Dubai-based IT group Pro Technology is mulling over plans to extend its regional presence even further by opening a dedicated office in Libya.
The 70-strong company, which includes distribution, systems integration and business solutions divisions, already operates offices in the UAE, Jordan and Sudan.
“We are now thinking seriously about the opportunity that exists in the Libyan market,” explained Jamal H. Maraqa, managing director at Pro Technology. “I’m now probably 70% certain that we will open a dedicated office to deliver data protection and back-up solutions to customers in Libya.”Pro Technology maintains a strong focus on storage and digital archiving projects, representing a range of vendors in this sector including Storageflex and Qualstar.
Storage and digital archiving projects are the main activity for Pro Technology’s offices in Jordan and Sudan, and Maraqa expects a Libyan operation to develop along similar lines. Pro Technology’s UAE distribution operation expects to experience a strong sales spike in the run-up to Gitex. The business unit represents a number of vendors including Apple, Dicota and Lacie.
“There is a dramatic growth in distribution sales figures as Gitex approaches and customers look to stock up ahead of both Gitex Shopper and the overall increase in trade that is experienced across Dubai,” added Maraqa.“With Apple, we are stocking retail products including notebooks and iPods. Demand for iPods remains massive and we still face product shortages at times. The situation has improved and we can now fulfil about 70% of the orders,” he continued. In addition to its systems integration and distribution units,
Pro Technology also operates a business solutions division carrying out IT projects for small and medium enterprises in the UAE. This unit offers a range of services spanning security, networking and infrastructure. Even with three separate business units on the go and a new Libyan office in the pipeline, Maraqa continues to look at ways to develop the business even further. “We try to focus on unique products — even in the distribution business,” he added. “We look for products that we can develop in the market and add real value to. Today, we are in talks with two new vendors for the distribution business and also two vendors on the storage solutions side.”
By Stuart Wilson, ITP
8/31/2005
Libya celebrates al-Qadhafi rule
Hundreds of thousands of Libyans converged on Tripoli on Wednesday to celebrate 36th anniversary of Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi's seizure of power.
Martyrs Square in central Tripoli was transformed into a spectacular street party with people pulsing to traditional music that thumped out of speakers, and fireworks, fountain and light displays cascading over the sea.
The show of support appears to be a carefully choreographed riposte to an exiled opposition congress held two months ago in London, which vowed to embark on a peaceful campaign to topple the regime.
A bespectacled al-Qadhafi, dressed in an untucked sleeveless military shirt and looking relaxed, appeared late in the evening to receive the adulation of the crowds from a balcony and accept gifts from supporters.
He was handed a document entitled "the charter of fidelity", said by the organisers to have been signed "by the Libyan people", in which they "forge allegiance and swear fidelity to their guide".
Long rule
The mercurial leader, who aged just 27 toppled King Idris in a coup d'etat on 1 September, 1969 with other military officers, was expected to address the throngs of people gathered in Libyan capital on Thursday.
The massive event brought together all types from across Libya's diverse spectrum into the capital, from traditionally dressed nomads, women in black veils, to trendily dressed young men in T-Shirts.
In a sign of Libya's gradual re-acceptance by the international community, even US oil companies - back in Libya after decades of absence - have put up banners in the streets to congratulate al-Qadhafi and the people.
One such banner from a western firm "congratulates Libyans and Muammar al-Qadhafi on the occasion of the anniversary of the revolution".
Al-Qadhafi brought his country in from the cold after years of isolation by renouncing weapons of mass destruction, sparking investment interest and encouraging a stream of foreign leaders to beat a swift path to his tent.
Al-Qadhafi, 63, who has never promoted himself higher than colonel or given himself an official title other than "guide of the revolution", is the longest serving leader in the Arab world.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3C7C10C3-B54E-4B9B-A7CD-9A081AE0EAEF.htm
Martyrs Square in central Tripoli was transformed into a spectacular street party with people pulsing to traditional music that thumped out of speakers, and fireworks, fountain and light displays cascading over the sea.
The show of support appears to be a carefully choreographed riposte to an exiled opposition congress held two months ago in London, which vowed to embark on a peaceful campaign to topple the regime.
A bespectacled al-Qadhafi, dressed in an untucked sleeveless military shirt and looking relaxed, appeared late in the evening to receive the adulation of the crowds from a balcony and accept gifts from supporters.
He was handed a document entitled "the charter of fidelity", said by the organisers to have been signed "by the Libyan people", in which they "forge allegiance and swear fidelity to their guide".
Long rule
The mercurial leader, who aged just 27 toppled King Idris in a coup d'etat on 1 September, 1969 with other military officers, was expected to address the throngs of people gathered in Libyan capital on Thursday.
The massive event brought together all types from across Libya's diverse spectrum into the capital, from traditionally dressed nomads, women in black veils, to trendily dressed young men in T-Shirts.
In a sign of Libya's gradual re-acceptance by the international community, even US oil companies - back in Libya after decades of absence - have put up banners in the streets to congratulate al-Qadhafi and the people.
One such banner from a western firm "congratulates Libyans and Muammar al-Qadhafi on the occasion of the anniversary of the revolution".
