Libya:
News and Views
June 1998
28 June 1998:
In a statement received today, the Libyan Islamic Group "al-Jama'a al-Islamiya al-Libiya" said that it has obtained a list of some of the people who have been arrested by the Libyan regime recently. Calls from "Libya: News and Views" to the LIG to verify the authenticity of the statement were not answered.
To view the list, please click here. To view the list in Arabic please click here - Arabic
27 June 1998:
The Libyan government
on Friday accused the United States and Israel of
discussing plans to attack it for allegedly getting hold
of arms of mass destruction with the help of Iraqi
experts. The Libyan foreign affairs ministry, in a statement
distributed in neighbouring Tunisia by the official
Libyan news agency JANA, denied Libya had such
arms and warned against the consequences of an
attack.
"Western diplomatic sources revealed that a series of
meetings had been held in Tel Aviv between a number
of high-ranking officers from the U.S. and Israeli
armies that discussed field plans to carry out a military
operation against Libya,'' the statement said.
It said the pretext for an attack was a U.S. Congress
report alleging that Iraqi scientists were helping Libya
in an arms destruction programme. [Reuters]
27 June 1998:
A Libyan aircraft is reported to have flown to
neighbouring Chad and back in violation of the air
embargo imposed by the United Nations six years ago.
An unnamed Libyan official was quoted as saying the
plane took a number of Chadian officials to Tripoli. [BBC]
25 June 1998:
Al-Hayat newspaper reported Wednesday that Syria handed over to Libya five Libyan anti-Qadhafi Islamists [Islamyeen Libyeen.] for more details [in Arabic/al-Hayat] Please click here
25 June 1998:
Libya said on Tuesday a
British newspaper report alleging that South Africa
agreed to supply it with weapons in return for oil was
false and reiterated that it had no intention of acquiring
arms. "These are new lies,'' the official Libyan news agency
JANA quoted an official in the Libyan Foreign Affairs
Ministry as saying. [Reuters]
25 June 1998:
The Libyan
government has allocated $10 million to the Libyan
Arab Foreign Investment Company (LAFICO) for
investment in Malta, Libyan public security
minister Mohammed Hijazi said on Wednesday.
Hijazi headed a Libyan delegation which called on
Prime Minister Alfred Sant in Valletta before the close
of a three-day meeting of a Maltese-Libyan joint
commission. [Reuters]
23 June 1998:
South Africa denied on Monday a report in a British
newspaper that it had agreed a secret
half-a-billion-dollar deal to supply Libya with
weapons and spare parts in return for cut-price oil.
Government officials denied the report. "No such deal
has been concluded,'' a foreign ministry spokesman
said.
Britain's Sunday Telegraph said that under the deal, negotiated by South African
secret service officials and approved by
South African President Mandela, Pretoria would supply spare
parts for Libya's ageing Mirage jet fighter and attack
helicopters. [Reuters]
21 June 1998:
The Libyan minister for Arab unity, Jom'a al Fazzani, has
begun a brief visit to Egypt.
He told reporters at Cairo airport that he was bringing a
message for President Hosni Mubarak from Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi and that it concerned matters of common
interest.
He gave no further details but correspondents link the
visit to Egypt's efforts to have international sanctions
against Libya lifted. [BBC]
20 June 1998:
Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi held talks Friday with Jordanian Prime Minister Abdul-Salam Majali on trade and economic cooperation, Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported.
