Sunday: 30 April, 2000:
Scottish and American prosecutors say they have no doubt about the guilt of the two
Libyans charged in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Yet there are a swarm of alternate theories.
Some of the more provocative, published widely in the British and American press and on Internet sites, rival the conspiracy
theories surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination.
One such theory - vehemently denied by Washington - claims U.S. intelligence agents were
smoothing the way for smugglers of Middle Eastern drugs to use Pan Am flights in exchange
for information on American hostages in Lebanon. The terrorists allegedly slipped in the bomb
with a covert drug shipment.
Vincent Cannistraro, who headed the early CIA inquest into the bombing, calls that theory ``a
tissue of fabrication,'' which he claims was planted by a private investigator to avoid insurance claims.
The theory with the strongest foundation is that Iran, rather than Libya, was behind the attack. That scenario says the
bombing was retaliation for the 1988 downing of an Iranian airliner by a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf, in which 290
people died. [AP]
Sunday: 30 April, 2000:
Liberian President Charles Taylor left Sirte 450 km East
of Tripoli Saturday after a three-day working visit in Libya.
Taylor held talks with his Libyan host, Col. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi and also attended celebration marking the 85th anniversary of
the battle of Al-Gurdhabiya in which Libyan resistance fighters engaged fascist Italian forces.
Addressing guests at the ceremony, Qadhafi reasserted the importance of African unity to cope with the challenges facing the
continent and bring about the development and progress for the African peoples. [PANA]
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Saturday: 29 April, 2000:
In Africa, the 25 teams that won first-round games in their series were drawn into five groups. The winners of each qualify for
the World Cup:Saturday: 29 April, 2000:
The U.S. Senate has asked the Clinton administration not to lift a ban on travel to Libya until
the end of the Lockerbie trial at the earliest.
In a nonbinding resolution passed by unanimous consent on Thursday evening, it said Libya remained dangerous because of
''Libya's refusal to accept responsibility for its role in terrorist attacks against United States citizens.''
The State Department sent a consular mission to Libya in March to prepare a report on whether it was time to lift the travel
ban, which has been in force since 1981. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has not yet taken a decision.
The Senate resolution, sponsored by Senators Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican,
Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat,
said President Clinton should consult fully with Congress in considering policy toward Libya. [Reuters]
Saturday: 29 April, 2000:
Experts from five north African states met in Tripoli
Wednesday to assess the progress on the interconnection of electricity grids in
countries of the Arab Maghreb Union.
Delegates from Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia reviewed the
progress of the project, drawn up several years ago.
Sources close to the meeting said the experts particularly studied technical
requirements for the proposed power link between Libya and Tunisia.
One source in the Libyan Electricity Company said the meeting also dwelt on
plans for interconnecting with grids in the eastern Mediterranean region, including
Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. [PANA]
Friday: 28 April, 2000:
The trial of two Libyans accused of the 1988 Lockerbie
airliner bombing will go ahead as planned next Wednesday after a Scottish judge rejected prosecution
requests for a two- month delay. Prosecutors wanted the delay to give them time to assess dozens of witnesses and reams of evidence
which the defence revealed only recently that it would use.
Presiding Judge Lord Ranald Sutherland threw out the request saying: "I am not satisfied that a
postponement is necessary.
"The accused have now been in custody for a total of 416 days which is an unprecedented period in Scottish procedure."
At the pre-trial hearing, defence lawyers for Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima revealed plans to try to
prove that others were responsible for the bombing of a Boeing 747 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie which killed 270
people. [Reuters]
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Thursday: 27 April, 2000:
Libya lashed out at Britain on Wednesday following allegations carried in the Cypriot Greek-language Politis newspaper that its
ambassador to Cyprus was a spy with terrorist links. In a letter addressed to Politis and sent to the entire Cypriot media, ambassador Khalifa Bazelya said the local slur campaign was initiated by Britain because he refused to become a double-agent for the British intelligence service, MI5.
The Politis report, carried Wednesday, said Bazelya was implicated in the murder of a Libyan dissident in London in
November 1995 and was kicked out of Ethiopia for gun running. "I am truly saddened that your newspaper has fallen in the trap laid by the British secret services after you reprinted false accusations and vile slander whose aim is to destroy people whom they failed to recruit as agents to spy against their own country," said Bazelya's letter. [AFP]
Wednesday: 26 April, 2000:
A senior British official begins a visit to Libya on
Tuesday as relations between the two countries
continue to improve after years of mutual hostility.
The visit comes after Britain re-opened its embassy in
the Libyan capital, Tripoli, last year after a 15 year
break in diplomatic relations.
Sir John Kerr who is the permanent under-secretary of
the British Foreign Office is the most senior British
official to visit Libya since 1984.
During his two-day visit he is due to meet Libya's
de-factor foreign minister Abderrahman
Shalgham. [BBC]
Wednesday: 26 April, 2000:
U.S. Congressional leaders have joined the families of Pan Am Flight 103 victims in
pressuring the Clinton administration to release documents they say may show a deal with Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan sent a letter and an annex to the letter to Qadhafi last year to try to persuade him to turn
over two suspects for prosecution on charges of placing a bomb on the plane.
