YET another new twist in the Libyan saga happened on April 12 when news agencies Reuters and Agence France Press reported that an anonymous source from the Libyan government had said Tripoli would impose a trade embargo on Bulgaria.
The embargo was to be imposed because of Sofia’s failure to take responsibility for the infection of hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. According to the report, the source said that there was pressure on Libyan authorities from the families of the infected children to take the step against Sofia. The official did not say when the embargo would come into effect.
“Libya will boycott Bulgarian companies and shut the doors to all investment and trade opportunities for Bulgarian companies because the Bulgarian Government has ignored demands to take responsibility for the action of its citizens in the HIV case,” the Libyan government official was quoted as telling Reuters.
Bulgarian Government officials, however, shrugged off the threat.
“We will not comment on anonymous statements,” Government spokesperson Dimitar Tsonev told Bulgarian news agency BTA, in response to the Reuters report.
“The Government will make a statement after receiving an official document from Tripoli.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson and Deputy Foreign Minister Gergana Gruncharova said that the ministry had instructed Bulgarian ambassador to Libya Zdravko Velev to send a note to the Libyan foreign ministry, asking for more information about the case.
“By the time the Reuters report appeared on April 12 the Bulgarian embassy in Tripoli had not been informed either orally or in writing about such an intention on the part of the Libyan government,” Gruncharova said.
She said that the Foreign Ministry was not in the practice of commenting on anonymous statements.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party said that the parliamentary group of the BSP-dominated Coalition For Bulgaria had expressed concern and alarm at the possible escalation of claims and pressure against Bulgaria by Libya.
The group urged the Foreign Ministry to, by April 14, come up with an assessment of the situation and information on what action the Cabinet will take, and to present these to the parliamentary committee on foreign policy, defence and security.
The day after the threat of the embargo, the Ministry of Economy announced that it was preparing a meeting with the Libyan minister of the oil industry and the chief executive officer of the Libyan national oil corporation.
Economy Minister Milko Kovachev said that he expected the meeting to take place sometime close to the end of April.
Kovachev said that officials from his ministry were preparing for a session of the Bulgarian-Libyan mixed economic commission, but no date for this meeting had yet been set.
Meanwhile, some Bulgarian-language media reported that 13 doctors from Benghazi had sent a letter claiming that the Bulgarian nurses, sentenced to death by a Libyan court on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, were innocent.
The letter was published on a Libyan opposition website based in London.
According to the letter, security services and several people responsible for the medical sector, and close to Muammar Gaddafi, were the ones to blame for the HIV outbreak in the Benghazi children’s hospital.
“As doctors we are 1000 per cent certain that these are the people who committed the terrible crime, as we know them very well,” the doctors said in their letter.
They are afraid to reveal the names of the “guilty” people, but said that they would do so if protection was secured for them and for their families.
“We have enough proof that people related to Gaddafi are to blame for this horrible crime,” the Libyan doctors said.
Meanwhile, Serbian president Boris Tadic, during an official visit to Bulgaria this past week, suggested that Bulgarian authorities find a way to negotiate with the families of the infected children.
“If the Bulgarian side starts negotiations with the families of the children infected with HIV in Libya, this should not be viewed as admission of guilt,” Tadic said at a news conference with President Georgi Purvanov after a one-to-one meeting and plenary talks between the two delegations.
Tadic said that Gaddafi’s advice should be viewed in the context of customs and traditions in Libya.
“In Libya problems are not solved only by meetings at state level,” Tadic said. “The family plays an extremely important role, even in inter-state relations.”
At the news conference, Purvanov said that he was ready to leave for Tripoli and discuss all bilateral issues with Gaddafi and with Libyan state institutions.