Majali and his Libyan counterpart, Mohamed al-Mangoush, later signed the minutes of a two-day
meeting of the Libyan-Jordanian committee, which called for increased trade, MENA said. [AP]
20 June 1998:
When questioned about American claims that he supports terrorism and is
mentally unstable, Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi said [In an interview with APTV] "I expect that I will go down in history as a person who has been misunderstood.'' Al-Qadhafi suggested the world would eventually come to accept his views. "All prophets have been accused of madness and terrorism,'' he said. "Even Christ was crucified, but after they crucified him,
they converted to his religion.'' [AP]
18 June 1998:
Col. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi appeared before Western journalists
for the first time since a reported assassination attempt, denying that he had been wounded or that
such an attack occurred. "People say al-Qadhafi has been a target of numerous assassination attempts,'' he said in an interview Tuesday with Associated Press Television. "I have never seen any assassination attempt directed at me.'' [AP]
18 June 1998:
The United States has
proposed to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco that they
establish a U.S.-Maghreb economic partnership to
help the three countries draw private investment, a
senior U.S. official said. Stuart Eizenstat, U.S. Undersecretary of State
for Economic, Business and Agriculture Affairs said in
Tunis that Libya, which is in the Maghreb
region, could not join the new partnership until it turns
over two suspects wanted in the United States and
Britain for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner
over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. [Reuters]
18 June 1998:
The American "The Washington Times" newspaper reported Tuesday that China is
still discussing sales of missile test equipment with Iran
and helping Libya develop its own missile
programme.
15 June 1998:
A Libyan Islamic opposition group claimed responsibility for an alleged
assassination attempt on Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Libyan government has denied such an attack occurred.
Al-Hayat quoted Abdullah Ahmed, the spokesman of the Islamic Martyrs Movement, as saying that
its guerrillas carried out the attack in the Sidi Khalifa area, 20 miles east of Benghazi in eastern Libya. [AP] For details [in Arabic - al-Hayat] please click here
15 June 1998:
A TOP international lawyer involved in the Lockerbie
bombing case foiled an armed man's apparent attempt
to break into his Stellenbosch lodgings. Lawyer Robert
Black - best known for his efforts in seeking a solution to
the diplomatic impasse between the US and Libya over
the Lockerbie bombers. "I heard someone trying the door handle, so I contacted
the police on my cellphone," Black said.
"They were there quickly. There was shooting outside,
but I stayed under the bed."
Stellenbosch police spokesman Anton de Kock said
police came across a man outside the building.
The man fired at them and fled. [Sunday Times]
13 June 1998:
Libyans who left Libya recently report that Libya is experiencing a major crack down on Libyan Islamists [al-Islamiyeen.] Major arrests took place in the main Libyan cities in the past few days and continuing.
It included university faculty members and graduate students. The crack down was a show of force by the army with heavy and light weapons storming residences at night and arresting suspected activists.
13 June 1998:
Egyptian and Libyan
officials on Friday denied a report that Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi had postponed a visit to Egypt
because of a failed attempt to kill him. The official Libyan news agency JANA described the
report of an assassination attempt as "lies and vile allegations.'' Egypt's government news agency MENA quoted an unnamed senior Egyptian security source as denying
Thursday's media report. [Reuters]
13 June 1998:
A French civil plaintiff in the case
of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over Africa said on Friday magistrates had formally ordered six
Libyans, including Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's
brother-in-law, to be tried. A total of 171 people died in the crash of a DC-10 of the French airline UTA over the west-central African
state of Niger. [Reuters]
13 June 1998:
Libya's news agency JANA reports that "It seems that our belief that Agence France Presse,
AFP, which describes itself as a major international
agency, was an agency that was committed to
respecting its professionalism by being trustworthy and
objective was merely a self-delusion which we had tried
to ignore despite the series of lies and cheap claims
which some of its degraded employees have been
stupidly propagating quoting claims by some of the dogs
[Qadhafi's name for the Libyan opposition], which have never stopped barking." [BBC]
13 June 1998:
Ethiopian Foreign
Minister Seyoum Mesfin on Thursday passed on his
country's praise to Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi
for his efforts to mediate in the border dispute
between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Libyan TV
reported. Libya sent an envoy to Ethiopia and Eritrea last week
with a proposal for a ceasefire and the deployment of
a buffer force from Libya and other Saharan African
states in the disputed border areas. [Reuters]
12 June 1998:
The London-based Liberty for the Muslim World, a human rights groups which monitors Libyan
affairs, reported that Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi had been attacked "in the past few days.'' But it had no details.
