the Republicans who were there under [former president Ronald] Reagan.
â Å“Therefore it's a good chance for him [Mr. Martin] to show the Libyan people that that prime minister [Mr. Chrétien] didn't represent Canadian people, Canadian spirit, Canadian culture. We are your friends, and we'll have a friendly visit, and we want co-operation, want to create a better future for both of us.â ?
Slim
PS-Their military is quite a bit larger than ours.... :-[
By DOUG SAUNDERS
From Friday's Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041210.wxlibya1210/BNStory/International/
Libya has made peace with America and the West. It has apologized for having jetliners bombed and paid billions to the victims. It has accepted Israel, and allowed the United States to help it demolish uranium refineries and weapons caches.
But Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's powerful son has one grudge still to settle. He is angry with Canada. And he wants payback.
That surprising message was delivered Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail by Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, Col. Gadhafi's second son and presumed successor and the leading figure in Libya's rapprochement with the West.
â Å“The people in Canada, and even the Canadian government â †they should be aware that we are not happy with Canada,â ? Mr. Gadhafi said, speaking in fluent English with a soft Arabic accent amid the Bengal tigers and peacocks of his compound outside Tripoli.
â Å“And for quite a long time we have regarded Canada as an enemy to Libya, and as just a follower for the Americans.â ?
Prime Minister Paul Martin arrives in Libya Dec. 19 for a two-day visit focused on investment. It could turn into an embarrassment if Col. Gadhafi's soft-spoken, charismatic 32-year-old son makes an issue of Ottawa's past treatment of Libya and his own failure to obtain a visa to study in Canada.
Not only is Mr. Gadhafi the most prominent son of Col. Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya since seizing power in 1969, he is almost single-handedly responsible for turning the country from a menacing rogue state into a force of change in the Arab world. And on top of his growing leadership role, he acknowledged Thursday that he hopes to become Libya's first popularly chosen head of government.
Canada's mistake, he said, was to join the United States and many other countries in adhering to United Nations-imposed sanctions against Libya after the 1988 bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.
Two Canadians were among the victims. Libya accepted responsibility last year and agreed to pay $2.7-billion (U.S.) in compensation to families of those killed.
But Mr. Gadhafi said Canada's adoption of sanctions was unjust, since the bombing was part of a conflict between Libya and the United States in which Canada had no part.
â Å“Really we were quite astonished because we said we had no problem with the Canadians, we haven't attacked Canada, we haven't even harmed any Canadian citizens, and they are so unfriendly with us,â ? Mr. Gadhafi said. â Å“Therefore, Canada should pay the price for that.â ?
He suggested that business opportunities in Libya, where Canadian firms already have investments worth billions of dollars, could be limited unless an apology is offered.
â Å“We have to settle accounts with the Canadians. And I think now is the moment when we have to tell them frankly and directly that you made a mistake, and you have to correct that, and you promise not to repeat it, not today or tomorrow and not with the future generations.â ?
Mr. Gadhafi said Canada appeared to be taking its cue from the United States in the Lockerbie affair. â Å“You cannot adopt an American point of view and you can't be American even sometimes more than the Americans are.â ?
The UN sanctions were selective, including an arms embargo and the banning of flights to and from Libya. They also restricted the travel of suspected Libyan terrorists.
Mr. Gadhafi said that as a 25-year-old he had hoped to attend graduate school in Canada, and asked for a visa at the Canadian embassy in Rome. He said officials rebuffed him, citing the sanctions.
Switzerland and Britain also rejected his requests. Mr. Gadhafi has acknowledged that the rejections spurred him to set up the family charity that last year began negotiating Libya's surprisingly rapid disavowal of terrorism and its embrace of the West, including the Lockerbie settlement and rejection of weapons of mass destruction.
Nevertheless, Mr. Gadhafi said, Canada needs to make amends for what his family regards as an inappropriate gesture.
â Å“The problem is that in the past you followed American policy, and you followed a very bad approach to young students like me at the time,â ? he said. â Å“Now I am in a position to ask you, tell me why I did not get a visa 10 years ago. And you have to answer me. Someone is going to ask him [Mr. Martin] that.â ?
Moreover, he said, Canada is guilty of hypocrisy because Canadian businesses continued to operate in Libya while the government left sanctions in place and maintained no diplomatic representation.
â Å“The Canadians, they play a very clever game,â ? Mr. Gadhafi said. â Å“They didn't stop exploiting any economic opportunity in Libya, but politically they're very anti-Libyan. And therefore they didn't even open an embassy or have any political ties with Libya. But if there is an economic option, they are the first to seize the opportunity.â ?
At another point, he said: â Å“Now, the moment we solve the issue with the Americans, the Lockerbie and WMD â â€now the Canadians are running and coming to Libya, and they want to have a piece of the Libyan cake...Okay, we have nothing against having a piece of our cake, but now we have to settle the issue of our past.â ?
Petro-Canada, which currently controls almost one-tenth of Libya's oil output, has been involved there for at least five years. The engineering firm SNC-Lavalin has played a major role in building Libya's Great Man-Made River, a huge water-diversion project.
Canadian government officials said Thursday they were puzzled by Mr. Gadhafi's accusations.
â Å“There is nothing at all unusual about a country condemning the human-rights practices of another while its companies do business with it,â ? one official with knowledge of the situation said. â Å“And what Petro-Canada and other companies were doing was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Libya. Is that something he really wants to jeopardize?â ?
Officials involved in the Prime Minister's visit said an apology is unlikely. â Å“We are not going to apologize for enforcing our laws,â ? one said.
By conventional rules of diplomatic protocol, Mr. Martin would have neither reason nor opportunity to address Mr. Gadhafi's concerns. Col. Gadhafi, who transformed Libya into a socialist state based on his idiosyncratic theories after seizing power at the age of 27, holds no rank in the Libyan government. His son, who also holds no government position, is not scheduled to meet Mr. Martin.
But the Gadhafis are inseparable from the Libyan state. Mr. Gadhafi meets senior U.S. officials on behalf of the government and organized a regional election earlier this year.
On Thursday he displayed a knowledge of the dynamics of Canada's Liberal Party. He advised Mr. Martin to let Libya know he has made a break with the policies of his predecessor, Jean Chrétien.
â Å“This is a chance for him to show the Libyan people that he is a different person and a different prime minister and he has a different government and a different approach to the Libyan people,â ? he said. â Å“Just like I cannot compare the [U.S.] Republicans today to the Republicans who were there under [former president Ronald] Reagan.
â Å“Therefore it's a good chance for him [Mr. Martin] to show the Libyan people that that prime minister [Mr. Chrétien] didn't represent Canadian people, Canadian spirit, Canadian culture. We are your friends, and we'll have a friendly visit, and we want co-operation, want to create a better future for both of us.â ?
Slim
PS-Their military is quite a bit larger than ours.... :-[