According to leaders of two groups representing the Pan Am Flight 103 families -- who say excerpts of both documents
were read to them by U.S. government officials -- Annan assured Qadhafi the trial would not "undermine" his government and
promised him that, if convicted, the two Libyans would not be questioned about other Libyan government actions. [APB]
Wednesday: 26 April, 2000:
Relatives of Britons killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing have pledged to
keep a daily watch over the trial of two Libyans accused of blowing up Pan Am flight 103.
The trial is scheduled to begin on May 3 and is expected to last at least a year. Abdel Basset
al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima are accused of blowing up the U.S. airliner on December 21,
1988, killing 270 people.
"This trial is something we have been fighting for since 1991," said Jim Swire, whose 24-year-old daughter Flora was among
the victims.
"It will be salutary for the court to be aware that relatives are constantly watching what is going on. We are the ones who
deserve the truth," he told Reuters. [Reuters]
Wednesday: 26 April, 2000:
Scottish prosecutors have asked for a
postponement of several weeks in the Lockerbie airliner bombing trial because
of surprise defence plans to produce more than 100 witnesses and reams of
evidence.
"The Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd QC, has this morning presented an
application to the High Court of Justiciary for postponement of the trial," the Scottish Crown Office
prosecution service said. The trial was due to start on May 3.
"The application has been made in the light of the intimation by the defence on April 20 of a total of 119 defence witnesses and
of lists of defence productions (objects of evidence)," the Crown Office said in a statement.
The request will be heard on Thursday at Camp Zeist, the former Dutch military base where Libyans Abdel Basset al-Megrahi
and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima will be tried for the 1988 bombing over the Scottish village of Lockerbie in which 270 people
died. [Reuters]
Wednesday: 26 April, 2000:
The Korean Hyundai-Asan is pushing a plan to put 200 to 500 skilled North Korean workers into Hyundai
Construction and Engineering Co.'s work sites in Libya and Iran, the company said Tuesday.
Company officials said the plan calls for sending North Korean painters and heat technicians to gas plant and gas pipeline
construction sites in Iran and Libya.
The company has already asked North Korea's Samcholli General Corp. to tell the scope of work North Korean workers can
do in the two countries and an estimate of their wages, they added.
Hyundai will pay airfares and insurance premiums for the North Korean workers. [Asia Pulse] 
Tuesday: 25 April, 2000:
A top British official will visit Libya on Tuesday on the highest level mission
since the two countries agreed last year to restore diplomatic ties.
Sir John Kerr, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, will meet Libya's Secretary for
Foreign Liaison and International Co-operation and other senior
officials, a Foreign Office spokeswoman has said.
"This is a natural step in the gradual improvement in relations," she said on Monday.
Britain and Libya re-established diplomatic relations last July after Tripoli agreed to pay compensation for the fatal shooting of a
London policewoman and handed over two suspects wanted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. [Reuters]
Tuesday: 25 April, 2000:
The Libyan national football team are through to the next
World Cup 2002 qualifiers on a 4-3 goal aggregate despite losing 1-3 to Mali in the return leg of the preliminaries Sunday in
Bamako.
Libya, who won the first leg 3-0 a fortnight ago in Tripoli, opened the scoring book in the 45th minute of Sunday's match
through Faycal Bouchala.
Mali equalised in the 47th minute through Birama Traore, who scored a second goal in the 71st minute.
Soumaila Coulibaly converted a penalty for the home team in the 81st minute, but that proved insufficient for Mali.
Libya's Argentinean coach Carlos Bilardo was sent off in the second half by the Ivorian referee. [PANA]
Tuesday: 25 April, 2000:
Libya is moving full steam ahead in exploration and production talks with international oil companies now that the burden of UN
sanctions has been lifted from its shoulders, the country's oil chief said in remarks published Monday.
Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman, Abdullah al-Badri, told the Nicosia-based Middle East Economic Survey
(MEES) that his country has stepped up the pace of upstream negotiations with international oil companies in hopes of signing
agreements in the next 12 months.
Two NOC committees are working full-time to hold parallel talks with international oil companies on exploration and
production-sharing pacts and a third, centralized group is supervising the overall negotiating process, he said.
The oil-company talks are moving quickly although the country's draft petroleum law has been held up by the government's
reorganization at the beginning of March which dissolved the energy ministry and transferred oil and gas issues to the NOC. [AFP]
Sunday: 23 April, 2000:
In the 11 years since the [Pan Am flight 103] explosion, Scottish and American investigators have combed 845 square miles for evidence and chased leads around the globe. Now, finally, they have a chance to present their case. On May 3, in a special court in the Netherlands, three Scottish judges will begin hearing the evidence compiled against two Libyan Arab Airlines employees, Abdel-Baset al-Megrahi, 48, and Al Amin Fhimah, 44. Both are charged with blowing Pan American World Airways Flight 103 out of the sky. The trial is likely to be long on evidence–1,000 witnesses, some 2,000 pieces of evidence. But it's not likely to answer the biggest questions of all: Who ordered the plane blown up? Why? The defendants are being tried as individuals; evidence about whether Libya or any other government supported or sponsored them won't be permitted. [US News]
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Friday: 21 April, 2000:
A defendant on trial for the 1986 anti-United States terrorist attack on a Berlin discotheque, the
Palestinian-born Ali Chanaa, broke his silence Thursday, saying it was the Libyan response to an earlier US-attack.
