DRAMATIC STATEMENTS ABOUT HIV INFECTIONS AND MEDICS TRIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TRIPOLI 000426

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/MAG, EUR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/1/2032
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV BU LY
SUBJECT: DRAMATIC STATEMENTS ABOUT HIV INFECTIONS AND MEDICS TRIAL
CONTINUE IN LIBYA

CLASSIFIED BY: Elizabeth Fritschle, Pol/Econ Chief, United
States Embassy, DOS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. SUMMARY. Libya's newspapers, all government controlled,
continue to run dramatic statements about the source of HIV
infections in Libya. The press articles consistently blame the
Palestinian doctor and Bulgarian nurses, along with foreign
intelligence services including the CIA and Mossad, for
deliberating infecting the children with HIV. Although
international legal experts have grave concerns about the court
process and quality of evidence, the Libyan press continues to
insist that their judicial system is sacrosanct. While the
Libyan government gives assurances that is is working to find a
resolution to the case, and some officials admit in private that
they know that infections were not a deliberate, criminal act,
there are no public signs of trying to educate the Libyan
population or shift public opinion. A recent press release from
representatives of the Benghazi families has a shift in tone
from calls for retribution to an expression of appreciation to
those who empathize with the suffering of the infected Libyans.
At the same time though, the families are now calling for more
attention to be paid to a scientific study released from the
"Biotechnology Center of South Carolina" that questions the
theory that the infection spread due to poor hygienic practice.
The next hearing in the defamation case against the medics is
May 6 and a Supreme Court decision on the appeal of the guilty
verdict is due before May 17. If the guilty verdict and death
sentence are confirmed, the appeal will move to the Libyan
Higher Judicial Council for a further review.
END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) Libya's newspapers, all government controlled,
continue to run dramatic statements about the source of HIV
infections in Libya. Libyan papers continue to print "public
opinion" pieces that have no attributions but express outrage
against the foreign medical staff who allegedly injected over
400 Libyan children in a Benghazi hospital with the HIV virus in

1998. The accused Palestinian and Bulgarians are currently
waiting for a Supreme Court decision on the appeal of the guilty
verdict and death sentence in their trial. The decision is due
before May 17, although an exact date is not determined,
according to the Bulgarian Embassy. This is the second time
they have been sentenced to death. The Supreme court overturned
a previous death sentence and remanded the case for retrial.
The press articles consistently blame the Palestinian doctor and
Bulgarian nurses, along with foreign intelligence services
including the CIA and Mossad, for deliberating infecting the
children with HIV.


3. (SBU) Although international legal experts have grave
concerns about the court process and quality of evidence, the
Libyan press continues to insist that their judicial system is
sacrosanct. The articles also claim that the international
community's concern over the case reflects racism because they
claim, if the children were American or European, no one would
have questioned the court decision. The following quote is
typical of most articles: "The West wants this case to be about
the five Bulgarian nurses and not the hundreds of children. All
this happened since no one cares about Arab children. The
world, with its human rights, charitable and political
organizations, is reduced to silence only because these children
and mothers are Libyans and not Scandinavians or North
Americans."


4. (SBU) Particularly inflammatory was an article in
al-Jamahiriya newspaper that published pictures of many Libyan
children infected with the HIV virus with the following
headline, "our children did not come from Mars, and their blood
isn't sewage water. Anyone trying to question this trial is
guilty as well. The crime of injecting Libyan children with AIDS
is a crime against humanity and not just a case of Bulgarian
nurses." Many of the articles claim that anyone who questions
the court's guilty verdict must have played an integral role in
the crime. Some typical quotes include:

"Any entity or any country trying to raise doubts about this
case is not innocent of this crime;"
"Intelligence services and parties involved in this crime
are those who push for questioning justice in the case of those
victim children;"
"Those objecting to the case are suspect characters who are
loyal to the intelligence services of those countries involved
in the case;" and

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"Anyone trying to question this case is an active player in
the crime and bears responsibility."

The "public opinion" pieces also claim consistently that it
would only be fair for the families of the victims to seek
proper compensation for the crime; that the deliberate
infections are a crime against humanity that require blood
money.


