In Libya, chance for new start
KABAW, Libya -- If Americans expect Libyans to be sorry for what the West considers Libya's proven involvement in the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland -- an event that turned this country into a pariah state for 15 years -- they will be disappointed.
Judging by dozens of recent informal conversations, Libyans do not believe their country was involved in the bombing, which killed 270 people, despite their government's agreement to pay $2.7 billion in compensation. Nor do they believe there was any moral reason for Colonel Moammar Khadafy, their leader for the past 34 years, to voluntarily give up efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
"It's presents, that's all," said a young professional, who, like everyone who expressed potentially controversial opinions to a Globe reporter visiting Libya this month, insisted that his name not be published. "Presents to make the embargo go away. Presents to restore relations with the United States. Presents to take Libya off the terrorism list."
Still, people like Haj Omran Hanein, a retired oil worker who dabbles in agriculture on the high plateau that rises from the Mediterranean coastal plain, say they welcome the impending end of their country's long isolation from the United States.
"It is good if the Americans return," said Hanein, 72, during a break from the midday sun at a shady roadside restaurant. "I like for there to be good cooperation with the Americans, and Europeans, too. We can learn their technology. We can learn from them about oil production. And besides, we are all from one father."
Libyans are hypercautious in speaking about Khadafy, who has ruled the country since the revolution of 1969, and whose personality cult is still evident in the monumental portraits and the slogans from the leader's socialist-Islamist Green Book that are the primary decorations on public buildings and along highway embankments. The Green Book's place at the entrance to the national museum in Tripoli, the capital, is just below that of the Koran.
Khadafy's 1964
Libyans seem to believe sincerely that Khadafy is a wise leader who understands that the international political game is changing and who understands how to react and adapt. But a sure indication of the political reality here is that even praise of the leader must be off the record, lest people be misquoted or misunderstood and find themselves in trouble.
Says a waterfront businessman: "Our government tells us this: Things that are for the government, leave for the government. It is not your business."
Reasons why Libya would give "presents" to change its international standing are apparent throughout the country. A quarter-century of being identified as a leading enemy of the United States and listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, combined with economic policies based on Khadafy's personal leadership and philosophy, have stagnated the economy despite the country's substantial oil revenues.
Many government buildings and community centers are shabby, in need of plaster and paint. Public works and public services have deteriorated. Roadsides and forests near cities are full of trash; highway maintenance is spotty. Large, government-owned hotels and other public facilities are strongly evocative of China and the Soviet Union before the demise of socialism in those countries.
US-based oil companies, which have major interests in Libya, have not operated here since 1986, when President Ronald Reagan -- who also launched US airstikes against the country and broke diplomatic relations in response to alleged Libyan involvement in terrorism -- ordered the companies out and stopped all energy-related Libyan trade with the United States.
When suspicions arose that Libyan officials were linked to the Lockerbie bombing, most other developed nations joined the US sanctions regime, and the Libyan economy nosedived. Without tourists or business travelers, internal air routes withered in the Alaska-sized country, most of whose 5.5 million people live near the coast. Ferries to Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, and Malta also came to a halt.
The lifting of sanctions by other countries in 1999, when Libya acknowledged responsibility for the airliner bombing and surrendered two suspects for trial, did not do enough to modernize the oil industry and reinvigorate the economy. There are stiil very few foreigners on the streets of Tripoli and in major tourist destinations.
Posted Green Book slogans say things like "there is no freedom for the people when food comes from overseas," but a huge selection of food products, such as yogurt, cheese, pistachio nuts, and breakfast cereals, are imported. Neither the material failings nor the limitations on political speech have engendered the tough political opposition that has arisen in defiance of repression in other Arab countries, such as Syria and Tunisia. A middle-aged history teacher explained with a Libyan saying: "A satisfied stomach has no ears."
Khadafy may not have succeeded in keeping up with modernity or developing the economy, but he apparently did not engage in the gross corruption of many other Arab regimes, and he used Libya's oil resources to subsidize the population's basic needs.
"Oil was everything," said a professional tour guide, with a hint of resentment. "That's why tourism is only just beginning. Quite frankly, until now we did not need it."
Political reasons for changes in national policy are in the air, too. As Khadafy has moved closer to complying with US and UN demands, friction between Libya and other Arab countries has grown. These differences broke dramatically into the open a year ago at an Arab League summit in Egypt, when Khadafy attributed the presence of US troops in the Persian Gulf to Arab leaders' self-interest and insecurity. The resulting clash between the Libyan and Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, nearly caused the collapse of the summit.
Continuing friction with the Arab world was underscored at last weekend's Arab summit in Tunisia, when Khadafy walked out dramatically and departed for home in the midst of a speech on Arab unity by the league's secretary general, Amr Moussa.
Now, monuments to African unity and pan-African organizations, not to Arab organizations and causes, are prominent in Tripoli, and ordinary Libyans are free and sharp in their critique of Arab states.
"Arabs are nothing but blah, blah, blah," said a young government worker. "Lots of talk and they don't do anything. What did they do for the Palestinians, or Iraqis, or against the embargo on Libya? Africans are strong at heart. African countries broke the embargo. Their planes came directly," despite UN sanctions.
None of which means that anti-American rhetoric has moderated at the official level.
Ammar Eltaief, the minister of tourism, told a recent visitor that the United States had no right to complain about human-rights abuses in Darfur, a Sudanese province that abuts Libya, while "American soldiers are raping Iraqi prisoners and killing about 25 Iraqi prisoners daily." He said the United States should be put on trial for its human rights breaches.
Charles A. Radin can be reached at radin@globe.com