"It was a present from (Libyan leader Mu'ammar) al-Qadhafi to the United States," Chanaa said, quoted by the lawyer Andreas
Schulz acting on behalf of the victims. Three people were killed and more than 200 were injured in the April 5 bomb attack on the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin. The United States immediately blamed Libya for the terrorist attack, and ten days later bombed Tripoli and Benghazi.
[AFP]
Friday: 21 April, 2000:
Leakage in waterways of the Great Man-Made River Project in Libya has turned into a
diplomatic issue, with Libya asking Korea to press Dong Ah Construction to repair the damage.
Libya's Great Man-Made River Authority (GMRA) and Dong Ah have conducted a joint investigation since August over three
waterways in southeastern cities that were built in the late 1980s.
Dong Ah said the leakage in pipelines were reported in August, September and January and that a probe is underway with
foreign companies.
Dong Ah has been the main contractor of the first three stages of the decade-long artificial river project aimed to provide
drinking water to desert areas in Libya.
The first phase of the project was completed in November 1994, supplying 2 million tons of water per day to Benghazi, the
second-largest city in Libya.
The second phase made the water supply section of Tripoli and was completed in 1996. Dong Ah won the bidding for the
third-stage construction in 1998 worth US$27 billion.
Libya says Dong Ah is responsible for any defects 50 years after construction, while the company maintains its after-sales
service obligation is limited to one year after delivery. [Asia Pulse]
Friday: 21 April, 2000:
The British High Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by the
British Broadcasting Corp. to broadcast the trial of two Libyans accused of blowing up a
Pan Am jet in 1988.
The BBC had asked the panel of judges to overturn last month's decision by High Court
Judge Lord Donald Macfadyen, who ruled that the Libyans' right to a fair trial outweighed
the media's right to freedom of expression.
The BBC's bid was backed by eight other broadcasters, including Associated Press
Television News. [AP]
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Thursday: 20 April, 2000:
The Ivorian military ruler Gen. Robert Guei left Sirte, 450 km east of the Libyan capital Tripoli, Tuesday evening after a two-day visit during which he discussed bilateral, regional and international
issues with his host, Col. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi. A joint statement said the two leaders agreed to set up joint co-operation commission to strengthen economic and commercial ties between the two countries. They also called for the consolidation of relations between economic operators in the two countries through a mutually beneficial partnership. [PANA]
Wednesday: 19 April, 2000:
Libya took advantage of a Security Council review of U.N. sanctions to press for the measures to be lifted and to condemn what they called
U.S. manipulation in imposing them. ``Sanctions lead to tragedy, to pain and suffering at all levels of society,'' said Issa 'Ayad el-Ba'baa', Libya's deputy U.N. ambassador. ``Let the Security Council instead seek peaceful means to resolve disputes among states.'' He called for the council to lift the air embargo and other sanctions it suspended last year after Libya turned over two men for trial who were wanted in the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
El-Ba'baa' accused the United States of having ``ramrodded'' the embargo through the Security Council seven years ago without any proof that Libya was involved in the deaths of 270 people, 189 of them Americans. [AP]
Wednesday: 19 April, 2000:
UK Harrods Petroleum, part of the same group as the luxury London department store, has a deal in principle to help Libya's state oil company develop three oil concessions, the company said in a statement on Monday. "The decision to invest jointly was reached after talks involving Mr (Mohamed) al-Fayed, his high-level technical team and Mr Abdulah Albadri, Secretary of the Libyan National Oil Corporation," the statement said. Harrods, owned by al-Fayed, also concluded agreements with the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment company for a free trade zone, to promote Libyan tourism and to pursue mutual investment opportunities in Africa, the statement said. [Reuters]
Wednesday: 19 April, 2000:
Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf arrived Tuesday in Libya and discussed regional and international issues with Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, Libya's state-run television reported. The meeting took place in the coastal city of Sirte, said the television, monitored in Cairo. The broadcast showed Qadhafi receiving Musharraf and his delegation in a tent. Both leaders were also shown performing the sunset [maghrib] prayers later. The television report gave no details of their talks. Musharraf arrived from Egypt where he spent four days. Since taking over power in a bloodless coup in October, Musharraf has visited a number of mostly Muslim countries to win recognition for his regime. [AP]
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Tuesday: 18 April, 2000:
Stressing the need to limit the fallout on innocent civilians, members of the United Nations Security Council prepared Monday to set up a
working group to study ways of making sanctions more effective.
The president of the council, Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said it was necessary "to ensure that this powerful
tool is used correctly, creatively and coherently."
