   Presencia-Opinión / Outros
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| The Rehabilitation of Libya Por Benjamín Kienzle (Canal Mundo, 16/09/2003) |
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For two decades Libya has been a pariah state, denounced publicly as a ‘terrorist state’ by the West’s governments. In fact, various paramilitary organisations, for example the IRA in Northern Ireland, have received massive support from Tripoli whose own secret agents have, moreover, left a trail of blood all over Europe: the people there have not forgotten the bombing of the ‘La Belle’ nightclub in 1986, of a French plane overflying Niger in 1989 and, above all, of a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988. However, it were exactly the governments of the most affected countries, namely France, Germany and the UK of the EU and the United States, which have carried through the lifting of the UN sanctions against Libya imposed in 1992 as a consequence of the Lockerbie bombing. Although the UN had suspended the sanctions already in 1999, the formal lifting is still a surprising U-turn in the foreign policy of the most powerful nations of the world, particularly because it did not follow a regime change. What can explain this U-turn? Libya and its undisputed leader, Gaddafi, have changed radically their policies after the imposition of the sanctions. In general, they have tried to come closer to the West, particularly to the EU. Therefore, they renounced terrorism and offered to pay for their former sins: in the Lockerbie case, for instance, they are going to pay $ 2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims in exchange for the lifting of the sanctions. Furthermore, they recognised their guilt in a letter to the UN and agreed to extradite the two suspects of the Lockerbie bombing to a Scottish court in The Hague, which sentenced finally one of them to life imprisonment. Incidentally, any liberal state should have demanded a similar way of justice, though it is quite long, after 11/09. Anyhow, Libya has also begun to help Western governments. For example, it has mediated twice during the kidnapping of EU citizens, first in the Philippines and later in Algeria. The reasons that induced Libya and its leader to change their policies are clear: After the Cold War and Soviet support, Libya needed urgently investments and help from the West – something impossible under the international embargo. Moreover, their former foreign policy focus – Arab unity – was simply a failure. For the countries of the West the changes in Libya’s foreign policies were sufficient to lift the UN sanctions1, as they fulfilled their fundamental conditions: Offering to pay compensations to the victims and ending the support for terrorism. Of course, the protection of human rights inside the country was not a condition, although Libya violates them massively. However, the West could avoid a violent regime change, which could have been, as Iraq shows, a very expensive operation. Moreover, it is also important to keep in mind that the EU, particularly, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have strong economic interests in Libya: 50% of Libya’s imports come from European countries which receive, at the same time, 70% of its exports. Moreover, 90% of Libya’s oil exports go to the EU, accounting for 51% of Italy’s, 13% of Germany’s and 5% of France’s total oil imports according to the European Commission. In conclusion, the coincidence of these interests and the ones of the regime in Tripoli plus Libya’s foreign policy changes made the lifting of the sanctions possible. At a more theoretical level this also shows that sooner or later former ‘revolutionary states’ usually adapt to and are accepted by the international system. However, in this way, human rights always lose out. |
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Benjamín Kienzle, estudiante en prácticas no IGADI. |
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ÚLTIMA REVISIÓN: 25/09/2003 |
