Libyan dictator Colonel Moammar Gadaffi is continuing to target political exiles in Britain — the so-called ”stray dogs” of his brutal regime — and has refused to remove a million-dollar bounty on the head of his most prominent opponent in this country.
Libyan dissidents living in Britain have condemned the ”indecent haste” with which British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to meet their country’s leader last week without first insisting on democratic reform and the lifting of restrictions on legitimate political opposition to the dictator.
Ashur Shamis, a journalist who has lived in Britain since the 1960s, has been named by the Libyan Ministry of Justice and Public Security as one of the country’s six most wanted men. His picture and colourful details of his alleged crimes have been posted on the ministry’s website with a reward of a million dollars ”to anyone who assists in apprehending him and handing him over to trial before the Libyan courts to be tried for the crimes he has committed”.
The site claims that Shamis is linked to al-Qaeda via the controversial British-based cleric Abu Qatada, currently being held without charge in Belmarsh prison as a terrorist suspect. It accuses the Libyan activist of ordering a bank raid in Benghazi in 1999 in which 120 000 Libyan dinars and $100 000 were stolen and allegedly passed on to Osama bin Laden via Libyan extremists in Afghanistan.
In fact, Shamis, who is a British citizen, told The Observer: ”I have always publicly condemned al-Qaeda and campaigned for peaceful change and reform in Libya.”
He has met Qatada once, by chance, when he attended the same mosque in the early 1990s and has no connection with any Libyan terrorist group.
The United Kingdom authorities recognise that Shamis is a respected member of the Libyan exile community in London and has no links to terrorism. He first came to this country as a student in 1965 and has not returned to his homeland for more than 30 years.
News of the bounty will embroil Blair in further controversy over the trip to Tripoli, which some critics believe would have been more properly undertaken by the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. On Saturday, Arab commentators suggested that Gadaffi snubbed Blair by raising his shoe to reveal its sole during their meeting — a known insult in the Arab world. The renewal of diplomatic relations has already led to several lucrative trade deals for British companies, including Shell and defence giant BAe.
British officials told journalists in Tripoli that the sharing of information on suspected terrorists was an important reason for cutting a deal with Gadaffi. But the inaccuracy of the information on dissidents such as Shamis casts serious doubts on the usefulness of this intelligence to British security services.
Last week the Libya Human and Political Development Forum sent a letter to Blair saying it was understandable that the prime minister would wish to reward Gadaffi for complying with demands to scrap his programmes to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. But the dissidents launched a powerful attack on the decision to visit Gadaffi without first demanding serious human rights reform.
The letter, which was received by Downing Street before the prime minister left for Tripoli, states: ”Many victims of Gadaffi’s repressive and blatantly terrorist policies and crimes will view such indecent haste to reconcile with vile dictators with a great deal of justifiable cynicism. These victims include thousands of Libyan and non-Libyan mothers, sons, daughters and wives whose relatives were killed in cold blood, imprisoned, or disappeared without trace.”
It goes on to urge the British government to press Libya to release its thousands of political prisoners, abolish the feared extra-judicial People’s Court, lift restrictions on the press and help facilitate the return of exiles.
International human rights organisations have expressed serious concerns that the Libyan regime will use the cover of the ”war on terror” to crack down on opponents inside the country and settle scores with prominent exiles by claiming they are connected to al-Qaeda.
Amnesty International, which visited Libya last month on the invitation of Gadaffi, said there were signs the regime was open to reform but there was a tendency to label all opponents as terrorists.
Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International senior director for international law who led the delegation, said: ”We welcome any steps to support initiatives to improve human rights in Libya. But in our experience ‘war on terror’ rhetoric was used to justify unacceptable practices.”
Amnesty officials were able to visit members of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood imprisoned in 1998 for engaging in political activity, a criminal offence in Libya. The case of 80 of the men comes to appeal next month and will be seen as a test of whether the regime is genuinely preparing for reform. — Guardian Unlimited Â