He was speaking before an open debate in which three states which have been subjected to sanctions -- Iraq, Libya and
Yugoslavia -- were allowed to take part although they are not members of the council. [AFP]
Tuesday: 18 April, 2000:
Libya has become the oil industry's hottest prospect for new exploration and production
success, UK consultants Robertson said in a report on Monday.
"Political developments coupled with world class prospectivity propels Libya from a modest 20th position in 1998 to the
number one country for new exploration, development and production ventures in 2000," the report said.
Libya hopes to raise output to two million barrels per day (bpd) from the current 1.4 million bpd as improved political relations
encourage oil firms to join companies like TotalFinaElf , Italy's ENI and Austria's OMV in Libya. [Reuters]
Tuesday: 18 April, 2000:
The Libyan national football team flew to Senegal on Saturday, en route for Bamako where
they will meet Mali in their return match of preliminaries to the 2002 World Cup.
The Libyans will be on an acclimatisation camp in Dakar before flying to the Malian capital on 19 April.
During the camp, Libya will be without professionals Tarek Al Tayeb and Jihad Al-Mountassir. [PANA]
Monday: 17 April, 2000:
Leaders of the world's poorest nations gathered in Cuba as part of the Group of 77 summit approved late Friday a document
calling for a New Global Human Order. The 14-page document -- a considerably toned-down version of the draft circulated before the summit -- only mildly criticizes rich countries for failing to help Third World nations to overcome poverty. The Group of 77 "stress(es) the need for a New Global Human Order aimed at reversing the growing disparities between rich and poor, both among and within countries." The declaration also condemns the use of children as soldiers, and calls for sanctions to be dropped against Libya, debt forgiveness for flood-stricken Mozambique, and peace in the Middle East. [AFP]
Monday: 17 April, 2000:
The Libyan leader Col. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi had an audience Saturday in Syrte with Rwanda's acting president, Maj.-Gen. Paul Kagame. Libya television reported that African issues, particularly the situation in the troubled Great Lakes Region, dominated the
agenda of discussion. Kagame had said on arrival Friday that he had come to consult Qadhafi, who has been closely following developments in
Rwanda and the Great Lake region in general. [PANA]
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Saturday: 15 April, 2000:
Libyan leader Col. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi met Thursday evening
in Syrte, 450 km east of Tripoli, Maltese Prime Minister Edy Venick Adami, who is
in Libya for "an exchange of views on regional issues and the situation in the
Mediterranean Basin in particular."
The talks focused on the need to maintain the basin as an area of peace and
co-operation, Libyan television reported.
Adami stressed "the privileged relations between Libya and Malta," it said. [PANA]
Saturday: 15 April, 2000:
Leaders of the Group of 77 (G-77) member countries meeting in Cuba on Friday expressed their rejection to the
unilateral sanctions to developing countries. They express grave concern over the impact of economic sanctions on the civilian population and development capacity in
targeted countries and urge the international community to exhaust all peaceful methods before resorting to sanctions.
Noting that Libya has now fulfilled all its obligations in terms of the pertinent Security Council Resolutions, so they urge the
Security Council to adopt a resolution completely lifting the sanctions against Libya. [Xinhua]
Saturday: 15 April, 2000:
In a packed conference hall on the shores of the
Mediterranean, delegates from nearly 70 African and
Arab countries have been gathering to discuss their
future.
The three-day conference of non-governmental
organizations opened on Friday in the Libyan capital,
Tripoli, with the aim of uniting Arab and African
society.
This was an occasion for Africans to talk about Africa
without having to listen to European leaders, as they
did at the EU-Africa summit in Cairo earlier this
month.
Nearly 700 delegates in a wide variety of national
costumes listened while speakers talked of the need
for Africa to unite to confront its problems - some of
them also criticising Western policies towards the
region. [BBC]
Saturday: 15 April, 2000:
Taiwan expressed concern Friday about a Taiwanese businessman detained by Swiss police on suspicion of
smuggling missile parts to Libya.
Drive units for Russian-developed Scud missiles were found in the man's luggage when he was stopped at Zurich's airport last
week. The man, whom Swiss authorities didn't identity, arrived in Zurich from Taiwan via Hong Kong.
Liu Hsiang-pu, head of the Taiwan Foreign Ministry's European Affairs Department, Friday identified the man as Hsieh Chin-yi
but didn't provide further details about him.
Liu told reporters the Taiwan government has tried to have a better understanding of the case through Hsieh's attorney and will
keep an eye on its development. [AP]
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Friday: 14 April, 2000:
The U.S. Justice Department will investigate allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the 1983 arms-dealing
case against former CIA officer Edwin P. Wilson, government attorneys acknowledged in a court filing Thursday.
The disclosure came in the department's response to a Wilson motion to hold 17 current and former CIA and Justice officials in
contempt of court for allegedly hiding evidence that would have helped his defense.
``The allegations of this case have been referred to (the Office of Professional Responsibility), which will conduct a thorough
investigation at the conclusion'' of Wilson's appeal, a footnote near the end of the government's eight-page motion says.