Al-Qadhafi brought his country in from the cold after years of isolation by renouncing weapons of mass destruction, sparking investment interest and encouraging a stream of foreign leaders to beat a swift path to his tent.
Al-Qadhafi, 63, who has never promoted himself higher than colonel or given himself an official title other than "guide of the revolution", is the longest serving leader in the Arab world.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3C7C10C3-B54E-4B9B-A7CD-9A081AE0EAEF.htm
8/30/2005
Blending cultures: a recipe for success
At least half of the International Café’s customers spoke in foreign languages on Friday.
The restaurant at 209 Hitt St., was packed with students and professors, a Columbia family eating shish kabobs, young couples eating a late lunch on the patio and about a dozen men from the Islamic Center of Central Missouri, the local mosque, who came for a mid-afternoon snack. The café’s menu matched the variety of its patrons. In the center of all the commotion were Mohamed and Elizabeth Gumati, the restaurant’s owners, who, after 15 years of running the International Café, have grown used to the early afternoon rush. “We’re really busy at lunch, but dinner is slow,” Mohamed Gumati said. “The peak hours are from 11:30 to 1:30.”
The restaurant looks like an average American eatery. Sandwiched between a Laundromat and an apartment building, the International Café has an inviting patio in front, which the owners credit for much of their success in the summer. A collection of trees lining one side of the building shade the 20-by-20-foot outside dining area, a place any over-heated student would find appealing in August.
The inside has the motif of a stereotypical post-1980 small-town restaurant. The windows are decorated with an abbreviated sticker menu, featuring items scuh as “falafel,” “hummus” and “Greek salad.” Even the door window has a pronunciation guide to the ever popular and misspoken Mediterranean staple gyros — spelled “Yee-Ros” on the front door.
Benches line a wall and tables cover the space in between. The kitchen is open so customers can watch how their food goes from the stove to their plate. With Arabic television running in background, the interior is a universally ethnic-American trademark, embodying the aspirations Mohamed Gumati had for the United States, even when he was growing up far away from Columbia.
Moving away
Mohamed Gumati was born in Libya, a North African country running along the Mediterranean Sea and has a long, unstable history with the United States. In 1969, while Mohamed Gumati was growing up, the nation underwent a massive political upheaval, as its monarch, King Muhammad Idris, was overthrown by a military coup.
“The system changed,” Mohamed Gumati said. “A dictator took over.”
The dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, installed socialism in Libya and after 30 volatile years is still in power.
The situation looked grim for Mohamed Gumati and his future as a successful entrepreneur.
“There’s no business,” he said. “In that system, you go into the army.”
In 1977, the same year the country changed its name from the Libyan Arab Republic to the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mohamed Gumati left his home. Through an international student program, he attended Webster University in St. Louis.
When he arrived in America, Mohamed Gumati knew no English. He had no close family members or friends, just a few scattered cousins he barely knew.
“It was hard,” he said. “The first six months are very hard but after that, you adjust.” It was his lack of English proficiency that led him to meet his future business partner and spouse, Elizabeth Gumati, a Venezuelan student who also had just arrived in America. In 1982, they met in an English class at Webster. The two were an almost instant couple and were married in 1983. Although Mohamed Gumati enjoyed his jobs in the food industry, he didn’t plan on becoming a restaurant manager. It was more of an opportunity that simply appeared. “I had to do something,” he said. “It was the first job I got, and if you go from one career to another, you’ll never get anywhere.”
Starting the café
A friend’s restaurant near MU brought the Gumatis to Columbia.
“He needed a manager and I majored in business management at Webster," Mohamed Gumati said. "His business was small, smaller than this.” Mohamed Gumati threw up his arms as is if his own place was no bigger than a hot dog stand.
“(A small business) takes a lot of dedication, a lot of hours,” Elizabeth Gumati said. “It has to be your life.”
Finding their friend’s business too little for their growing aspirations, the couple decided to start their own restaurant. Their concept was a mutual blending of their two cultures.
“I was from Libya,” Mohamed Gumati said. “She was from Venezuela. Between us, we had the freedom to make anything.” Thus, the International Café was born.
The café first opened further down Hitt Street; the couple later moved to their current building. “Opening day for the second place was a big hit,” Mohamed Gumati said.
Still, the family felt intimidated by the environment in the early 1990s. A large homeless population used to live in the broken-down and abandoned buildings nearby the café. “There was nothing out here,” Mohamed Gumati said.
Tricky demographics
To make matters worse, the Gumatis, like other businesses in college towns, had to deal with an ever-changing population. Most of their customers are college students from Stephens College and MU. “The thing is, the population doesn’t change like a regular city,” Mohamed Gumati said. “The growth is different.” The eccentric and diverse menu attracted the eyes and stomachs of Columbia.
Before the International Café, the average Columbia resident would have a hard time finding moussaka, dolma or tzanziki. The menu is equally balanced between these lesser known specialties and more popular Mediterranean favorites like gyros or baklava.
