“We told them this is not enough ... because in 1986, (US) aggression against Libyan territories had come from Italy,” the Libyan leader said.As a result, he said, Italy agreed not to allow the use of its territories in any hostile action against Libya.US aircraft bombed Tripoli, Benghazi and the home of Gaddafi in April 1986, attacks which Libya said killed more than 40 people including his adopted baby daughter. The United States has military bases in Italy. NATO’s members agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by a non-member. Under the weekend deal, Italy agreed to pay $5 billion to compensate Libya for misdeeds during its 1911-1943 colonial rule.

Libya said it would grant Italy privileges in investments in oil, gas and other business in return. The North African country is emerging from years of sanctions imposed for what the West saw as its support for terrorism. Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Tuesday its treaties with other countries remained, though the pact with Libya called for both sides to refrain from attacking each other. “We’ve specified with great clarity that there are multilateral international treaties that obviously remain,” he told reporters at a conference in Florence.

Meanwhile, a visit to Libya by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week is expected to improve business and diplomatic ties with Tripoli but activists are demanding that Rice also focus on human rights. They fear that a promise of improved opportunities for US firms will result in muted criticism by the United States of oil-rich Libya’s rights record and that Washington will not use all its leverage to pressure Tripoli.
“It must not be drilling rights over human rights,” said Fred Abrahams of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“My fear is that Rice’s visit and Libya’s further integration into the international community will allow (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi to further stall reforms and take the heat off him to democratize,” added Abrahams, a Libya expert.
One case Human Rights Watch and others are tracking is that of Fathi al-Jahmi, an ailing political dissident and former provincial governor held against his will in a Tripoli medical center despite appeals for his release.

Jahmi’s brother Mohamed El-Jahmi, who lives near Boston, told Reuters the dissident was kept in a cockroach-ridden hospital room and his family had very limited access to him.He said his brother’s wife last saw Fathi Jahmi on April 4 and that she had been waiting in vain for a month in Tripoli to be allowed to see him again. “Fathi’s room is bugged with audio and video devices. The room remains locked even when Fathi receives visitors,” said his brother in an interview with Reuters. He said a member of his tribe was told Jahmi would be “liquidated” – killed – at the end of President George W. Bush’s term in January, 2009, and he feared for his life. Jahmi was first arrested in 2002 after he criticized Gaddafi and called for open elections, a free press and the release of political prisoners. A court sentenced him to five years.


From arabtimesonline.com