Wilson, 71, is appealing his federal conviction for illegally shipping 20 tons of plastic explosives to Libya from Houston's
Intercontinental Airport. [AP]
Friday: 14 April, 2000:
The U.S. Pentagon said Thursday that Libya is seeking help from Asian
and other countries to develop a longer-range ballistic missile, but it would not confirm a
published report that China has provided such assistance.
The Washington Times reported in Thursday's editions that China has been providing Libya
with missile technology since March 1999. The newspaper said Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden,
director of the U.S. National Security Agency, outlined the technology transfer in a classified
government report dated March 2.
Kenneth Bacon, chief spokesman for U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, said when asked
about the report that it was well known Libya wants to build missiles of longer range
than the Scud-B missiles it currently has. [AP]
Friday: 14 April, 2000:
The mainland [China] has been helping Libya to develop its long-range missiles and made its latest technology transfer to the North African country last month, the Washington Times reported yesterday, quoting United States intelligence sources. ``The director of the National Security Agency (NSA), Lt Gen Michael Hayden, outlined the transfer in a classified report sent on March 2 to senior US government officials,'' the Washington Times said.
The mainland had agreed to supply Libya with a hypersonic wind tunnel that would be used for modelling and simulation key elements of missile development, the newspaper said, quoting US officials familiar with the NSA report and other intelligence reports last December.
The deal involved help in developing Libya's long-range Al-Fatah missile program, which was believed to be in the late stage of development but has not been flight-tested, it said. [Yahoo-Asia]
Thursday: 13 April, 2000:
The Tenth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders began its second day of meetings in Vienna this morning.
Libya's representative Ali Ettrouk told the congress that it is vital for crime prevention that there be full cooperation between all peoples and all countries on
the basis of mutual assistance and fairness. "We must take a new look at international relations so that we can indeed live together. Advances in technology can give us the means to stop crime. Libya has put in place all the measures necessary to fight crime without neglecting every individual`s right to justice, as well as the rights of the poor. Legislation has guaranteed the rights of adolescents and the protection of women according to Islamic Sharia." Ettrouk said. [M2] Thursday: 13 April, 2000:
A 44-year-old Taiwanese businessman was arrested at Zurich Airport with missile rocket parts in his luggage on Thursday 6 April according to the federal prosecutor's office. The man is suspected of trying to smuggle the parts, which were apparently seized by Switzerland's federal police after a
tip-off, to Libya. An inquiry has been opened into suspected violations of weapons laws. [M2]
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Wednesday: 12 April, 2000:
The Foreign Minister of Libya underscored on Tuesday the importance of the South Summit of the Group of 77 (G-77). Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam said the present meeting of G-77 represents an opportunity for developing nations to face globalization challenges. He said the meeting has among its main issues the writing of an Action Plan which will be approved during the State heads' sessions and released once its evaluation is finished on April 14. Regarding South-South cooperation one of the main separate paragraphs to be analyzed, Libya supported a project based on its exchange experience with African, Asian and Latin American countries, besides asking a revaluation of a more just international financial system. In his opinion, after this Summit, it will be necessary to talk about a brand new G-77, with a most important role to play in world economy. [Xinhua]
Tuesday: 11 April, 2000:
Visiting French minister of state for industry, Christian
Pierri, said he was in Tripoli to strengthen bilateral relations among countries of the
Mediterranean basin.
"Libya is efficiently contributing to the development of such relations and it plays a
specific role in the Mediterranean," Pierri, who arrived Sunday, told journalists.
He said his visit was also motivated by the Tripoli international trade fair, which has
been underway since 5 April with some 100 exhibitions from 40 countries,
including France.
The spokesperson of the French foreign ministry, Anne Gazeau-Secret, Friday
said in Paris that Pierri's visit to Tripoli "illustrates our will to participate in the
development and efforts to embrace Libya into international fold after UN sanctions
on the country were suspended." [PANA]
Tuesday: 11 April, 2000:
Premiership club Middlesbrough confirmed that they are to play in an end-of-season tournament in Libya, the Press
Association reported on Monday.
Boro will take on Italian side Bari and hosts Tripoli in two 45-minute games to mark the official opening of the Great Man
Made River Stadium on May
The invitation came from the Libyan Olympic Committee, and while the club insist the financial arrangements for the trip are
private, they have dismissed talk of a 1 million pound (1.6 million dollar) package as "grossly exaggerated". [AFP]
Tuesday: 11 April, 2000:
Following are collated results of the African World Cup first round, first leg
qualifying matches played at the weekend:
On Sunday: Benin tied Senegal 1 - 1 - Cape Verde Islands tied Algeria 0 - 0 - .....
Libya bt Mali 3 - 0 - Rwanda tied Cote d'Ivoire 2 - 2 ..... [Xinhua]
Monday: 10 April, 2000:
Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi has invited premier league side Middlesbrough to play his national soccer team, the Sunday Times has reported. Qadhafi was willing to pay Middlesbrough one million pounds for playing, as well as insurance costs, in a bid to lift Libya's soccer profile, the Sunday Times said. Negotiations over the match began after Britain lifted trade sanctions on Libya following the handover for trial of two suspects charged with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight which crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, claiming 270 lives. The paper said the Football Association had expressed concerns about the fixture but quoted a Middlesbrough spokesman as saying the British government would not oppose the trip. [Reuters]
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Saturday: 8 April, 2000:
Libya said Friday that seven years of U.N. sanctions had cost the country $33.6 billion and that
Tripoli would pay the consequences for years to come, despite the lifting of the embargo last year.
