Bulgaria's Painful Lesson in Libya

When the wind of change started blowing in Libya, the dictator Gaddafi responded with lethal force. The bloodshed and unscrupulousness sum up his whole tenure, in which five death-sentence Bulgarian medics made a cameo, but ill-boding appearance. Why now, several years later, is the international community just as hesitant?

Hours before Bulgaria's accession to the European Union on January 1, 2007, I dared forecast that the travesty trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in Libya will be Sofia's first test for Brussels.

In the middle of December 2006 the medics were sentenced to death by a Libyan court on charges of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with the HIV virus.

It was on that day that we remembered the passivity of the international community, the doomed "quiet diplomacy" of the Bulgarian governments and their fruitless efforts over several years. It was on that day that we understood Libya has only one authority and one official who matters and who is not afraid to kill to protect his power: Gaddafi, the mad dog of the Middle East.

The European Union passed the test with flying colors - the involvement of the Sarkozy couple in the final stages of the talks secured the medics transfer and subsequent pardoning in Sofia. For the death-sentenced nurses and doctor Bulgaria's entry into the club of the rich and its involvement in their case brought the miracle of a new life.

But hardly would anyone in Bulgaria ever forget the tragedy of the medics, who spent more than eight years jailed in Libya. A tragedy that started in Benghazi.

Now Benghazi, the country's second city, is a scene of bloodsheds, an open-air morgue, a leading focus of protests against four decades of rule by Col Muammar Gaddafi. Now, once again, all eyes are on the international community. All prayers are for the people in the streets and the foreigners trying to flee the country. All hopes are for clear messages to Tripoli, hopes for real actions with real results.

Col Gaddafi may have lost the support of almost every section of the society, but is intent on keeping power at whatever the cost in the blood of protesters. His son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi warned of rivers of blood and hundreds of thousands dead. The worst-case scenario that many feared in Egypt and Tunisia, unfolded in Libya.

It is at this point that the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and other governments can and should help protect those protesters from Gaddafi's guns and encourage a democratic result.

Their silence and passivity so far has been deafening, cynical and at first glance surprising.

Isn't the bloodshed in the Arab world a good enough reason for the peacemakers to get going at least out of fear of the imminent earthquake on the oil market? Obviously not. Why?

First of all Gaddafi's promise not to build weapons of mass destruction and his decision to compensate the families of the 270 victims of the aircraft bombed by a Libyan agent over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 led to Libya's reacceptance into the international fold.

On the other hand Russia is more than happy to see oil prices rising. China is taking every precaution to make sure its people are immune to the Libyan virus. France and the UK do not want to be reminded by the rebels of their unrestrained flirt with the "mad dog of the Middle East". Besides Gaddafi's regime shields European Union member states from an influx of migrants and provides oil for them. To top it all off the European governments do not who will take the upper hand after Gaddafi is toppled. Could it be extremists that threaten the safety of their citizens?

The United States is under conflicting pressures. On the one hand, it has always considered improved relations with Libya as a must for providing stability to the region because the regime is opposed to Islamic extremism. Oil concessions also provide economic incentives for the States to use "kid gloves" with Gaddafi. But the White House is also at a loss over whom it should help first – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait or Iraq?

Against this background the consideration that the cruelty in the treatment of the protestors should be opposed on purely moral and humanitarian grounds sounds almost na?ve.

In the meantime just as the Bulgarian medics were held hostages in Libya, Gaddafi did not hesitate to hamper the run of thousands of foreigners out of the volatile country. He just resorted to classic market haggling, as if these were brass pots and pans rather than human lives.

The European Union and the United States are suddenly forced to face the reality they have been trying so hard to deny – Gaddafi is a brutal and merciless dictator, ready to shoot to death every opponent, quick to throw the blame for his mistake on scapegoats, such as the Bulgarian medics.

The protestors' movements are as multi-layered and complicated as the Arab societies themselves. The outcome is hardly predictable, but still can be guided by outside forces.

To do so, the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and other governments should quickly replace the hackneyed words of condemnation with resolute steps – finger Gaddafi as the perpetrator of atrocities, for which he will be held responsible, stop bowing to him, stop fearing that their actions will anger him and make him behave worse and present a unified front.

Gaddafi has made it clear much more blood will be shed before, if at all, the regime relinquishes control. It is up to the international community however to steer clear of his trap and protect the civilians.

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