Bangkok Post - December 25, 2006

The six medical volunteers were charged and convicted by the court with causing Aids in Libyan children. The case is essentially a perfect storm of scientific ignorance, ugly xenophobia and stupidity literally on an international scale. The verdict, boiled down to its essentials, is this: Children died, foreigners were there - therefore, the foreigners killed the children.

This is a reprehensible verdict in any case. It is unacceptably and urgently wrong in this capital case, where six death penalties now have been legally confirmed.

It is not too much to put Col Gadhafi on notice in this case. He has recently taken some steps to back up his claim that he wants to join the civilised world. After decades of shameless lies about it, he has cooperated with the United States and others in destroying his research and production of terrible weapons - nuclear, biological and chemical. Of course, there are other deeds he can only repent and not reverse. His agents blew up hundreds of innocent people aboard at least two commercial airliners. He financed and supported the separatists and their murders in southern Thailand in the 1970s and 1980s.

In short, Col Gadhafi has much to atone for. It is fair to demand that he be held accountable for correcting the revolting treatment of the six medical volunteers. The process of so-called justice in their case is provably and obviously a travesty. The court heard five Libyan doctors, all of whom testified against the six foreigners, saying the children were all infected by dirty needles introduced by the volunteers. The "confessions" were accepted routinely.

Judges also heard from prominent medical authorities from abroad. They were a virtual Who's Who of experts, including even Luc Montagnier, the researcher who discovered HIV. All testified in favour of the volunteers. They noted with strong medical facts that the infections were almost certainly from a variety of sources, including blood transfusions.

It is almost certain the children were infected before the Palestinian and five Bulgarian volunteers arrived in the country. The judges felt that someone infected and effectively killed the children, and since no one else was implicated, the foreigners should die.

There was a dark period of xenophobia, ignorance and suspicion about Aids. But all of this has happened in Libya in 2006, when the world knows how Aids is transmitted. The re-use of syringes by the six condemned victims in this case, blamed uniquely by the prosecution and courts, was not likely even the source of the HIV carried by the children. But in any case, as in most places where dirty and under-equipped state hospitals are the rule, re-use of syringes in Libya is widespread. Even the Libyan media has pointed this out.

The Bulgarian media has correctly headlined the death sentences "a political farce" and a "mockery of justice." The Bulgarian and Palestinian governments called for the immediate release of the six victims. So did President George W. Bush, the European Union and the human rights group Amnesty International. Col Gadhafi, one of the world's longest serving dictators, has said nothing in public, but controls the situation as he controls all events in Libya.

The Libyan leader must be put on record and should be put on the spot. Friends and neighbours of Libya must demand Col Gadhafi speak on this issue. All countries and organisations, but especially the United Nations and United States, should put heavy pressure on him to reverse the verdicts, grant an amnesty and free these six innocent people.

The sentences mock justice and raise the important question of whether Libya is yet ready to join the civilised world community.

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BP061204

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