In a 20-page report sent to the Security Council, Libyan Ambassador Abuzed Omar Dorda
gave a comprehensive rundown of financial losses across all sectors of the Libyan economy -
including heath care, agriculture, livestock, transport, industry, trade and energy.
He didn't ask for compensation but instead used the report to complain about the ``unlawful''
measures imposed on Libya in 1992 to force it to turn over two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am
bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. ``The impact of the unjust sanctions, which were prejudicial to the progress and prosperity of the Libyan people, is still being
felt despite their suspension, and it will take many years to overcome their consequences,'' Dorda said. [AP]
Saturday: 8 April, 2000:
Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi of Libya and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will join more than 65 other heads of
state at a summit of developing nations next week, officials said Friday.
Known as the South Summit, it is the first gathering of the Group of 77 heads of state and government since the organization
was formed in 1963. Originally made up of 77 countries, the group has grown to 133 members.
High ranking officials from G-77 nations will begin meeting on Monday and Tuesday, with leaders to meet Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday.
In addition to South-South and South-North cooperation, delegates will also discuss the globalization of the world economy,
as well as high technology in developing nations. [AP]
Saturday: 8 April, 2000:
The U.S. government has bestowed one of its highest honours on the people of
the Lockerbie in recognition of their behaviour after the bombing of a Pan Am plane in 1988,
newspapers said. Pan Am flight 103 was blown up in the skies over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 259 on board
and 11 people on the ground. Dumfries and Galloway Police and Lockerbie council will represent the town this month when they travel to Washington to receive the Special Award for Extraordinary Response to International Terrorism, the Times newspaper said.
This was the first time the award, the highest given by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office for the Victims of Crime, has
gone to someone outside the United States, the Times added. Two Libyans, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, have been accused of blowing up the aircraft and are due to appear before a Scottish court of three judges sitting in a neutral country, the Netherlands, on May 3. [Reuters]
Friday: 7 April, 2000: Today marks the 24th anniversary of the Libyan students day of 7 April 1976, when many students in the University of Tripoli and the University of Benghazi, following Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's
call for cleansing the schools from anti-revolution elements, were arrested after a fight with pro-government
elements which answered al-Qadhafi's call and attacked the universities and established the Revolutionary
Committees which took control of the two schools. For more details, please click here.
Thursday: 6 April, 2000:
U.S. Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Birmingham, who provoked a firestorm of criticism in Congress when
he traveled to Libya in 1997, said Tuesday he may lead
a group of fellow congressmen and U.S. businessmen on
a trip to Tripoli in July.
"Members of Congress have been asking for the last
two and-a-half to three years to go to Libya with me
when I go the next time," Hilliard said.
The Clinton administration is considering easing
restrictions on American travel to Libya and exploring whether its oil might be made
available to U.S. markets again. Hilliard said Tuesday he expected the administration
to lift U.S. sanctions against Libya as well as Cuba
before Clinton leaves office next January.
"There are several congressmen who really feel
sanctions should be lifted off Libya and Cuba," Hilliard
said. "We have been working for the last four years in
trying to do that." [The Birmingham News]
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Thursday: 6 April, 2000:
Libyan leader, Col. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, Gen. Omar Hassan El-Bechir of Sudan and the Egyptian President Hosni Moubarak, met Tuesday night in Cairo to discuss the joint initiative of Libya and Egypt for the peace in Sudan. They examined means to bridge the gap between the various parties to the Sudanese conflict, Sudanese diplomatic sources in Cairo said. Bechir told PANA that the tripartite summit gave a new impetus to the joint Libyan-Egyptian initiative aiming at a lasting political solution to the Sudanese conflict. [PANA]
Wednesday: 5 April, 2000:
Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi on Tuesday dismissed reports that
Libya had invited a senior Israeli politician to visit Tripoli as an ``April Fools lie.''
Speaking in quirky English, Qadhafi said in a television interview: ``I think this is a joke -- a
line based on the first of April. We cannot recognize any state based on racism or religion --
I refuse to defy the world on this level.''
European Commission President Romano Prodi said after
meeting Qadhafi on Monday he had been told that Libya
had invited an official of Israel's governing Labor party.