Although it took time to build momentum, a loyal gathering of customers grew over the next decade, spanning in and out of the university scene and the overall community. Customers who had been to bigger cities compared the food of the International Café to businesses in Chicago and Europe.
Community support
The loyal following was put to the test last fall when misfortune struck the Gumati family. In November 2004, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the café.
No one was injured but the café was closed for two months.
For the entrepreneurs, it was a reminder of how quickly everything they had worked for could fall into jeopardy. “We were lucky it happened in the off season,” Elizabeth Gumati said. “But two months is still a long time.”
The devoted patrons of the International Café would not stand by and watch their favorite restaurant fail. “We have a lot of loyal customers,” Elizabeth Gumati said. “They were waiting for the place to re-open.”
She said that over the winter holidays, friends and Columbia residents sent checks to aid the cost of repairs and reopening. With their support, the International Café reopened in January and business has been running as usual.
Looking ahead
As for the future, Mohamed Gumati said he has big plans for the International Café. The current location is too small for his goals, he said. “Maybe in four or five years, we’ll move to a nicer street, someplace closer to downtown,” he said.
He wants to make the dinner crowd just as popular as the lunch crowd. He has checked out surrounding property and a place available on Ninth Street.
“I’d lose my patio, though,” Mohamed Gumati said. The Gumatis have enough experience to guarantee the livelihood of the International Café for another decade, if they want, they said.
“It’s not easy,” Elizabeth Gumati said.
By Jedd Rosche, Reporter.
The restaurant at 209 Hitt St., was packed with students and professors, a Columbia family eating shish kabobs, young couples eating a late lunch on the patio and about a dozen men from the Islamic Center of Central Missouri, the local mosque, who came for a mid-afternoon snack. The café’s menu matched the variety of its patrons. In the center of all the commotion were Mohamed and Elizabeth Gumati, the restaurant’s owners, who, after 15 years of running the International Café, have grown used to the early afternoon rush. “We’re really busy at lunch, but dinner is slow,” Mohamed Gumati said. “The peak hours are from 11:30 to 1:30.”
The restaurant looks like an average American eatery. Sandwiched between a Laundromat and an apartment building, the International Café has an inviting patio in front, which the owners credit for much of their success in the summer. A collection of trees lining one side of the building shade the 20-by-20-foot outside dining area, a place any over-heated student would find appealing in August.
The inside has the motif of a stereotypical post-1980 small-town restaurant. The windows are decorated with an abbreviated sticker menu, featuring items scuh as “falafel,” “hummus” and “Greek salad.” Even the door window has a pronunciation guide to the ever popular and misspoken Mediterranean staple gyros — spelled “Yee-Ros” on the front door.
Benches line a wall and tables cover the space in between. The kitchen is open so customers can watch how their food goes from the stove to their plate. With Arabic television running in background, the interior is a universally ethnic-American trademark, embodying the aspirations Mohamed Gumati had for the United States, even when he was growing up far away from Columbia.
Moving away
Mohamed Gumati was born in Libya, a North African country running along the Mediterranean Sea and has a long, unstable history with the United States. In 1969, while Mohamed Gumati was growing up, the nation underwent a massive political upheaval, as its monarch, King Muhammad Idris, was overthrown by a military coup.
“The system changed,” Mohamed Gumati said. “A dictator took over.”
The dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, installed socialism in Libya and after 30 volatile years is still in power.
The situation looked grim for Mohamed Gumati and his future as a successful entrepreneur.
“There’s no business,” he said. “In that system, you go into the army.”
In 1977, the same year the country changed its name from the Libyan Arab Republic to the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mohamed Gumati left his home. Through an international student program, he attended Webster University in St. Louis.
When he arrived in America, Mohamed Gumati knew no English. He had no close family members or friends, just a few scattered cousins he barely knew.
“It was hard,” he said. “The first six months are very hard but after that, you adjust.” It was his lack of English proficiency that led him to meet his future business partner and spouse, Elizabeth Gumati, a Venezuelan student who also had just arrived in America. In 1982, they met in an English class at Webster. The two were an almost instant couple and were married in 1983. Although Mohamed Gumati enjoyed his jobs in the food industry, he didn’t plan on becoming a restaurant manager. It was more of an opportunity that simply appeared. “I had to do something,” he said. “It was the first job I got, and if you go from one career to another, you’ll never get anywhere.”
Starting the café
A friend’s restaurant near MU brought the Gumatis to Columbia.
“He needed a manager and I majored in business management at Webster," Mohamed Gumati said. "His business was small, smaller than this.” Mohamed Gumati threw up his arms as is if his own place was no bigger than a hot dog stand.
“(A small business) takes a lot of dedication, a lot of hours,” Elizabeth Gumati said. “It has to be your life.”
Finding their friend’s business too little for their growing aspirations, the couple decided to start their own restaurant. Their concept was a mutual blending of their two cultures.
“I was from Libya,” Mohamed Gumati said. “She was from Venezuela. Between us, we had the freedom to make anything.” Thus, the International Café was born.
The café first opened further down Hitt Street; the couple later moved to their current building. “Opening day for the second place was a big hit,” Mohamed Gumati said.
