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Karl Schembri
Sitting opposite Gaddafi inside his Bedouin tent some 250km off Tripoli, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi must have realised the absurdity of it all. There he was, after being snubbed for three days by the flamboyant leader with whom Maltese premiers used to boast of having special relations, only to be met by a cool Colonel with dishevelled hair and a khaki military outfit in a meeting that lasted no longer than 30 minutes.
Government sources are quick to point out that “this is the normal Libyan way of doing things,” that everything is unpredictable in the oil rich North African country, and that delays and “out of the programme” meetings keep cropping up even during the most important state visits.
But now that Libya has opened up to the world and the former pariah has made new allies of the most unlikely of leaders, it is becoming increasingly clear that Gaddafi’s ambitious priorities lie elsewhere.
Officially, Gonzi’s counterpart on Libyan soil is Prime Minister Shoukri Ghanem, and the meeting between the two Prime Ministers was officially scheduled and held according to plan.
Also on paper, Gaddafi occupies no government post but is only referred to by the unassuming title of “Leader of the Revolution in the Great Socialist Peoples’ Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,” hence, officially, he has no counterpart according to protocol.
But it was Gaddafi who met British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Italian ally Silvio Berlusconi. Now, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and also French President Jacques Chirac are expected to meet Gaddafi, not to mention Gaddafi’s meeting with Romano Prodi in Brussels last April, on his first European trip in 15 years.
Only a day after Gonzi’s return to Malta, Berlusconi personally went to Libya to inaugurate a 6.6 billion-dollar gas pipeline that runs across the Mediterranean seabed to the shores of Sicily.
The day itself was quite significant: 7 October is celebrated in Libya as “revenge day” – a reminder of the 1970 expulsion of Italians – the former colonisers – from the Jamahiriya. Gaddafi turned ‘history’ upside down last Thursday by declaring, with Berlusconi standing on his side, that from now on it will be known as “friendship day.”
“The date of October 7 used to remind the Libyan people of the launch of the Italian invasion in 1911 and the evacuation of the Italians in 1970,” Gaddafi said. “We now want to make it a day of friendship and cooperation between Libya and Italy, a cooperation that has been cemented by the gas project which we are inaugurating today.”
Not only gas sealed this new friendship. Gaddafi also announced Libya would allow the return of Italians who had been expelled by his regime in 1970.
“Our friend Berlusconi… made a modest request to the Libyan people… to allow the elderly Italians who colonised Libya and were expelled on October 7, 1970 to come and visit Libya,” said Col. Gaddafi. “I call on the Libyan people to accept this request... And those who want to come and work in Libya can do so.”
The place where the pipeline starts on Libya’s west coast is called Mellita, but there is nothing Maltese in this venture.
Government sources say that original plans back in 2000 to branch out a pipeline to Malta from the Libya-Sicily project fell through after Enemalta failed to reach a feasible agreement with Italian oil groups ENI and Agip and their Libyan state-owned oil company partner, NOC.
Passing the east of Malta at a depth of 1,127 metres, the 540-kilometre pipeline will carry some 10 billion cubic metres of gas every year from Mellita to Gela in Sicily, and then on into southern Europe.
So what concrete results did Gonzi achieve during his visit? Upon his return, he described his meeting with Gaddafi as “positive” and said both talked about “the added value of Malta’s Mediterranean dimension as a member of the EU and the way in which it could contribute to peace and stability in the region.” Harmless textbook stuff, but nothing tangible.
He also discussed “the most important issue” of illegal immigration with his Libyan counterpart, Ghanem, with both of them “appreciating each other’s will to overcome difficulties on this issue.”
Right. What else? No mention of any commitment from the Libyan side to step up patrols and work with Maltese forces to curb the illegal trafficking of thousands of would-be immigrants to Southern Europe, most of whom end up in Malta.
No concrete commitments about the immigration camps that are supposedly to be set up in Libya either – a proposal from Italy and Germany which has so far met the opposition of France and Spain.
And the pressing visa problem for Maltese businessmen has been “discussed among other issues” according to the Prime Minister. On the other hand Malta opened a new Consulate General in Tripoli to speed up the process for Libyans applying to enter Malta.
“Solving the visa problem is my priority,” said Foreign Minister Michael Frendo. “I want Maltese businessmen to be able to enter Libya easily through multiple entry visas to make business contacts. I’ll keep following this until we find an acceptable solution to both sides.”
The Opposition however is sceptical about the results of the Prime Minister’s visit.
“We don’t know the outcome of this visit,” said the Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Leo Brincat. “The Prime Minister keeps saying he had ‘positive discussions’ but I have my doubts about any tangible progress.”
Despite the large number of high-level officials in his entourage, Gonzi did not take one person whom the Libyans are familiar with to a country where everything is based on personal contacts.
In the meantime, Malta keeps watching helplessly as the leverage it used to boast of during the years of the embargo on Libya vanishes into thin air, while competing EU countries and US multinationals crowd to the Libyan capital to establish contact with the rehabilitated regime.
Snubbed by Gaddafi? With all the domestic controversies he is facing on his own land, it is an incident Gonzi would rather not think about.
karl@newsworksltd.com
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