Bulgaria said it was hopeful of an agreement with Libyan authorities on Monday that would pave the way for the release of six foreign medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.
Prospects for the release of the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor appeared to rise after France’s first lady and a top European Commission official flew to Libya seeking to end a dispute holding back Tripoli’s ties with the West.
”We are at the stage now where the decision is purely political,” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin told reporters arriving for a meeting in Brussels.
”I hope there will be enough will from the Libyans’ side today [Monday] in order to finalise talks … If they show this will, then the transfer can be done very quickly,” he added.
The European Union’s executive said in a statement late on Sunday that EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Cecilia travelled to the North African state on Sunday.
”The European Commission hopes that this situation, which is so painful and has lasted so long, can be resolved in a humane spirit,” the statement said. It gave no further details.
An EU official would only say that the two women were in Tripoli talking to the Libyan authorities on Monday, and declined to comment on media reports that the nurses would be flown out to Sofia on Monday aboard a French presidential plane.
Libya’s Higher Judicial Council last week commuted death sentences on the six, accused of deliberately infecting 460 children at Benghazi hospital, to life imprisonment. That opened the way for them to return to their home country under a 1984 prisoner exchange agreement. Once in Bulgaria, they could be pardoned by the Balkan state’s President, Georgi Parvanov.
Innocent
Bulgaria and its allies in the 27-member bloc say the nurses are innocent but have provided long-term medical assistance to victims and aid for the Benghazi hospital.
The EU is also helping Libyan authorities to design a national HIV/Aids programme.
Libyan officials have signalled that they want the agreement firmed up, with specific details included as to how the EU will fulfil its commitments in practice.
Families of the HIV victims received payments of hundreds of millions of dollars last week from an international fund set up by the Gadaffi Foundation. Once they are sent to Bulgaria, the medics could be pardoned by the new EU member state’s president.
In Bulgaria, where a big poster saying ”We are waiting for you” was placed at the Sofia airport’s arrival hall, government officials rejected French media reports that the nurses could be flown back to the Balkan country as early as Monday.
”It is not true. The rumour is wrong. It is not clear when the nurses will come back,” Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev told Reuters.
Some EU officials had voiced private exasperation at what they saw as the new French leader seeking credit for the release of the medics at the last minute after Brussels has spent three years patiently negotiating with Tripoli.
Sarkozy himself is due to visit Libya on Wednesday.
Emmanuel Altit, one of three French lawyers representing the Bulgarian nurses, welcomed the visit.
”All efforts are welcome and we welcome with interest anything that contributes to a solution,” he told Reuters.
Last Friday, the European Union held out the prospect of a quick boost to relations with Libya if the fate of the six jailed medics is resolved in a satisfactory way. – Reuters 2007