Still, the family felt intimidated by the environment in the early 1990s. A large homeless population used to live in the broken-down and abandoned buildings nearby the café. “There was nothing out here,” Mohamed Gumati said.
Tricky demographics
To make matters worse, the Gumatis, like other businesses in college towns, had to deal with an ever-changing population. Most of their customers are college students from Stephens College and MU. “The thing is, the population doesn’t change like a regular city,” Mohamed Gumati said. “The growth is different.” The eccentric and diverse menu attracted the eyes and stomachs of Columbia.
Before the International Café, the average Columbia resident would have a hard time finding moussaka, dolma or tzanziki. The menu is equally balanced between these lesser known specialties and more popular Mediterranean favorites like gyros or baklava.
Although it took time to build momentum, a loyal gathering of customers grew over the next decade, spanning in and out of the university scene and the overall community. Customers who had been to bigger cities compared the food of the International Café to businesses in Chicago and Europe.
Community support
The loyal following was put to the test last fall when misfortune struck the Gumati family. In November 2004, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the café.
No one was injured but the café was closed for two months.
For the entrepreneurs, it was a reminder of how quickly everything they had worked for could fall into jeopardy. “We were lucky it happened in the off season,” Elizabeth Gumati said. “But two months is still a long time.”
The devoted patrons of the International Café would not stand by and watch their favorite restaurant fail. “We have a lot of loyal customers,” Elizabeth Gumati said. “They were waiting for the place to re-open.”
She said that over the winter holidays, friends and Columbia residents sent checks to aid the cost of repairs and reopening. With their support, the International Café reopened in January and business has been running as usual.
Looking ahead
As for the future, Mohamed Gumati said he has big plans for the International Café. The current location is too small for his goals, he said. “Maybe in four or five years, we’ll move to a nicer street, someplace closer to downtown,” he said.
He wants to make the dinner crowd just as popular as the lunch crowd. He has checked out surrounding property and a place available on Ninth Street.
“I’d lose my patio, though,” Mohamed Gumati said. The Gumatis have enough experience to guarantee the livelihood of the International Café for another decade, if they want, they said.
“It’s not easy,” Elizabeth Gumati said.
By Jedd Rosche, Reporter.
8/25/2005
Qadhafi's democracy
As part of efforts to bring about democracy and freedom to the more restrictive countries of the Arab world, the Bush administration is cozying up to Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi after he reneged on terrorism and gave up trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Qadhafi, the one-time blackest of sheep among Middle East potentates, has suddenly turned a lighter shade of gray.
With that in mind Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed to Libya this week hoping to push forward diplomatic relations with Tripoli, relations that Libya would like to see expanded into full-blown ambassadorial exchanges. Lugar's trip will be the highest-profile US visit to Libya. It follows earlier visits by officials from the Treasury and State Departments. However, exchanges of ambassadors may still be off the books for a while as Qadhafi still needs to introduce real changes in Libya.
For decades Qadhafi has taunted the United States and the West by his blatant support of terrorist groups, funding of extremist Palestinian factions and arming of the Irish Republican Army, as well as providing support to a number of European separatist organizations such as the Corsicans, Basques and others.
For nearly 30 years Qadhafi arrested, jailed and executed - often without trial - tens of hundreds of Libyans opposed to his authoritarian demagoguery.
Qadhafi never hesitated to order his special branch of trained assassins to eliminate dissidents around the world or to place bombs in German discotheques frequented by American servicemen. He had a French civilian airplane blown out of the sky over Africa when he disagreed with Paris and was blamed for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to spite Washington.
Qadhafi tried to acquire weapons of mass destructions only to later realize that he would never have the capability of delivering them. In his own words, the supreme leader of the Libyan revolution said that if Libya ever managed to construct or acquire a nuclear bomb, the only target they could probably hit would be the island of Malta. And to what avail?
So why is it that this same Qadhafi decided to change his ways? Or has he?
Critics of the Libyan regime argue that in truth nothing in Tripoli has changed. Astute as ever, the Libyan leader handed to a visiting US congressional delegation some nuclear bomb-making equipment, along with a promise to introduce political changes and democracy.
But can Qadhafi who has ignored the law and ruled Libya through whims and caprices since he overthrew the monarchy in 1969 truly introduce democracy?
Mahmoud Chamam, a Libyan journalist living in the United States, said on Al Hurra TV on Monday that arrests and executions were still common practice in Libya and that nothing had changed.
Chamam and other Libyan exiles reject Qadhafi's "reforms" as pure whitewash meant to placate the Bush administration and to win him prestige and legitimacy in the eyes of the world and of his own people. Qadhafi even extended an invitation to President Bush to visit Libya. That would be the ultimate reward.
Contented that the Libyan leader is talking of reform the administration has engaged him in dialogue, hoping to normalize relations with the North African nation, but along the way somehow continued to ignore his human rights abuses.
It is precisely this attitude that has long angered critics of US foreign policy who accuse Washington of consistently supporting corrupt regimes when it suits its interests.
At this point it is worth asking what led Qadhafi to change his policy?
