Kadafi Pitches His Tent in Brussels

Making his first visit to Western Europe in 25 years, Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi hit the staid streets of this capital Tuesday in a whirl of unorthodox diplomacy and Bedouin flair: He pitched his desert tent on a castle lawn and declared himself Europe’s new partner in the fight against Islamic terrorism and illegal immigration.

Kadafi and Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission, called the visit a big step toward ending the pariah status of a Libyan strongman blamed for sponsoring terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of Europeans and Americans in the 1980s.

“Libya, which led the liberation movement in the Third World and Africa, now has decided to lead the peace movement all over the world,” said Kadafi, who was unrepentant for his financing of militant groups. “Libya has become an example to be followed.”

After meeting with Kadafi, Prodi offered a new assessment emerging here and in London and Washington. Kadafi’s recent dramatic move to dismantle his nuclear programs and other weapons activities, Prodi said in an interview, has launched a larger, seemingly irreversible Libyan process of political and economic opening to the West.

A few days ago, the Bush administration announced that it was increasing diplomatic contacts with Libya and lifting many of the sanctions it had used to pressure the North African nation.

In a recent visit to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Kadafi could be an important partner in the war against terrorism.

Prodi said Kadafi signaled that a settlement was near in negotiations to compensate victims of a 1986 bombing of a Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen, an attack the U.S. tied to Libya. In the meetings Tuesday, the Libyan leader condemned Islamic terrorists, Prodi said, adding that Libya has recently shared intelligence about Al Qaeda with Western security forces.

“On Islamic terrorism, we were completely in line,” Prodi said. “The words he used were very strong: [He said] there is no excuse, they are enemies of peace, they are murderers.”

The speed of Kadafi’s diplomatic rehabilitation caused critics to speculate sarcastically that other global outlaws might win forgiveness if they survive and seize the right moment.

“Has he changed or has he not, that’s the question,” said Robert Hutchinson, a victims’ advocate who came here to urge the European Union to make Libya compensate victims of attacks by the Irish Republican Army, which Kadafi supported. “It’s a bit like George Bush saying to [Osama] bin Laden: Come over to the White House for tea someday.”

Kadafi’s friendly invasion was a spectacle, starring the outsized personality of a strongman whose every move draws attention.

The day began with an unprecedented gesture that caused a stir in this protocol-conscious capital: Rather than receiving Kadafi at the EU headquarters as he does other foreign leaders, Prodi went to the airport to embrace the Libyan leader when he arrived.

Emerging from his jet, Kadafi was resplendent in a brown robe. Members of his entourage brought along a black tent -- the kind their leader prefers to sleep in. They set it up on the grounds of the Val Duchesse palace, Belgium’s residence for visiting dignitaries.

Kadafi moved regally when his heavily guarded motorcade arrived at EU headquarters, waving at a crowd of Libyan and African students who greeted him with percussion and cheers. A smaller group of protesters was kept out of sight.

Kadafi walked amid a phalanx of young female bodyguards in stylish blue fatigues, their brimmed caps jammed over dark eyes and long black hair. Four of the guards stood on stage directly behind Kadafi when he spoke.

The chance to see the globe’s best-known colonel in action brought an overflow crowd of international journalists.

Kadafi’s gaze wandered during Prodi’s remarks. He shifted his feet frequently, gripping the lectern in a way that suggested moments of unsteadiness.

But he perked up when it was his turn to speak. He flashed a radiant grin and thumbs-up at the press corps. In a gravelly voice, he delivered a long speech without notes during which he repeatedly thanked Prodi, calling him “my brother,” and set out a grand vision of Libya’s new place in a changing world.

Kadafi recalled proudly how Libya in the 1970s and 1980s provided training camps and support for “international freedom fighters” -- a roster that many Western critics said included an assortment of European, African and Arab terrorists.

Kadafi rejects those accusations, saying he and his allies were no more terrorists than was South African leader Nelson Mandela.

“Libya cannot hide or deny its role in the liberation movement,” Kadafi said. “Libya was full of camps embracing liberation fighters from all over the world. We did our historical duty.... Libya fought America and shot down its pilots and aircraft. But now the time has come to reap the seeds and fruits of this armed struggle -- namely, peace, stability. Now we are facing different or new challenges, which are common enemies to all of us, we who fought each other.”

Kadafi has never explicitly accepted responsibility for two major bombings in which Libyans were convicted by Western courts: the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Scotland that killed 270 people and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over the Niger desert that killed 170 people. Libya recently paid out billions of dollars in compensation to the victims in those cases.

Kadafi has become a potentially valuably ally to Western counter-terrorism forces because he is an archenemy of Bin Laden, who has encouraged Islamic extremism in Libya. The first Interpol arrest warrant issued for Bin Laden was initiated by Libya before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In his remarks Tuesday, Kadafi portrayed Libya, a former Italian colony, as an ideal bridge between Europe and Africa, a region where he has engaged in active economic development programs -- and in support of disreputable regimes that Western diplomats hope he will now curb.

He proposed a deal in which his country would restrain illegal African immigrants bound for Europe in exchange for European investment in Libya’s oil and tourism industries. The country is in urgent need of foreign capital.

Kadafi’s closest previous visit to this region came when he attended a meeting of nonaligned nations in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 15 years ago, officials said.

Kadafi said his visit, coming after his 34 years in power, symbolized the start of a new era.

“This is a true opportunity for historic peace,” he said. “We say it to America and we say it also to Europe. We say it confidently and we say it loudly.”

Kadafi took no questions. Despite his peacemaking gestures, he ended on a defiant note. He made a pointed reference to the conflicts in the Middle East, implying that Libya could return to the hostile camp.

“I hope that we shall not be obliged by any evil to go back or to look backward,” Kadafi said. “We do hope that we shall not be forced or obliged to go back to those days where we bomb our cars or put explosive belts around our belts and around our women so that we will not be searched or harassed in our homes as is taking place now in Iraq and in Palestine.

“The victims are women and children,” he said. “We don’t want to be forced to do that.”