U.S. Senate Delegation visit Libya

U.S. Senate Delegation visit Libya

Four Republican senators visited Tripoli on Thursday, the most prominent official American delegation to travel to the Libyan capital since the fall of Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s government more than a month ago.

The Congressional delegation of Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois and Marco Rubio of Florida, stated that American investors were watching Libya with keen interest, with hopes of doing business in the country as soon as the Transitional National Council had pacified the country, and routed the vestiges of resistance by Colonel Gaddafi and his fugitive loyalists.

The Senators cautioned that the proliferation of post-Gaddafi militias here represented a potential threat.

Lockerbie bombing

The senators said they had raised the delicate subject of prosecuting the unpunished Libyan perpetrators of the Lockerbie bombing with the post-Gaddafi government, and were assured by the NTC’s readiness to co-operate on the issue.

The 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people, most of them Americans, during a period of Colonel Gaddafi’s rule when Libya was considered a pariah state.

Support

Senator McCain, an early supporter of Western military intervention in the conflict, hailed the Libyan sacrifices and played down the impact of NATO’s anti-Gaddafi bombing campaign.

“This is Libya’s revolution, not ours; you deserve all the credit for its success, and you are responsible for its future.” he said.

McCain also said that he felt confident about a plan to secure weapons caches left unguarded during the conflict and that he did not think Libyans were “interested in any radical extremist government.”

He cautioned the transitional government, which has been criticized for the rebels’ harsh treatment of African migrants and black Libyans over the course of the seven-month conflict.

“It’s also important to bring this war to a dignified and irreversible conclusion, to bring Qaddafi and his family and his fighters to justice, while ensuring that past wrongs do not become a license for future crimes, especially against minorities,”  he said.

New-York times/Ehimen