According to several Libyan exiles, one of his sons, Saif Al Islam, is more business-oriented than his father. Saif and his business associates would like to acquire concessions of mega-American corporations, such as MacDonalds, Pizza Hut and Nike. But as long as Libya remains on the US
Department of State terror list, conducting business with US companies remains impossible. So Saif convinces daddy that building WMD and supporting terrorism is bad for business. Well, you get the drift.
Changes are announced to the outside world while internally the regime continues to detain political prisoners, to muzzle the press and to ban political parties. Saif meanwhile, who holds no official position in the Libyan government, invited Libyan expatriates to return and invest in Libya's future.
If Libyans failed to flock back taking Qadhafi at his word, Western leaders wasted little time jostling for positions and prospective business deals.
In this respect Bush is not alone in flirting with Qadhafi and his potentially lucrative oil fields. Other top Western officials who have already visited Libya include Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French President Jacques Chirac and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The list of foreign visitors looks impressive but Libyan dissidents say that they would like to see real changes.
By Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Qadhafi, the one-time blackest of sheep among Middle East potentates, has suddenly turned a lighter shade of gray.
With that in mind Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed to Libya this week hoping to push forward diplomatic relations with Tripoli, relations that Libya would like to see expanded into full-blown ambassadorial exchanges. Lugar's trip will be the highest-profile US visit to Libya. It follows earlier visits by officials from the Treasury and State Departments. However, exchanges of ambassadors may still be off the books for a while as Qadhafi still needs to introduce real changes in Libya.
For decades Qadhafi has taunted the United States and the West by his blatant support of terrorist groups, funding of extremist Palestinian factions and arming of the Irish Republican Army, as well as providing support to a number of European separatist organizations such as the Corsicans, Basques and others.
For nearly 30 years Qadhafi arrested, jailed and executed - often without trial - tens of hundreds of Libyans opposed to his authoritarian demagoguery.
Qadhafi never hesitated to order his special branch of trained assassins to eliminate dissidents around the world or to place bombs in German discotheques frequented by American servicemen. He had a French civilian airplane blown out of the sky over Africa when he disagreed with Paris and was blamed for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to spite Washington.
Qadhafi tried to acquire weapons of mass destructions only to later realize that he would never have the capability of delivering them. In his own words, the supreme leader of the Libyan revolution said that if Libya ever managed to construct or acquire a nuclear bomb, the only target they could probably hit would be the island of Malta. And to what avail?
So why is it that this same Qadhafi decided to change his ways? Or has he?
Critics of the Libyan regime argue that in truth nothing in Tripoli has changed. Astute as ever, the Libyan leader handed to a visiting US congressional delegation some nuclear bomb-making equipment, along with a promise to introduce political changes and democracy.
But can Qadhafi who has ignored the law and ruled Libya through whims and caprices since he overthrew the monarchy in 1969 truly introduce democracy?
Mahmoud Chamam, a Libyan journalist living in the United States, said on Al Hurra TV on Monday that arrests and executions were still common practice in Libya and that nothing had changed.
Chamam and other Libyan exiles reject Qadhafi's "reforms" as pure whitewash meant to placate the Bush administration and to win him prestige and legitimacy in the eyes of the world and of his own people. Qadhafi even extended an invitation to President Bush to visit Libya. That would be the ultimate reward.
Contented that the Libyan leader is talking of reform the administration has engaged him in dialogue, hoping to normalize relations with the North African nation, but along the way somehow continued to ignore his human rights abuses.
It is precisely this attitude that has long angered critics of US foreign policy who accuse Washington of consistently supporting corrupt regimes when it suits its interests.
At this point it is worth asking what led Qadhafi to change his policy?
According to several Libyan exiles, one of his sons, Saif Al Islam, is more business-oriented than his father. Saif and his business associates would like to acquire concessions of mega-American corporations, such as MacDonalds, Pizza Hut and Nike. But as long as Libya remains on the US
Department of State terror list, conducting business with US companies remains impossible. So Saif convinces daddy that building WMD and supporting terrorism is bad for business. Well, you get the drift.
Changes are announced to the outside world while internally the regime continues to detain political prisoners, to muzzle the press and to ban political parties. Saif meanwhile, who holds no official position in the Libyan government, invited Libyan expatriates to return and invest in Libya's future.
If Libyans failed to flock back taking Qadhafi at his word, Western leaders wasted little time jostling for positions and prospective business deals.
In this respect Bush is not alone in flirting with Qadhafi and his potentially lucrative oil fields. Other top Western officials who have already visited Libya include Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French President Jacques Chirac and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The list of foreign visitors looks impressive but Libyan dissidents say that they would like to see real changes.
By Claude Salhani
UPI International Editor
Libya charge de affairs suicide in Sweden
The Libyan charge de affairs in Sweden was found dead in his apartment in Stockholm amid official Libyan confirmation that he had committed suicide.The Swedish police announced on Wednesday August 24 that it found the body of the Libyan charge de affairs Abdul Rahman Zanbila and expected that he died of committing suicide, adding that it broke into his apartment in the presence of the embassy's employees after a notification from them about reason his delay in coming to work.
