Kenya: 'Greener Pastures' Nurses Still Face Firing Squad

The Nation (Nairobi)

OPINION
December 23, 2006
Posted to the web December 23, 2006

Peter Mwaura
Nairobi

Imagine, if you will, five Kenyan nurses and one doctor in search of greener pastures. In March 1998 they went to Libya to work at the Al Fateh hospital in Benghazi, Libya's second city.

Libya is a country that imports a great deal of foreign labour, both unskilled and professional. Libya is also a country that its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, once proclaimed to be HIV-free.

At the end of the year 426 children at the hospital were found to be infected with HIV, a tragedy that caused a great deal of public anger. The foreign medical workers were charged of deliberately infecting the children.

After a protracted trial, they were found guilty in May 2004 and sentenced to die by firing squad. But Libya's Supreme Court scrapped the death sentences due to "procedural flaws" and ordered a retrial. On Tuesday this week they were again found guilty.

The Kenyan scenario must stop at this point. If the health workers had been Kenyans, the world would have heard very little about them and the international furore they are causing would be well-nigh impossible. Kenya counts little in international diplomacy.

The nurses are actually Bulgarians, the doctor a Palestininan who, because he is stateless, has been piggybacking on the Bulgarian case. In world terms, Bulgaria is not a diplomatic heavyweight but she is waiting in the wings to join the European Union and has the weight of the European Union behind it. Bulgaria has also received the support of the United States.

In addition, scientists and human rights groups have rallied on the side of the medical workers, accusing Libya of trumping up the charges to cover up for poor hygiene conditions at its hospitals.

President Gaddafi, on his part, has let the Libyan justice system run its course, figuratively telling the West that the Libyan Government does hot interfere with the independence of its courts any more than the Western governments interfere with their own courts.

The convicted health workers have maintained their innocence, claiming they were tortured to confess the crime. Luc Montagnier, the French virologist credited with discovering the HIV virus in 1983 and Italian professor Vitorio Colizzi, an Aids researcher, carried out a genetic analysis of viruses from the infected children and concluded that many of them were infected long before the nurses' arrival in Libya.

But the Libyan court threw out the report, arguing that investigation by Libyan doctors had reached the opposite conclusion.

The case has stoked xenophobia and thirst for revenge. Families of the infected children have demonstrated at every court session. President Gaddafi has found himself under siege, both by his own people and the West. It was easier for him, however, to allow the courts to run their course than admit the infection was an accidental tragedy, as the Western scientists have maintained. It was decidely easier for Libya to pursue the "conspiracy theory" than admit the "scientific evidence" provided by Western scientists.

President Gaddafi is also probably not averse to exploiting the case to score international propaganda points, particularly with regard to the way the West ruthlessly pursued Libya over the bombing of the Pan Am plane over the Scottish village of Lockerbie in 1988 in which 270 victims died and Libya was forced to pay whopping compensation for the families of the victims.

This, in fact, is a case where money can buy justice, just like in the Lockerbie case. President Gaddafi did offer to free the medical workers in return for compensation to the families of the infected children.

Lawyers of the families of the infected children asked for about $10 million for each child. With more than 400 children involved, the total compensation demanded amounts to over $4 billion, a figure that mirrors the amount paid by Libya to the families of the victims of the Pan-Am plane bombing.

This, apparently, is the sticking point. Bulgaria, supported by the European Union and America, is opposed to paying "blood money" because that will imply guilt.

But is willing to provide "humanitarian assistance" to the Aids victims. If sufficient, the humanitarian assistance might free President Gaddafi from domestic politics so he can pardon the nurses.

I found this perspective interesting, but sad. It's probably true about Kenya mattering little in international political affairs. Sad.