US encourages Libya to convince Sudan to accept UN troops
April 18, 2007 (TRIPOLI) — The U.S. State Department’s No. 2 official sought Libya’s help Wednesday in convincing Sudan to accept a “robust” U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur.
Negroponte, on a four-nation trip to Africa, met instead with Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalqam and Ali al-Treiki, Libya’s secretary of African affairs.
“I appreciated the opportunity to discuss the serious situation in Darfur … The Libyan government shares our resolve to find a solution to this crisis, and I encouraged my Libyan counterparts to continue to work with the United States, United Nations and African Union on this matter,” Negroponte said in a statement before he left Tripoli.
In the statement, Negroponte said he praised Libya’s efforts to get non-signatories to a Darfur cease-fire agreement to lay down their arms. He also urged his Libyan hosts to support the upgrading of the ineffectual African Union peace force in Darfur with an influx of peacekeepers from the United Nations.
Libya is due host an international two-day conference on Darfur at the end of the month, with U.S., Britain, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, AU and EU representatives to attend.
In addition, Negroponte said he pressed the Libyans to support deployment of a U.N. force for eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic, both bordering Darfur and hosting Darfurians displaced by the violence in their region.
Negroponte, who did not comment the snub by Gadhafi, also discussed U.S. insistence that Libya make the final payment to families of victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing. Libya had promised to pay $270 million (A199 million) to the families but has declined to make the final installment.
“I reminded the Libyan government of our expectations regarding the fair treatment of U.S. claimants,” Negroponte said.
Also on Negroponte’s agenda, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, was an appeal to Libya for the release of five Bulgarian nurse and a Palestinian doctor who have been sentenced to death after being convicted on charges that they deliberately injected hundreds of Libyan children with AIDS virus. The case is under appeal.
Negroponte’s statement said he urged for “finding a solution to the tragic outbreak of HIV in Benghazi that will allow the incarcerated foreign medics to go home.”
In addition, Negroponte exchanged views with Libyan officials on continuing U.S. concern about the 1986 bombing of Berlin disco that left two American soldiers and a Turkish woman dead. The United States has held Libya responsible for the bombing.
(AP)