In Tripoli, a source in the Libyan foreign ministry said that Zanbila was undergoing serious psychological problems that pushed him to commit suicide." It added that "the charge de affairs was found dead in a way that shows that he had strangled himself," stressing that the Swedish police will specify the reasons behind the death after completing investigation measures.For its part, the spokeswoman for the Swedish police Dina Sondin said that a criminal investigation was opened to this case, because wounds were found on his body.
In Tripoli, a source in the Libyan foreign ministry said that Zanbila was undergoing serious psychological problems that pushed him to commit suicide." It added that "the charge de affairs was found dead in a way that shows that he had strangled himself," stressing that the Swedish police will specify the reasons behind the death after completing investigation measures.For its part, the spokeswoman for the Swedish police Dina Sondin said that a criminal investigation was opened to this case, because wounds were found on his body.
8/23/2005
Bush's mission in Libya
The invitation that Libya has extended to President George W. Bush for a visit to the country has not come as a surprise. What was once a so-called pariah state, under Muammar Gaddafi, Libya had toned down its anti-America rhetoric in the recent months and begun making efforts to woo the West.
What would be the likely scenario in the event of a Bush visit?
Dear readers, Gaddafi's critics say such a visit will help the world know how Gaddafi mismanaged his country and that the American president will have an opportunity to have a direct look at the state of affairs there. Gaddafi rules Libya with an iron fist and has given no freedom to the press to present facts as facts.
So much so that some websites are the only source of real information for the Libyans. That was so ever since the Gaddafi revolution that overthrew the Libyan king in a 1969 coup. Today, he is the longest serving Arab leader, presiding over the destiny of five million people. The fact is also that Gaddafi has not allowed any opposition to his governance. A visit by Bush, if it takes place, will be a matter of celebration for the democracy aspirants in Libya.
There is no doubt that Libya is changing. Its abandonment of the weapons programme and admission of guilt for its past acts, leading to renewal of diplomatic relations with Washington last year, was a major turn-around. And Libya is taking itself to market-driven economy, a far cry from the socialistic pattern that Gaddafi had advocated by way his Third Universal Theory — as an alternative to capitalism and Marxism, and as enunciated in his Green Book.
Perhaps Gaddafi himself had in course of time developed doubts about his theory. That was why, in later years, private enterprise was partially acceptable. Now, that process is getting activated under a reform process. But, the point that is often highlighted is that Libyans have suffered for several decades, as they didn't get what's their due.
Libya has everything that should make it a developed nation. It has high quality oil that fetches 30 percent of a 34-billion dollar GDP. Belated though, with foreign investments being allowed in, Libya's oil production capacity is being increased, the target being 2 million barrels per day by 2010.
Add to this the fact that it is placed in the best geographical position, with a long stretch of beauteous beach-line spread along the Mediterranean. Libya, with a progressive leadership, could have been minting money from tourism. Properly developed, it could have been one of the best tourism destinations for those from Europe and the Middle East, not to mention about the rest of the world.
Despite the resources at its command, Libya has had hard times. Sanctions since 1986 has cost the country an estimated 30 billion dollars in lost businesses, due to its so called pariah status. That Gaddafi is changing with the times is a good sign. A reformed Gaddafi has, in recent times, called upon Iran and North Korea to abandon its nuclear pursuits. This, from a leader who himself had, under Western pressure, abandoned alleged nuclear ambitions in the past.
A Bush visit will mean, on one side, that Gaddafi, with Western backing, can hope to speed up the economic reform process that he has initiated in recent times, that will ensure a better life for Libyans. More importantly, on the other, the visit will give a major push for a political reform process there, that will eventually give the people the freedom they are yearning for long, and much more. It would also mean major improvements in the human rights scenario. That will be Bush's mission in Libya.
Written by Mohammed Galadari
What would be the likely scenario in the event of a Bush visit?
Dear readers, Gaddafi's critics say such a visit will help the world know how Gaddafi mismanaged his country and that the American president will have an opportunity to have a direct look at the state of affairs there. Gaddafi rules Libya with an iron fist and has given no freedom to the press to present facts as facts.
So much so that some websites are the only source of real information for the Libyans. That was so ever since the Gaddafi revolution that overthrew the Libyan king in a 1969 coup. Today, he is the longest serving Arab leader, presiding over the destiny of five million people. The fact is also that Gaddafi has not allowed any opposition to his governance. A visit by Bush, if it takes place, will be a matter of celebration for the democracy aspirants in Libya.
There is no doubt that Libya is changing. Its abandonment of the weapons programme and admission of guilt for its past acts, leading to renewal of diplomatic relations with Washington last year, was a major turn-around. And Libya is taking itself to market-driven economy, a far cry from the socialistic pattern that Gaddafi had advocated by way his Third Universal Theory — as an alternative to capitalism and Marxism, and as enunciated in his Green Book.
Perhaps Gaddafi himself had in course of time developed doubts about his theory. That was why, in later years, private enterprise was partially acceptable. Now, that process is getting activated under a reform process. But, the point that is often highlighted is that Libyans have suffered for several decades, as they didn't get what's their due.
