Gadafy Visits European Commission

Muammar Gadafy today continued his campaign to end Libya's international isolation with his first trip to Europe in 15 years.

During the visit to the headquarters of the European commission in Brussels, Colonel Gadafy was expected to discuss "full normalisation" of relations with Commission President Romano Prodi.

He was also likely to put the case for Libya's entry into the aid and trade programme the EU runs with non-member countries around the Mediterranean, including Israel.

Today's landmark trip resulted from what the EU described as Libya's "remarkable progress" in shedding its rogue nation status.

The country's rehabilitation began last December when it renounced its nuclear weapons programme and accepted responsibility for two aircraft bombings in which a total of 440 people died. Its journey in from the cold gathered momentum when Tony Blair made a high profile visit to Libya last month.

The United States last week lifted most of its commercial sanctions on Libya but trade restrictions with Europe remain.

In an interview with German business daily Handelsblatt, Libya's economics and trade minister, Abdel Qader Khair, said the country had "fulfilled most of the conditions" for resuming normal trade relations. "We would have expected this step from Europe much sooner," he was quoted as saying.

"More important to us than the arms embargo is being able to import advanced technology once again," such as aircraft or replacement parts for the oil industry, he added. "Col Gadafy has made clear that we must fight underdevelopment. To do that, we need partners, not weapons."

However, Mr Gadafy's latest step towards ending his standing as an international pariah was overshadowed by a new Amnesty International report that exposes "ongoing" human rights abuses.

The charity said urgent reform was needed to address concerns about human rights under the Gadafy regime, adding: "Libya is at a cross-roads. It has an opportunity to ensure that human rights become a reality at home and that the country can contribute to promoting human rights internationally.

"Libya must turn human rights promises into action. There is an urgent need to establish the truth over past events and for the Libyan authorities to commit to domestic reform to address current abuses."

The report, Libya: Time to make human rights a reality, presents the findings of Amnesty International's visit to Libya in February 2004, the human rights organisation's first such visit to the country in 15 years.

Amnesty said it had uncovered "a pattern of ongoing human rights violations, a continuing failure to investigate and resolve past abuses, and a climate of fear in which most Libyans are afraid to raise concerns over current and past violations".

While the Libyan authorities have taken " positive steps" including the release in 2001-2 of nearly 300 prisoners, including long-term political prisoners, and the recent opening of the country to a degree of international scrutiny, "a pattern of human rights violations continues, often justified under the new rhetoric of the 'war on terror'".

Amnesty International said its findings included: laws that criminalise the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression; prolonged detention without access to the outside world; unfair trials, in particular before the People's Court which tries political cases; torture and ill-treatment of prisoners to extract confessions.

Although abolition of the death penalty is promised, Amnesty found that capital punishment remains in use for a large number of offences including "the peaceful exercise of political activities".

Past policies and events constituting grave human rights violations continue to cast a shadow on Libya's human rights record, said the charity.

These include a policy of "physical liquidation" of political opponents during the 1980s; numerous deaths in custody without adequate explanation; the "disappearance" of political prisoners, especially since 1996; and the "disappearance" of Libyan nationals abroad and foreign nationals visiting Libya.

Amnesty said: "Hundreds of families still do not know whether their relatives are alive or dead, or how they died. Many are too scared to ask. Libyans living inside and outside the country are afraid to report human rights violations for fear of retaliation against themselves or their relatives."

Amnesty International claims it had unprecedented access to prisoners and Libyan authorities during its visit. It said the Libyan authorities have "promised to seriously consider" its recommendations.

Amnesty International report on human rights in Libya