The group said since the attack, at least 100 young men have been arrested from the towns of
Dirnah, Ras al-Helal and al-Qubbah. [AP]
12 June 1998:
France Press [AFP] reports that Libya denied news reports that said Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi escaped an assassination attempt last week when he was en route to Egypt for an official visit.
12 June 1998:
Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi escaped an assassination attempt last week
that left him slightly injured but killed one of his female bodyguards, Libyans arriving in Egypt said
Thursday. The 1st of June attack took place on a coastal road in eastern Libya when Qadhafi was en route to
Egypt for an official visit, the travelers said. Qadhafi had stopped on the road near Dirnah, 160 miles west of the Egyptian border, when suspected Muslim militants opened fire on him and his group from surrounding mountains, said the travelers, speaking on condition of anonymity by telephone from the Egyptian border town of Salum.
Qadhafi was injured in the elbow, they said. [AP]
12 June 1998:
Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim said a decision
by African leaders to defy certain U.N. sanctions
imposed on Libya was not a challenge but an
expression of frustration.
``This was not an easy decision. This was not a
decision that was taken lightly. No-one desires a
confrontation, especially a confrontation with the more
powerful countries,'' Salim told Reuters Television in
an interview on Wednesday.
``At the same time, this is an African problem. Libya
is an African country... so my hope is that a solution
somehow can be found,'' he added after the closure of
the 34th OAU summit in Burkina Faso. [Reuters]
12 June 1998:
The United
States has denounced as a direct attack on the United
Nations the decision by the Organisation of African
Unity to ignore some sanctions imposed on Libya for
the 1988 bombing of a U.S. airliner.
The U.S. State Department called on African countries to
disregard the decision announced on Tuesday at an
OAU summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
The U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin said: ``We
are extremely disturbed by this short-sighted action,
which constitutes a direct assault on the authority of
the Security Council...it is thus an attack on the U.N.
system itself.'' [Reuters]
11 June 1998:
The annual summit of the Organisation of African Unity,
attended by more than twenty heads of state, has drawn
to a close in Burkina Faso.
During three days' of talks, African leaders agreed to
ignore some sanctions imposed against Libya for its
alleged involvement in bombing an American airliner over
Scotland ten years ago. [BBC]
11 June 1998:
Leaders at the Organisation of African Unity summit in
Burkina Faso said some air and travel sanctions against Libya would
not apply. A resolution said some trade sanctions might also be
lifted if the United States and Britain did not agree to
allow the two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie bombing
to be tried in a neutral country.
The US and Britain have said the two should face trial in
Scotland or the US. [BBC]
11 June 1998:
In a statement at the end of an OAU summit in
Burkina Faso on Tuesday, OAU heads of state asked
member states to ignore sanctions with humanitarian or
religious implications and those relating to official
OAU business. The OAU leaders appealed to the U.N. Security
Council to suspend all the sanctions, which were
imposed to force Libya to surrender two of its
nationals for trial in Britain or the United States for the
1998 bombing of an airliner over Scotland. [Reuters]
9 June 1998:
Renewable water resources in Libya, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Malta and Yemen will barely cover basic human needs by the year
2025, even if the resources are fully mobilised, a World Bank
presentation said. [Arab News - Reuters]
9 June 1998:
The Organization for African Unity [OAU] foreign ministers have suggested the OAU leaders
press for an immediate lifting of U.N. sanctions
imposed on Libya to force it to hand over two
suspects for trial in connection with the Lockerbie bombing.
OAU officials say Libya has shown flexibility over the
issue which has not been reciprocated. [Reuters]
9 June 1998:
Ethiopia and Eritrea have
welcomed an initiative taken by Libya's Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi to settle their border dispute
peacefully, state-run Libyan radio said on Monday.