Libya has everything that should make it a developed nation. It has high quality oil that fetches 30 percent of a 34-billion dollar GDP. Belated though, with foreign investments being allowed in, Libya's oil production capacity is being increased, the target being 2 million barrels per day by 2010.
Add to this the fact that it is placed in the best geographical position, with a long stretch of beauteous beach-line spread along the Mediterranean. Libya, with a progressive leadership, could have been minting money from tourism. Properly developed, it could have been one of the best tourism destinations for those from Europe and the Middle East, not to mention about the rest of the world.
Despite the resources at its command, Libya has had hard times. Sanctions since 1986 has cost the country an estimated 30 billion dollars in lost businesses, due to its so called pariah status. That Gaddafi is changing with the times is a good sign. A reformed Gaddafi has, in recent times, called upon Iran and North Korea to abandon its nuclear pursuits. This, from a leader who himself had, under Western pressure, abandoned alleged nuclear ambitions in the past.
A Bush visit will mean, on one side, that Gaddafi, with Western backing, can hope to speed up the economic reform process that he has initiated in recent times, that will ensure a better life for Libyans. More importantly, on the other, the visit will give a major push for a political reform process there, that will eventually give the people the freedom they are yearning for long, and much more. It would also mean major improvements in the human rights scenario. That will be Bush's mission in Libya.
Written by Mohammed Galadari
Gadhafi and Obasanjo discuss AU march in Sirt
The Leader of the Revolution Muammar al Gadhafi and President Olusegun Obasanjo, president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the current president of the African Union, resumed their meeting Monday evening.
This meeting was discussed to follow up the executive measures of the resolutions adopted by the 5th ordinary session of the AU Summit Conference concerning the means to promote and develop the march of the AU in the direction of the establishment of the United States of Africa.
The Leader of the Revolution and president Obasanjo reviewed during their meeting preparations for convening of the Presidential Committee formed by the Sirt Summit and chaired by President Obasanjo to prepare the final arrangements to execute Great Jamahiriya proposals, in terms of creating Federal African ministries for Foreign Affairs, Defense, Foreign Trade and Communication and to abolish customs among the states of the Union, in addition to uniting the means of communications by land, sea and air and the establishment of one African satellite. The Committee is scheduled to submit these final measures to the 6th ordinary Summit due to be held in Khartoum.This meeting was attended by the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation and the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Source: JANA
This meeting was discussed to follow up the executive measures of the resolutions adopted by the 5th ordinary session of the AU Summit Conference concerning the means to promote and develop the march of the AU in the direction of the establishment of the United States of Africa.
The Leader of the Revolution and president Obasanjo reviewed during their meeting preparations for convening of the Presidential Committee formed by the Sirt Summit and chaired by President Obasanjo to prepare the final arrangements to execute Great Jamahiriya proposals, in terms of creating Federal African ministries for Foreign Affairs, Defense, Foreign Trade and Communication and to abolish customs among the states of the Union, in addition to uniting the means of communications by land, sea and air and the establishment of one African satellite. The Committee is scheduled to submit these final measures to the 6th ordinary Summit due to be held in Khartoum.This meeting was attended by the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation and the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Source: JANA
8/21/2005
Senator Richard Lugar: U.S., Libya Working to Open Embassy
U.S. and Libyan officials are working toward opening an American Embassy in Tripoli and ending Libya's designation as a terrorist-sponsoring country, Senator Richard Lugar said on August 20. Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Libya, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said U.S.-Libyan officials were taking steps to make sure that Libya was no longer involved in terrorism with the aim of removing the country from the State Department's list of countries supporting terrorism. Lugar, Republican-Indiana, said he had spoken with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and raised issues of terrorism, human rights in Libya, and economic cooperation with the country that the world used to regard as a rogue state. Lugar said he could not predict when the United States would reopen an embassy in Tripoli, but that he had talked with Libyans about working toward that goal.
Gadhafi also invited President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza to visit Libya, said Lugar, adding he would pass on the offer to the White House. "I conveyed to the Libyan leader the very best wishes of our president and he likewise conveyed and would like to have the visit of the secretary Rice and the visit of our president and I will convey those words back to George W. Bush Lugar said.
In June 2004, the United States opened a liaison office in Tripoli, 24 years after Washington closed its embassy in Libya. 2004, the United States took steps toward normalizing trade and investment with Libya, allowing the import of Libyan oil. The moves followed Gadhafi's decision in 2003 to pay compensation for the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988 which killed 270 people.
The same year Libya agreed to dismantle its programs for weapons of mass destruction and allow U.N., American and British inspectors to visit the facilities.
Libya wants Washington to abolish U.S. sanctions, in place since 1986, that are estimated to have cost the country more than $30 billion in lost business. The removal of the sanctions is expected to accelerate U.S. investment in Libya's oil industry, the country's main source of revenue.
Source: AP
8/17/2005
Jailed Libyan Net writer Abd al-Raziq al-Mansuri
Libya should release journalist and Net writer 'Abd al-Raziq al-Mansuri and drop the charges against him, or grant him a prompt and fair trial, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on August 17.The country’s internal security force has detained al-Mansuri since last January “in an apparent effort to silence a writer with critical views,” says the Reuters Foundation.