5. (C) While the Libyan government gives assurances that is is
working to find a resolution to the case, and some officials
admit in private that they know that infections were not a
deliberate, criminal act, there are no public signs of trying to
educate the Libyan population or shift public opinion. In
contrast, there seems to be an effort to maximize public outrage
to create nationalist sentiment against "outside influences."
The Libyan government will have to use some twisted explanation
when a settlement is finally reached. There are many precedents
for unusual logic in Libya. In April, Qadhafi gave public
remarks that could be interpreted to say that Libya did not
really pay the Lockerbie settlement for the Pan-Am 103 bombing,
but instead U.S. companies paid for the Lockerbie settlement by
purchasing Libyan oil. Similarly, the official Libyan stance is
that the Operation El Dorado Canyon air strikes on Libya in 1986
were a U.S. failure and that Libya won against the "American
aggression" by surviving the bombing raid.


6. (C) One sign that there might be a shift in the Libyan
insistence that the medical personnel are guilty and that
compensation must be paid can be found in a recent press
statement from the group representing the infected Libyans.
The statement of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya Civil Society for the Care of the Infected Children
organization was released via the internet and not through the
local papers, so it would not have wide circulation in Libya.
Therefore, the intended audience is the international community.
The statement says that the families of the Libyan victims
value EU Commissioner for External Relations Ferrero's (sic)
initiatives on behalf of the Benghazi children. It also
expresses appreciation for the efforts by the German government
as the current EU chair. It also noted that the UK, while
acting as the EU chair, worked to set up the Benghazi
International Support Fund and initiated a dialogue with the
victim's families through the Qadhafi Development Foundation.
It emphasizes its appreciation for "representatives of the
international community that have shown all respect for the
feelings of the families and understanding of what their
children have suffered through this humanitarian tragedy and
respect for the justice of their situation." Whereas most
previous statements have focused strongly on compensation and
retribution, this press release emphasizes appreciation for
people who empathize with the infected children. The release
is signed by Omar al-Kilani al-Mismari and Idris Hamad Lagha as
"representatives of the families of the Libyan Child Victims of
the AIDS Disaster."


7. (C) At the same time, the press statement calls attention
to a scientific study issued in the U.S. It says, "the
children's families appeal to the Arab and international
scientific and legal community to take greater interest in the
new scientific studies by specialists from the Biotechnology
Center of South Carolina and from the American Calvin University
which reveal more evidence about what happened in Benghazi
Children's Hospital in 1998. Libyans are using the new study
released in South Carolina to support their claim that the
infections must have been deliberate. In contrast,
world-renowned HIV experts dismiss the study as "scientific
drivel", but unfortunately, the Libyans are claiming that since
the study comes from the U.S. it must be authoritative proof of
the medics' guilt. The Libyan Medical Board is particularly
sensitive to criticism that the infections were spread by poor
sanitation and medical practice. Since the South Carolina study
concludes that it would be unusual for an infection to be spread
by poor sanitation in only one hospital, the Libyans are using
the study to exonerate themselves of accusations of poor
sanitation across the board.


8. (C) COMMENT. We are not familiar with the "Biotechnology
Center of South Carolina" or the "American Calvin University."
If they exist and have issued such a study, it is unfortunate
that the U.S. scientific community is being used by the Libyan
medical establishment to refute independent studies by the
world's leading HIV experts that the infections developed and
spread through the patient population in a manner inconsistent
with deliberate criminal intent, but similar to outbreaks in
hospital populations in other countries such as Romania. That

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only makes it more difficult to hope for a ruling by the Libyan
appeals courts that the case should be thrown out based on
scientific evidence. It is widely anticipated that the Supreme
Court will confirm the guilty verdict and death sentence
sometime before May 17. Embassy expects that there will be
another upsurge of Libyan press statements dramatizing the
suffering of the Libyans with HIV and AIDs at that time. At the
same time, the ongoing defamation cases against the medics
brought by the security officials schedule for another hearing
about May 6. It is widely anticipated that the medics will be
found guilty of defaming Libyan security by claiming that they
were tortured while in police custody. If, as expected, the
guilty verdicts in the infection case are upheld by the Supreme
Court then the Libyan Higher Judicial Council will consider the
verdicts. The Higher Judicial Council includes Libyan "cabinet"
officials as well as judicial officers and would be the
mechanism to arrange some way for the medics to depart Libya.
END COMMENT.
GOLDRICH