However, Prodi's spokesman Riccardo Levi said on
Tuesday that the EU chief had heard this from an Israeli
journalist and had not meant to imply that Qadhafi had confirmed it. [Reuters]
Wednesday: 5 April, 2000:
An affable, gracious Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi held court Tuesday on the sidelines of the historic African-European summit, receiving everyone from the chancellor of European powerhouse Germany to the president of the small West African nation of Gambia. The Libyan leader is using the Cairo summit, as he has other international gatherings in the past year, to paint himself as Africa's senior statesman and conscience. Qadhafi, who has sought to improve ties with European nations, lambasted Europe for its continuing arrogance toward Africa. ``Until we make sure that Europe does not want to colonize us or conspire against us, and until we are ready to tell our peoples that we trust Europe, you have to stop hatching coups,
extending bribes and manipulating ethnic contradictions,'' Qadhafi told a working session of the summit. [AP]
Wednesday: 5 April, 2000:
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will decide whether to lift a 13-year-old ban on American travel to Libya, but the decision is not expected soon. U.S. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said a decision does not appear to be imminent and he would not venture a guess how Albright might come down on the subject. The American "USA Today" newspaper reported in a front-page article Tuesday that Albright was ready to lift the ban. Currently, Americans need special permission to go to Libya. [AP]
Wednesday: 5 April, 2000:
The United States said on Tuesday
it was premature to say it was lifting a 13-year-old-ban restricting
the use of American passports for travel to Libya.
National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said a
delegation of U.S. officials recently traveled to Tripoli, but would
not confirm a report in the USA Today newspaper that said they
would recommend lifting the ban.
``There has been no recommendation to the Secretary of State by the team that went to
Libya,'' Crowley said. ``I would say the story is at least premature.''
The newspaper said the delegation which visited Libya in March for the first time in 20 years
came back satisfied that U.S. citizens faced no ``imminent danger'' there. [Reuters]
Wednesday: 5 April, 2000:
Eager to capitalize on the suspension of sanctions against Libya, Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on the fringes of a summit of African and European nations. Afterward, Schroeder said the meeting was ``cordial and productive.'' Details on the content of their discussions were not immediately available. Qadhafi, emerging from decades of international ostracism, wants to project himself to Africans as a man willing to champion their causes. But with economic benefits in sight, he also wants to build on growing relations with Europe following the suspension of U.N. sanctions last year. [AP]
Wednesday: 5 April, 2000:
Libyan leader Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi has launched an attack on Europe, accused its people of looting African and Arab resources and imposing their culture on the region. In his speech to the Europe-Africa summit in Cairo, he criticised capitalism and urged Europeans to expel the US Navy from the Mediterranean. While other leaders have been conciliatory in their speeches, and officials work towards a compromise final communique, but Colonel Qadhafi took a defiant tone. Dismissing European efforts to discuss democracy in the continent, he said: "Leave us alone as your ideas and culture differ from ours." The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, said he was "strongly disappointed" with Colonel Qadhafi's speech. [BBC]
Wednesday: 5 April, 2000:
Leaders of the Arab Maghreb Union held a meeting in Cairo where they are attending the First African European Summit. The meeting was attended by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Libyan leader Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, King Mohamed VI of Morocco and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The meeting of Maghrebi leaders was described as "brotherly and cordial". Discussion focused on " a number of international
and regional issues of common interest." The Arab Maghreb Union is a regional grouping including Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania. [Africa News]
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Tuesday: 4 April, 2000:
Libya has invited a senior Israeli politician to visit Libya in an apparent breakthrough in relations,
European Commission President Romano Prodi said after meeting Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi Monday.
In Tel Aviv, the Israeli Labor party, the largest member of Prime Minister Ehud Barak's ruling coalition, confirmed that its
secretary-general, Raanan Cohen, had received an official invitation to visit Libya.
``I learned today that Libya has invited a member of the Israeli Socialist Party to visit the country. I think this is part of a
serious attempt to install a new form of cooperation,'' Prodi said after a one-hour meeting with Qadhafi in Cairo on the fringes
of an Africa-Europe summit. [Reuters]
Tuesday: 4 April, 2000:
The secretary general of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Labour party has been invited to visit Libya, a party statement
said Monday. The invitation was extended to Rahanan Cohen by a Libyan representative to an international conference in the French city of
Marseille, it said. The statement quoted Israeli foreign ministry official Uzi Manor, who was at the conference, as saying the invitation was "a sign
that Tripoli is ready to improve its relations with the West." [AFP - BBC]
Tuesday: 4 April, 2000:
Shortly before the first EU-Africa summit opened Monday in Cairo, Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi hosted talks with European Commission President Prodi and
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern at his bedouin tent in the grounds of Egypt's Qasr al-Salaam (Peace Palace).
The flamboyant Libyan leader, seen earlier dressed in white robes before arriving late for the summit in an orange-brown outfit,
also met with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema on Sunday and was to meet with more EU leaders. [AFP]
Tuesday: 4 April, 2000:
Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi jolted an Africa-Europe summit with an anti-
Western tirade, embarrassing European Commission President Romano Prodi who had just praised his
new-found moderation.
In what European diplomats described as a tongue-lashing that breached the rules of protocol, Qadhafi
declared that Europeans had long regarded Africans "like gorillas" and listed the evils he said capitalism
had inflicted on the continent.
He also fired personal barbs at French President Jacques Chirac and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres over their
countries' colonial past in Africa.
The closed-door speech contrasted with the conciliatory image Qadhafi sought to project when he met Prodi beneath a tree in
an Egyptian presidential guest house garden.
"There's a general feeling that we need to have a peaceful area in the Mediterranean, and Colonel Qadhafi has sent a message,
and we have to receive this message with an open mind," Prodi told reporters after that meeting.
