Libya 'kept on terrorist list'
2006-03-24 10:11
Bogota - The United States is keeping Libya on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, even though the North African country has become a good partner on security matters, says a senior American official on Thursday.
The US state department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Henry Crumpton, said that next month, after the state department published its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report, Libya would remain on the list.
Crumpton said Sudan - which was also on the list along with Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Iran - would not make it off this year either, despite some advances in counterterrorism cooperation. He said no new state sponsors would be added.
Libya 'made enormous progress'
Presence on the terrorism list banned a country from getting US arms, controlled sales of items with military and civilian applications, limited US aid and required Washington to vote against loans from international financial institutions.
Asked if Libya would be taken off the list in the April report, Crumpton said: "The answer to that is no. However, Libya has made enormous progress in the last couple of years and we are hopeful that at some point we can address that question."
Libya, long considered a pariah state by Washington, decided in 2003 to abandon nuclear weapons and took responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Bilateral diplomatic, economic ties grow
Crumpton said: "It's a question of confidence and time. I must stress though that in terms of intelligence cooperation, in terms of operational impact on the enemy, Libya is a good partner."
A senior Libyan official said in January that his country expected to be taken off the list soon, and speculation had mounted for the past year that Libya might get its wish in recognition of its counterterrorism progress and as bilateral diplomatic and economic ties grew.
Earlier on Friday, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gave a lecture on democracy via video link to an unprecedented gathering of US and Libyan academics in New York, and touted Libya's political system as superior to "farcical" and "fake" parliamentary and representative democracies in the West.
Sudan, once home to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was also kept on the list as human rights concerns weigh on its improving ties with the US.
'You can't ignore Darfur'
Crumpton said: "They have made some progress in some areas, but Darfur is a heartbreaking tragedy."
In Darfur in western Sudan, where fighting still raged despite a cease fire, the United Nations said the state was supporting Arab militias conducting ethnic cleansing.
Crumpton said: "I have spoken directly to the Sudanese about this and we have told them, even considering the other benchmarks that we have set, you cannot ignore Darfur and their policies there."
Asked if any new states would be put on the list, Crumpton said: "We have no one who will be designated in the next few weeks."
Iraq was dropped from the list in October 2004 after the 2003 US invasion that toppled former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Analysts said none of the other states on the list were likely candidates for removal any time soon.