Al-Mansuri, 52, was arrested on January 12, 2005 in his hometown of Tobruk. He'd written some 50 articles and commentaries critical of Libyan society and government for a UK-based website which reported last week that he'd fallen from his prison bed and broken his hip.
The libyan government claims it arrested al-Mansuri for illegal possession of a handgun, says Reuters, but, “he was apparently detained before the handgun was found, by agents of the Internal Security Agency, which normally deals with issues of national security. The authorities are holding him in Abu Selim prison, run by the agency. For at least the first four months of his detention, the authorities held him in incommunicado detention, without access to a lawyer or his family.”
Al-Mansuri's last article before his arrest, "Will the Key-Holder Come Soon to That Hall in Sirte?," posted on January 10, "was a subtle critique of a debate between two government officials, a reformer and a hardliner, expressing hope, but doubt that Libya's leader, Muammar Qaddafi, would support the former," says Reuters.
Read the English and Arabic versions here.
"We call on the prison authorities to ensure that Al Mansouri's injuries are properly treated as soon as possible and we also demand that his lawyer and family be allowed to visit him in order to verify his state of health," says Reporters Without Borders, adding: “As a result of being left untreated for so long after the fall and the poor medical care available in the prison, Al Mansouri's state of health has deteriorated considerably in the past week. He now has complications that could be life-threatening if not quickly treated.”
8/16/2005
Syrian Finance Minister al-Hussini in Libya
The Syrian Finance Minister, Mohammed al-Hussini arrived Monday evening in Libya to take part in the general meetings of the Arab Union for Transportations and Works companies.
He was met by the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Finance. In a statement to reporters, the Syrian minister expressed his delight to visit Libya, saying that his visit is to attend the general meetings of the Arab Union Companies for Transportations and Works. He pointed out that his visit would be an opportunity to discuss prospects of developing relations in financial and banking fields between the two countries.
Source: JANA
He was met by the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Finance. In a statement to reporters, the Syrian minister expressed his delight to visit Libya, saying that his visit is to attend the general meetings of the Arab Union Companies for Transportations and Works. He pointed out that his visit would be an opportunity to discuss prospects of developing relations in financial and banking fields between the two countries.
Source: JANA
8/11/2005
Libya, Tunis to develop cooperation
The Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation Abdelrahman Shalgam met Wednesday morning in the Tunisian capital with the Under-Secretary of State for the Arab African Affairs at the Tunisian Foreign Ministry, Salah Adeen al-Jamali.
The meeting discussed the visit of the Secretary of the GPCFLIC and the Secretary-General of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) to Mauritania, and the meeting with the Chairman of the Mauritanian military council, and the arrangements took by the military council to realize the stability in Mauritania and the importance that AMU play an important role in support of the Mauritanian people.Bilateral relations between the Great Jamahiriya and Tunisia and activation of the joint committees to develop this cooperation, were discussed in the meeting.
Source: JANA
The meeting discussed the visit of the Secretary of the GPCFLIC and the Secretary-General of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) to Mauritania, and the meeting with the Chairman of the Mauritanian military council, and the arrangements took by the military council to realize the stability in Mauritania and the importance that AMU play an important role in support of the Mauritanian people.Bilateral relations between the Great Jamahiriya and Tunisia and activation of the joint committees to develop this cooperation, were discussed in the meeting.
Source: JANA
8/10/2005
Libya operates new gas well
The experimental operation stage of the first gas well at the second phase of West Jamahiriya Gas Project (WJGP/WGPL) has started September 9.
The production in this well, at Sea of Peace field, started at 12.27 pm after linking the well with the Sabratha Sea Platform, 110 km off the western coast of Libya. ENI Gas Company Libya Branch reported that the second stage of the project is running according to plan, to link the other 26 wells later this month.
The total production capacity will reach 1000 million cubic meters of gas daily covering local needs estimated at 200 million cubic meters, while exporting the remaining 800 cubic meters abroad. West Jamahiriya Gas Project is one of the biggest projects under execution at the world level aimed at producing 1000 million cubic feet of natural gas as well as about 65,000 barrels of densities per day. Its Platform is among the biggest installed in the Mediterranean. The project would supply European gas networks, through the under sea pipeline via the Italian gas network.
Source: JANA
The production in this well, at Sea of Peace field, started at 12.27 pm after linking the well with the Sabratha Sea Platform, 110 km off the western coast of Libya. ENI Gas Company Libya Branch reported that the second stage of the project is running according to plan, to link the other 26 wells later this month.
The total production capacity will reach 1000 million cubic meters of gas daily covering local needs estimated at 200 million cubic meters, while exporting the remaining 800 cubic meters abroad. West Jamahiriya Gas Project is one of the biggest projects under execution at the world level aimed at producing 1000 million cubic feet of natural gas as well as about 65,000 barrels of densities per day. Its Platform is among the biggest installed in the Mediterranean. The project would supply European gas networks, through the under sea pipeline via the Italian gas network.
Source: JANA
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