But he expressed bitter disappointment at Qadhafi's speech, saying through his spokesman Riccardo Levi: "These were not the
words I heard in our private meeting. These are not words that can help dialogue between Libya and Europe." [Reuters]
Monday: 3 April, 2000:
Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi told Arab News Network television that the Americans, who list
Libya among countries that sponsor terrorism, had ``returned to their senses'' after realizing
they were missing chances to do business in Libya.
``There's always a mutual interest between us and any other country, including America,
provided that they respect us. We will gain from the relationship with America, of course,
because of their economic strength,'' the Libyan leader said.
``Of course it was hard fighting America. We didn't want to do it. It was America that
started the conflict. That's what happened. But now, with God's guidance, they have
returned to their senses. They have realized that they have lost a lot of business
opportunities,'' he declared. [Reuters]
Monday: 3 April, 2000:
A senior Libyan official said on Sunday that Libya would welcome
normal ties with the United States, long viewed by Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi as an
arch-foe.
Ali Triki, Libya's secretary for African unity, told reporters on the sidelines of an
Africa-Europe meeting in Cairo that last month's visit to Tripoli by U.S. officials was a
welcome step.
The delegation, on the first official trip since the United States broke off relations in 1981,
had assessed whether Libya was safe for U.S. visitors, now banned from travel there.
``We will continue to have contact and if they (the
Americans) are ready to normalize, we are ready, and for
the interests of all countries,'' Triki said.
``We have expressed that, our leader has expressed that.
We welcome the normalization between the two countries.'' [Reuters]
Sunday: 2 April, 2000:
European and African nations bickered Saturday during preparations for a landmark summit,
indicating that old hurts and divisions may overcome hoped-for goodwill at the meeting.
Some African nations warned Saturday that they would not accept any domineering tone when Europeans raise
human rights issues.
``We as Arabs, Muslims and Africans care more than others about human rights because man
is sacred for us and we are not waiting for others to lecture us on fields of human rights and
democracy,'' said Ali al-Treiki, Libya's minister of African affairs.
When asked about a German newspaper report that a terrorism suspect planned to name Libyan leader Mu'ammar
al-Qadhafi as having ordered a 1975 attack on an OPEC oil ministers' conference in Viennahere, al-Treiki just shrugged his shoulders and refused to answer.
Qadhafi is already in Egypt and is expected to use the summit to try to improve relations with the 15 European Union nations. [AP]
Sunday: 2 April, 2000:
A German terrorism suspect plans to name Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi as having ordered a 1975
attack on an OPEC oil ministers' conference in Vienna that left three people dead, according to a newspaper report.
The lawyer for Hans-Joachim Klein told Welt am Sonntag in a report to be published Sunday that his client will say Qadhafi
gave the order for the attack.
``I would think that he will do that. I would also think that it is correct,'' Frankfurt attorney Eberhard Kempf told the
newspaper.
The Libyan government does not usually respond to such allegations, and no Libyan diplomat
at the country's embassy in Bonn was available for comment Saturday. [AP]
Sunday: 2 April, 2000:
The German airline, Lufthansa, has decided to
switch to Libya two of its five weekly flights to Morocco as of 1 April, the Moroccan News Agency reported.
The two flights are expected to be re-directed to Tripoli, the agency added.
The move is reported to have been dictated by pure business considerations, sources close to the company said. [PANA]
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Saturday: 1 April, 2000:
The Paris-based media watch group, Reporters Without
Borders, has accused several African countries that would be attending next week's Africa-Europe summit in Cairo, Egypt, forcontinued violation of press freedom.
In a statement Thursday, the organisation listed the countries as Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia.
Others are Gabon, Kenya, Libya, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda, sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
"Although the violations are not as serious in all the countries, their governments have in common the lack of respect for the
African Charter for Human and Peoples Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights yet all 22 countries
have signed and ratified at least one of those agreements," it said. [PANA]
Saturday: 1 April, 2000:
President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi returned from a visit to Libya with pledges of aid and said he had no problem
associating with Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's government, state radio reported Thursday.
"Many countries are opening up embassies in Libya and Malawi cannot be an exception," Muluzi told an airport
news conference on his return Wednesday evening from a three-day visit,
"I have no problem associating with the Arab world. Of course our friends like Britain and Germany are assisting
us, but because the poverty profile is high, there is need to market our country to other donors," Muluzi said.
He said Libya had pledged to give Malawi 100 tractors and 20,000 tonnes of fertliser and to build a district
hospital and 2,900 low-cost houses. [Sapa-AFP]
Saturday: 1 April, 2000:
Lundin Oil AB "the company" has commenced Phase-1 of the development of the En-Naga
North and West field in Area NC177 onshore Libya which will initially produce at a rate of
16,500 barrels per day starting in the first quarter of 2001. Peak production in phase 2 is expected to reach an estimated
24,000 barrels of oil per day.
The Libya management team has commenced preparation of all the tendering documents and basic engineering for the pipeline,
drilling and process plant. Major contracts are expected to be awarded towards the end of the second quarter of this year. [Business Wire]
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