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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TRIPOLI 000426 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/MAG, EUR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  5/1/2032 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV BU LY
SUBJECT: DRAMATIC STATEMENTS ABOUT HIV INFECTIONS AND MEDICS TRIAL 
CONTINUE IN LIBYA 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Elizabeth Fritschle, Pol/Econ Chief, United 
States Embassy, DOS. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY.  Libya's newspapers, all government controlled, 
continue to run dramatic statements about the source of HIV 
infections in Libya.  The press articles consistently blame the 
Palestinian doctor and Bulgarian nurses, along with foreign 
intelligence services including the CIA and Mossad, for 
deliberating infecting the children with HIV.  Although 
international legal experts have grave concerns about the court 
process and quality of evidence, the Libyan press continues to 
insist that their judicial system is sacrosanct.  While the 
Libyan government gives assurances that is is working to find a 
resolution to the case, and some officials admit in private that 
they know that infections were not a deliberate, criminal act, 
there are no public signs of trying to educate the Libyan 
population or shift public opinion.  A recent press release from 
representatives of the Benghazi families has a shift in tone 
from calls for retribution to an expression of appreciation to 
those who empathize with the suffering of the infected Libyans. 
At the same time though, the families are now calling for more 
attention to be paid to a scientific study released from the 
"Biotechnology Center of South Carolina" that questions the 
theory that the infection spread due to poor hygienic practice. 
 The next hearing in the defamation case against the medics is 
May 6 and a Supreme Court decision on the appeal of the guilty 
verdict is due before May 17.  If the guilty verdict and death 
sentence are confirmed, the appeal will move to the Libyan 
Higher Judicial Council for a further review. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Libya's newspapers, all government controlled, 
continue to run dramatic statements about the source of HIV 
infections in Libya.  Libyan papers continue to print "public 
opinion" pieces that have no attributions but express outrage 
against the foreign medical staff who allegedly injected over 
400 Libyan children in a Benghazi hospital with the HIV virus in 
¶1998.  The accused Palestinian and Bulgarians are currently 
waiting for a Supreme Court decision on the appeal of the guilty 
verdict and death sentence in their trial. The decision is due 
before May 17, although an exact date is not determined, 
according to the Bulgarian Embassy.  This is the second time 
they have been sentenced to death.  The Supreme court overturned 
a previous death sentence and remanded the case for retrial. 
The press articles consistently blame the Palestinian doctor and 
Bulgarian nurses, along with foreign intelligence services 
including the CIA and Mossad, for deliberating infecting the 
children with HIV. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Although international legal experts have grave 
concerns about the court process and quality of evidence, the 
Libyan press continues to insist that their judicial system is 
sacrosanct.  The articles also claim that the international 
community's concern over the case reflects racism because they 
claim, if the children were American or European, no one would 
have questioned the court decision.  The following quote is 
typical of most articles: "The West wants this case to be about 
the five Bulgarian nurses and not the hundreds of children. All 
this happened since no one cares about Arab children.  The 
world, with its human rights, charitable and political 
organizations, is reduced to silence only because these children 
and mothers are Libyans and not Scandinavians or North 
Americans." 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Particularly inflammatory was an article in 
al-Jamahiriya newspaper that published pictures of many Libyan 
children infected with the HIV virus with the following 
headline,  "our children did not come from Mars, and their blood 
isn't sewage water.  Anyone trying to question this trial is 
guilty as well. The crime of injecting Libyan children with AIDS 
is a crime against humanity and not just a case of Bulgarian 
nurses."  Many of the articles claim that anyone who questions 
the court's guilty verdict must have played an integral role in 
the crime.  Some typical quotes include: 
 
    "Any entity or any country trying to raise doubts about this 
case is not innocent of this crime;" 
    "Intelligence services and parties involved in this crime 
are those who push for questioning justice in the case of those 
victim children;" 
    "Those objecting to the case are suspect characters who are 
loyal to the intelligence services of those countries involved 
in the case;" and 
 
TRIPOLI 00000426  002 OF 003 
 
 
    "Anyone trying to question this case is an active player in 
the crime and bears responsibility." 
 
The "public opinion" pieces also claim consistently that it 
would only be fair for the families of the victims to seek 
proper compensation for the crime; that the deliberate 
infections are a crime against humanity that require blood 
money. 
 
