Berlusconi and Ghaddafi sign the Treaty

ITALY-LIBYA: RADICALS- THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD REPORT IN PARLIAMENT ON THE AGREEMENT WITH GHADDAFI

September 17, 2008: "In forty years of absolute power, Colonel Ghaddafi's regime has been characterised by the persecution of every type of political dissent, by the systematic repression of the free opinions of individuals and associations not acknowledged by the regime, by the absolute absence of an independent press, by the incarceration or the disappearance of political opponents, by the recourse to secret tribunals and the holding of closed trials, by the practice of torture and the death penalty." This much is contained in the Dossier "Human Rights according to Ghaddafi, with whom Italy has formed a Treaty of Friendship, partnership and cooperation" that Hands Off Cain and the Nonviolent Radical Party presented today in a press conference at the Senate.
"We ask Minister Franco Frattini to report in Parliament on the contents of the recent agreement between Italy and Libya, signed in August by Premier Berlusconi and the Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi," Radical Senator Marco Perduca said during the conference. Also participating at the conference were Radical Parliamentarians Elisabetta Zamparutti and Donatella Poretti, Hands Off Cain Secretary Sergio D'Elia, and Leone Massa, President of the Italian Association for Italo-Libian Relations.
"There are aspects of the treaty that aren't made known to the public or to Parliament, that also must be ratified, seeing as it is an international treaty," Perduca added.
Radical Parliamentarian Elisabetta Zamparutti emphasised that "in Libya in 2007 there were at least 9 people put to death, including four Nigerians. In the first two months of 2008 there were 6 executions carried out, five of which were of foreigners." "In 2007, in what constituted an international case of 'blood money', Libya resolved the case of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor sentenced to death under false accusations of infecting 426 children with HIV with blackmail and greed." "It was a case that was only resolved by the payment of millions of euros in compensation to Libya."
Sergio D'Elia said "with this regime, Italy signed an economically onerous pact both in the present and in the future. However, the most serious scandal is that neither the public, nor the Parliament, nor our European Union partners and allied countries in the Atlantic pact have been informed of the bilateral initiative and of the effective contents of the agreement, in particular the commitments regarding the NATO base, which has many implications to our country's system of alliances and international obligations."
The elected Radical Parliamentarians in the PD list have submitted to the Chamber and the Senate an urgent question to the Government. (Sources: Hands Off Cain, 17/09/2008)