DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - E.U./LIBYA: 6 BULGARIAN NURSES & 1 'PALESTINIAN' DOCTOR ARE WORTH $461 MILLION DOLLARS ANOTHER OTHER FUTURE PAYMENTS

Medics Freed After Libyan-EU Deal
By Kevin Sullivan

LONDON, July 24 --Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor flew to freedom Tuesday after more than eight years in a Libyan prison, receiving a presidential pardon and bouquets of flowers at an emotional arrival ceremony in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

"I waited so long for this moment," nurse Snezhana Dimitrova told reporters at the airport, where she and the other captives were reunited with family following an ordeal during which they had been sentenced to death after being convicted of intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus.

Their release followed a series of complex behind-the-scenes negotiations involving a payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to the families of the infected children and promises of improved trade and aid ties between Libya and the European Union. Settling the medics' case, which had caused international uproar, was seen as the latest step by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to normalize relations between his once-pariah nation and his former adversaries in the West.

"It's the end of a nightmare for these women and this man. Everyone in Europe is convinced that they are innocent," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose wife, Cecilia, accompanied the medics on their flight from Libya on a French government plane. At a Paris news conference, Sarkozy immediately announced that he would travel to Libya on Wednesday "to help Libya rejoin the international community."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday that the release of the medics would mean the European Union would "go further on normalizing our relations with Libya," a Mediterranean nation that wants greater trade and development aid from its wealthy European neighbors to the north.

"Our relations with Libya were to a large extent blocked by the non-settlement of this medics issue," Barroso told reporters in Brussels.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who traveled to Libya with Cecilia Sarkozy, said the release of the medics was a "humanitarian decision" that came after agreement on a memorandum outlining "a new page in the history of relations between the EU and Libya."

"I share the joy of their families and friends and of the government and people of Bulgaria. For over eight years, we have never forgotten the suffering of the medical staff who have shown such dignity and fortitude during their long ordeal," Ferrero-Waldner said.

At the airport in Sofia, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said the long standoff with Libya ended largely because of Bulgaria's entry into the European Union at the beginning of this year. "The return of the medics is a direct result of Bulgaria's membership in the European Union, of the solidarity which the EU showed Bulgaria," he said.

The nurses and the Palestinian doctor--who was granted Bulgarian citizenship last month--have always insisted that they were innocent and that they were tortured into confessing. They have blamed the infections on poor hygiene conditions in the Benghazi hospital where they worked. Independent medical studies showed that the infections at their hospital predated their arrival by several years. Libyans had accused them of conducting an AIDS experiment that went wrong.

French officials said the deal reached for the medics release also included provisions for the improvement of medical care for the Libyan children infected with HIV/AIDS, more than 50 of whom have died.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul-Rahman Shalqam told reporters in Tripoli that the agreement with the EU called for the EU to fund "life-long treatment" for the infected children as well as providing money to make improvements to the hospital where they were infected. He said the deal also called for aid for education, to protect historical sites and to help Libya secure its borders to combat the massive flows of illegal immigrants who move through Libya to Europe.

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EU Commission establishes $461 mln fund for HIV-infected children

Brussels, 24 July (AKI) - The European Commission has pledged to see that international donors give a total 461 million dollars to a special fund for the victims of the 461 children infected with HIV at a hospital in the Libyan port city of Benghazi, the EU's external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday.

Libya on the same day released to Bulgaria six foreign medics convicted of infecting the children following negotiations with EU officials in Tripoli and intense international pressure.

"The EU executive's commitment is clearly stated in article 1 of our memorandum of understanding with Libya, which at 6 am this morning enabled the Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to be transferred to Sofia," said Ferrero-Waldner.

She was referring to the medics, who had been sentences to life in jail. They had previously been sentenced to death and have already spend eight years in jail.

Donations to the Benghazi fund will be "voluntary" and can come from government and non-government donors, she said. The EU Commission "will naturally solicit the funds," Ferrero-Waldner added.

The sum (461 million dollars) is exactly that asked for by the families, and corresponds to one million dollars per family," of which the EU Commission will contribute 12.5 million euros (17.3 million dollars), she said.

The MoU signed between Libya and the EU also contains a series of commitments from the bloc in various areas,. These include boosting Libyan exports to Europe - especially agricultural products and fish - the granting of visas, illegal immigration and archaeology.

The accord also agrees to establish a mechanism for surveying Libya's coastline. Libya is one of the main 'transit' countries for would-be illegal immigrants to Europe from Africa.

Other measures include scholarships and training for Libyan students in European universities in all subjects and the issuing of visas in exchange for the dropping of visa requirements for EU citizens visiting Libya.

Under the MoU, the EU also commits to giving its continued full support to Libya's anti-AIDS programme and to "providing further sums to this effect." The bloc also promises to "undertake the necessary efforts" to make the Benghazi centre for infectious diseases a centre of excellence at regional level that will benefit from multilateral aid.

The EU also pledges to maintain longterm health care for the Benghazi child HIV victims that meets international standards including specialist treatment in European hospitals funded by the bloc and voluntary contributions from member states.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Medics Freed After Libyan-EU Deal

2) EU Commission establishes $461 mln fund for HIV-infected children