¶5.  (C)  While the Libyan government gives assurances that is is 
working to find a resolution to the case, and some officials 
admit in private that they know that infections were not a 
deliberate, criminal act, there are no public signs of trying to 
educate the Libyan population or shift public opinion.  In 
contrast, there seems to be an effort to maximize public outrage 
to create nationalist sentiment against "outside influences." 
The Libyan government will have to use some twisted explanation 
when a settlement is finally reached.  There are many precedents 
for unusual logic in Libya.  In April, Qadhafi gave public 
remarks that could be interpreted to say that Libya did not 
really pay the Lockerbie settlement for the Pan-Am 103 bombing, 
but instead U.S. companies paid for the Lockerbie settlement by 
purchasing Libyan oil.  Similarly, the official Libyan stance is 
that the Operation El Dorado Canyon air strikes on Libya in 1986 
were a U.S. failure and that Libya won against the "American 
aggression" by surviving the bombing raid. 
 
¶6.  (C)  One sign that there might be a shift in the Libyan 
insistence that the medical personnel are guilty and that 
compensation must be paid can be found in a recent press 
statement from the group representing the infected Libyans. 
The statement of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab 
Jamahiriya Civil Society for the Care of the Infected Children 
organization was released via the internet and not through the 
local papers, so it would not have wide circulation in Libya. 
Therefore, the intended audience is the international community. 
  The statement says that the families of the Libyan victims 
value EU Commissioner for External Relations Ferrero's (sic) 
initiatives on behalf of the Benghazi children.  It also 
expresses appreciation for the efforts by the German government 
as the current EU chair.  It also noted that the UK, while 
acting as the EU chair, worked to set up the Benghazi 
International Support Fund and initiated a dialogue with the 
victim's families through the Qadhafi Development Foundation. 
It emphasizes its appreciation for "representatives of the 
international community that have shown all respect for the 
feelings of the families and understanding of what their 
children have suffered through this humanitarian tragedy and 
respect for the justice of their situation."  Whereas most 
previous statements have focused strongly on compensation and 
retribution, this press release emphasizes appreciation for 
people who empathize with the infected children.   The release 
is signed by Omar al-Kilani al-Mismari and Idris Hamad Lagha as 
"representatives of the families of the Libyan Child Victims of 
the AIDS Disaster." 
 
¶7.  (C)  At the same time, the press statement calls attention 
to a scientific study issued in the U.S.   It says, "the 
children's families appeal to the Arab and international 
scientific and legal community to take greater interest in the 
new scientific studies by specialists from the Biotechnology 
Center of South Carolina and from the American Calvin University 
which reveal more evidence about what happened in Benghazi 
Children's Hospital in 1998.   Libyans are using the new study 
released in South Carolina to support their claim that the 
infections must have been deliberate.   In contrast, 
world-renowned HIV experts dismiss the study as "scientific 
drivel", but unfortunately, the Libyans are claiming that since 
the study comes from the U.S. it must be authoritative proof of 
the medics' guilt.  The Libyan Medical Board is particularly 
sensitive to criticism that the infections were spread by poor 
sanitation and medical practice.  Since the South Carolina study 
concludes that it would be unusual for an infection to be spread 
by poor sanitation in only one hospital, the Libyans are using 
the study to exonerate themselves of accusations of poor 
sanitation across the board. 
 
¶8.  (C)  COMMENT.  We are not familiar with the "Biotechnology 
Center of South Carolina" or the "American Calvin University." 
If they exist and have issued such a study, it is unfortunate 
that the U.S. scientific community is being used by the Libyan 
medical establishment to refute independent studies by the 
world's leading HIV experts that the infections developed and 
spread through the patient population in a manner inconsistent 
with deliberate criminal intent, but similar to outbreaks in 
hospital populations in other countries such as Romania.   That 
 
TRIPOLI 00000426  003 OF 003 
 
 
only makes it more difficult to hope for a ruling by the Libyan 
appeals courts that the case should be thrown out based on 
scientific evidence.   It is widely anticipated that the Supreme 
Court will confirm the guilty verdict and death sentence 
sometime before May 17.  Embassy expects that there will be 
another upsurge of Libyan press statements dramatizing the 
suffering of the Libyans with HIV and AIDs at that time.  At the 
same time, the ongoing defamation cases against the medics 
brought by the security officials schedule for another hearing 
about May 6.  It is widely anticipated that the medics will be 
found guilty of defaming Libyan security by claiming that they 
were tortured while in police custody.  If, as expected, the 
guilty verdicts in the infection case are upheld by the Supreme 
Court then the Libyan Higher Judicial Council will consider the 
verdicts.  The Higher Judicial Council includes Libyan "cabinet" 
officials as well as judicial officers and would be the 
mechanism to arrange some way for the medics to depart Libya. 
END COMMENT. 
GOLDRICH