Qaddafi acts to free RP hostages

Qaddafi acts to free RP hostages

By Rudolph Chimelli

PARIS (DPA): If Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar Qaddafi
manages to secure the release of the hostages being held in the
Philippines, then he will have taken an enormous step towards
casting off his persona non grata label and his rehabilitation
into the international community. A Libyan plane is already
waiting on the tarmac in Jolo, ready to carry the hostages home
in the event that Qaddafi's special envoy, Radschab as-Saruk,
pulls it off.

Reliable sources report that the Libyans have promised to pay
the kidnappers US$25 million. The ransom money is allegedly
intended for the construction of schools and clinics for the
Muslim minority -- to which the kidnappers belong -- in the
Catholic-dominated Philippines.

It is almost impossible to prove whether the money is actually
from Qaddafi's own coffers or whether he is mediating on behalf
of European governments -- none of which are too keen to be seen
to be rewarding terrorism. No matter where the truth lies, the
Libyan leader is glad of the opportunity to prove he can be
useful.

Last year's handover of two Lybian intelligence agents to the
tribunal in the Netherlands investigating the bombing of a U.S.
plane over Lockerbie in Scotland resulted in the lifting of
several of the sanctions imposed on Qaddafi and Libya. However,
as long as the sanctions unilaterally imposed by the United
States remain in place, it is impossible for Libya to make up for
the lack of development caused by almost two decades of
isolation.

This period as an international pariah covers almost two-
thirds of the 31 years Qaddafi has spent in government. No other
leader of a major Arab country has spent as long as at the helm
or had such unlimited powers at his disposal. However, Qaddafi is
also responsible for a large part of Libya's oil wealth being
wasted: on a fully-equipped army with no enemy to engage,
combined projects with reluctant fellow Arab nations, very costly
friendships with African countries, support for freedom movements
around the world, and on an expensive state apparatus.

Qaddafi's special envoy and former Libyan ambassador, as-
Saruk, has good connections to Islamic groups in the Philippines
while Qaddafi's son, Seif al-Islam, visited the island of
Mindanao's Islamic Moro rebels in December last year before the
hostages were taken captive. The rebels have nothing to do with
the hostages but Libya does support them in the construction of
mosques, schools and healthcare facilities.

The sum of $25 million paid -- or not -- to the bandits in the
Philippines is enough to make a number of other mouths water and
trigger-fingers itch. The world is full of young people with
nothing better to do than sit around and polish their weapons. A
payment of this size used to be large enough to secure the
release of royalty from captivity -- a veritable king's ransom,
as the saying goes.

When Richard the Lionheart, for example, fell into the hands
of Leopold of Austria, it eventually required 100,000 pieces of
silver to set him free, whereas it took four tons of gold to
secure the release of King Francois I of France from the clutches
of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in 1530.

If Qaddafi can succeed in buying the hostages' freedom and
releasing himself from the albatross around his neck -- his
reputation as a backer of international terrorism -- then it may
well prove to have been money well spent.