Following recent gestures aimed at wooing the West, Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi could have made a splashy appearance at the Europe-North Africa summit to redeem himself on the international stage.
Instead, he sat back, sulked and remained silent — the black sheep of the conference, refusing to give an opening speech or clap when French President Jacques Chirac delivered closing remarks on Saturday.
The two-day summit in Tunisia attempted to bridge the divide across Mediterranean: on one side, prosperous coastal European countries, and on the other, troubled North Africa, where grim job prospects and slums have bred Islamic extremists.
Leaders of five European countries and five of their North African counterparts pledged to work together to fight terrorism and illegal immigration. But Gadaffi’s visible boredom didn’t bode well for cooperation, and several simmering bilateral disputes thwarted any real breakthroughs.
One conflict pits France against Libya over compensation for an airliner bombing in the 1980s.
Exasperated, the French president, Chirac, told reporters: ”Relations with Libya are always very complicated.”
Gadaffi, who wore a flowing brown robe and black traditional cap, didn’t applaud Chirac’s closing speech. He seemed listless while other leaders spoke, leaning back against his headrest and sulking.
Asked why he chose not to address his peers, Gadaffi quoted an Arabic proverb: ”Words are silver, but silence is gold.”
Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, said Europe must reach out to Libya and help it move on from its past.
For years, Gadaffi was best known for his devotion to armed struggle against the United States. His human rights record is considered poor.
But recently, the Libyan leader has tried to get back in the West’s good graces, forcefully condemning the September 11 attacks and distancing himself from al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Libya also took responsibility for the bombing of a 1988 Pan Am passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay families of the 270 victims $2,7-billion. That step led the UN Security Council in September to lift 11-year-old sanctions against Tripoli.
France abstained, awaiting the outcome of a deal to increase compensation to victims of a 1989 bombing of a French UTA jetliner that killed 170 people. Libya already paid compensation in 1999, but only a fraction of the Lockerbie deal — $33-million. Both sides
went back to the bargaining table, but without success.
Both Gadaffi and Chirac said negotiations were continuing.
The French leader also warned that the dispute could harm relations with France, ”and as a result, the reintegration of Libya in the international community”.
The ”5 plus 5 summit,” as the grouping is called, gathered leaders from North Africa — Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania and Libya — with leaders from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta.
The group was formed in 1990 but was stalled for years, partly because of internal turmoil in Algeria, where an Islamic insurgency has left 120 000 dead, and partly because of the sanctions on Libya. The Tunisia meeting was the first to gather the heads of state.
In a final statement, leaders vowed to work together to fight illegal immigration, money laundering and drug and arms trafficking. They also condemned terrorism and pledged more economic cooperation.
There was no mention of the Western Sahara, a disputed territory on Africa’s Atlantic Coast. Morocco claims the territory as its own, while Algeria backs Western Saharan rebels who want independence.
The Western Sahara dispute has prevented real cooperation among North African countries for decades. It has also frozen the Arab Maghreb Union, designed to promote cooperation in the region. Known by its French initials UMA, it not had a gathering since 1994.
Algerian President Abedelaziz Bouteflika offered to host a UMA summit, but Moroccan officials signaled they would not attend.
Gadaffi said bluntly that he wasn’t interested: ”We should put the UMA in cold storage.” – Sapa-AP