But the radio did
not say whether the warring neighbours had accepted
Qadhafi's proposal for the deployment of a buffer
force from Libya and other Saharan African states in
the disputed border areas. [Reuters]
8 June 1998:
AFP reports that Libyan officials say no trips to Egypt planned or postponed by Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, but Egyptian President Husni Mubark told reporters that al-Qadhafi postponed his visit to Egypt because he is ill and suffering from tonsilitis [Inflammation of the tonsils ,the two glandular organs situated in the throat.]
8 June 1998:
Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi has proposed deploying troops from Libya
and other Saharan African states in the borders areas
disputed between Ethiopa and Eritrea, Libyan
state-run television reported on Friday. The television, monitored in Tunis, said the proposal
had been presented on Thursday by Qadhafi's envoy
Adam Tokwe to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi. Qadhafi's envoy later arrived in Asmara for a meeting
with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki on Friday. [Reuters]
Visit Benghazi: Dr. Nasr al-Anaizi's wonderful Benghazi page
7 June 1998:
Four days ahead of next week's 34th summit meeting of the
Organisation of African Unity, the national colours of 54 African states
embellished the streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi is expected to attend the summit. Libya put up the largest contribution of the seven billion CFA franc (11.6 million dollar)
cost of the event.
Amid the city's countless mopeds, security forces zoomed around on newer, more
powerful two-wheelers offered by Libya to serve as VIP escort vehicles. [Sapa-AFP]
5 June 1998:
The Libyan-Egyptian committee headed by
Libyan Prime Minister Mohammed al-Mangoush [pictured,] and Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal al-Janzouri comcluded its meetings in Cairo. Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi and Egyptian President Husni Mubark were supposed to participate in the committee meetings, but al-Qadhafi's visit to Egypt has been delayed for the second time in less than a week. [al-Arab and AFP]
Enjoy the lovely Libyan music in Libya-on-Line music page
4 June 1998:
Fourteen years ago, this week, a group of Libyans [some were students who just finished their studies abroad and went back home] were tried and hanged in public accused of helping the National Front for the Salvation of Libya militants in their May 1984 attempt to overthrow Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi. For more details [in Arabic] please click here
4 June 1998:
The Arab League's Council on Arab Economic Unity has
called for an end to the international sanctions against
Iraq and Libya.
The eleven-member council says that an end to the
sanctions would facilitate an Arab common market and
alleviate the suffering of the Libyan and Iraqi peoples.
According to the Arab League, sanctions cost the
Libyan economy more than twenty-three billion dollars
between 1992 and 1996. [BBC]
4 June 1998:
Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi will be visiting Egypt on Friday at the start of a 10-day
visit, a Libyan official said on Wednesday. There was no immediate confirmation from Egyptian
officials. They had said on Monday al-Qadhafi had postponed a
visit that was due to begin on Wednesday, and no new
date had been set. [Reuters]
2 June 1998:
Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi has postponed a planned visit to Egypt,
officials in both countries said on Monday. They had
no word on the reason for the change. Omar Rashwan, Libyan coordinator of
Egyptian-Libyan relations, told reporters in Egypt's
northwestern city of Mersa Matruh that al-Qadhafi's visit
had been postponed, but gave no reason. "The Libyans told us of the postponement and said
they would notify us of the new date,'' an Egyptian
presidential official said. [Reuters]
1 June 1998:
Al-Arab newspaper reports that Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi will meet with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak in Cairo tomorrow [Tuesday.] Egyptian ambassador to Libya, Fouad Jalal, said that the two sides will discuss local, Arab and international issues.
1 June 1998:
Saudi ambassador to the United States, Bandar Ben Sultan, arrived in Libya. Ben Sultan met with Col Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi to relay a message from Saudi Arabia's King Fahed Ben Abdulazeez. [al-Arab]
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