Rehabilitating Libya 

January 5, 2008
The New York Times
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/opinion/05sat3.html?pagewanted=print

We are all for forgiveness and second acts, but Libya’s sordid human rights record and continuing police state tactics should not be forgotten. Businesses — and their government backers — rushing to procure contracts with the oil-rich state would prefer to ignore what’s happening on the ground in Libya. President Bush and other democratic leaders cannot, and must keep pressing Tripoli for change.

Libya’s return from the cold began in 2003. First, it accepted responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland — agreeing to compensate the victims’ families — and forswore terrorism. Then it gave up its clandestine nuclear program. 

Last month, Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was feted in Paris. This month, the country that until 2003 was under United Nations Security Council sanctions took over the council’s presidency. This week, its foreign minister made an official visit to Washington. There were no meetings with Mr. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. There was a personal tour of the White House, meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other cabinet members and lunch with representatives of some of America’s biggest companies. 

Rehabilitating a pariah state is never easy or without distasteful aspects. Re-engagement must be carefully calibrated so long as Libya continues to operate outside international norms by jailing political prisoners, torturing detainees, ignoring the rule of law and refusing to pay settlement claims promised to families of victims of Lockerbie and the 1986 bombing of the La Belle disco in Berlin. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is right to withhold confirmation of the first American ambassador to Tripoli in decades until those claims are resolved. (A chargé d’affaires represents Washington’s interests.)

According to Human Rights Watch, three Libyan dissidents have disappeared in the last 18 months. Abed al-Rahman al-Qotaiwi and Jum’ a Boufayed were arrested in early 2007 after planning a peaceful protest. Fathi Eljahmi has been in detention since 2004 when he gave interviews critical of Colonel Qaddafi. One of Ms. Rice’s top aides raised Mr. Eljahmi’s case with the foreign minister on Thursday. Ms. Rice, who discussed human rights generally during her meeting, would have made a stronger point if she had raised all three cases herself. 

Libya is keen to have Ms. Rice visit this year. Before that happens, she is going to have to press a lot harder for changes in Libya’s behavior, including releasing dissidents and settling the Lockerbie claims. Colonel Qaddafi needs to understand that Libya’s responsibilities don’t end just because its isolation has.