From the BBC of all places… Coincidence all this change in Libya. Must be related to long-term economic development plans. Yup. Sure.
Libya’s leader has called for sweeping legal changes including the abolition of a special revolutionary court criticised by human rights groups.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi also urged an end to the arrest of people without a warrant and the ratification of international anti-torture conventions.
Last month he promised to act after an Amnesty International team made their first visit to Libya in 15 years.
The image of Libya’s leader has been transformed in western eyes recently.
Last month, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair visited following the ending of United Nations sanctions. US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns also met the Libyan leader in Tripoli.
This followed Libya’s announcement that it would end its weapons of mass destruction programme and pay compensation to the families of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing.
The key factors have been growing pressure from the West and Colonel Gaddafi’s desire to take his country back into the international fold, analysts say.
They say the process of Libya’s gradual rehabilitation started earlier this year, with the agreement on a compensation deal over the Lockerbie bombing.
The move was rewarded by lifting of the United Nations sanctions against Libya in September.
Experts say that economic reasons have also played a major part in Libya’s decision to abandon its WMD programme.
Tripoli currently does not have the means to pursue such a programme and is also too dependent on Western markets to sell its oil.
So all of the economic variables remain the same, all of the Western pressure has been there for 20 odd years but Qaddafi goes to the US and UK not the UN or Germany or France to express his willingness to talk and agrees to hand over all wmds when Saddam is pulled out of a hole. Again he goes to the US and UK not the UN, France, Germany or the EU but can you find one hint that this might be a possibility in this BBC article?