Seif el-Islam el-Qaddafi, Son of Libya's leader, Muammar Qaddafi

Qaddafi's Modern-Sounding Son Is a Riddle to the West
By CRAIG S. SMITH

Published: December 14, 2004



Jehad Nga for The New York Times

Seif el-Islam el Qaddafi, 32, the son of Libya's leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, with his pet tiger, Freddo.

RIPOLI, Libya, Dec. 13 - Seif el-Islam el-Qaddafi, the son of this country's idiosyncratic leader, was just 14 in 1986 when American bombs destroyed his home and killed his 4-year-old sister. Despite that harsh experience he has emerged in the past few years as the new, Western-friendly face of this former pariah state.

His fingerprints are on almost every major international move the country has made since it began its recent rehabilitation, from compensating the families of victims of past terrorist attacks to abandoning the program to produce unconventional weapons. Most recently he has been preaching democracy in a part of the world where strongmen have long been the norm.

"Democracy is the future," Mr. Qaddafi, 32, said at his Moroccan-style villa outside Tripoli, where he keeps a white tiger, Freddo, among other exotic pets. "We have to be ahead of the world in our region, the Middle East, and not to be lagging behind, because the whole world is heading toward democracy."

It is unclear how much authority he actually wields. He holds no official position in the government led by his father, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and many people dismiss him privately as someone able to be outspoken only because he is untouchable as his father's son.

They also doubt that his bold language will lead to any lasting change in a country riddled with cronyism and corruption and presided over by powerful security services that silence open dissent. Earlier this year, Libya's intelligence chiefs, who may have been acting with Colonel Qaddafi's approval, were accused by two participants of plotting to assassinate the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Abdullah.

Yet Libya is changing, and to many young people the young Mr. Qaddafi represents a hope that the country will become a more Western-oriented, open society than the African-focused socialist state that his father has shaped in the past 35 years.

In many ways he is the opposite of his father: fluent in English and educated in Europe, he dresses in a hip, understated style that contrasts sharply with his reclusive father's flowing Bedouin robes. Even his closely shaved head is the opposite of his father's unruly bush of hair.

At times he clearly speaks on behalf of the government. But on other occasions, diplomats and Libyan academics say, he seems to be pursuing his own agenda, particularly on human rights.

"He can be a force for good," said one Western diplomat, who credits the young Mr. Qaddafi with pursuing allegations of torture used to extract confessions from two Bulgarian nurses convicted earlier this year of infecting Libyan children with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Some of the policemen involved have been punished, and Mr. Qaddafi is now helping to negotiate the release of the nurses, who were sentenced to death.

But it is when he speaks of political change that people really start to wonder whether his words count.

His father's conflict with the West has shaped the young Mr. Qaddafi's life. In 1995, nearly a decade after American bombs killed his sister, he says he was "kicked out" of the University of Geneva when Switzerland refused to extend his visa.

"I escaped to Austria but faced the same fate, and then the French refused me, the Canadians, the Australians, almost the whole world," he said. "I became very angry."

Rather than retreat into bitterness, he became determined to help rehabilitate Libya's image in the West. In 1997, he founded the Qaddafi International Association for Charitable Organizations and began working to earn his country good will.

But the anger did not disappear. It found an outlet in his artwork - paintings and collages, one of which incorporates a fragment from one of the bombs that destroyed his family's home. It is still evident at the edges of his conversation.

"You forgive but never forget," he said, settled among the cushions of a room whose walls are covered with multicolored tiles in intricate geometric Moorish designs.

Seif al-Islam, whose name means sword of Islam, took a guest on a tour of the manicured grounds of the estate. He had arrived at the hilltop home, built as a gift to his father by King Hassan II of Morocco, behind the wheel of a dark gray B.M.W. It is not a new car. It is expensive, because of its armored body and bulletproof glass, but still surprisingly modest for the man who many people whisper is being groomed as his father's political heir.

In March, he told the Arab satellite news channel Al Jazeera that "you have to bring democracy to your countries," adding that "the Arabs should either change or change will be imposed on them from outside."

Those were surprising words coming from a man whose father has ruled for 35 years largely by decree.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/internat...ca/14libya.html

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi
From Wikipedia

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi is a son of Muammar al-Qaddafi, president of Libya. A painter, he graduated from the London School of Economics. Today he heads up the official charity, the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which has intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants.

Al-Islam also performs in public relations and diplomatic roles for his father. He has been mentioned as a possible successor, though he has denied this, claiming that Libya's future lies in direct democracy.

On December 10, 2004, shortly before a trip by Canadian prime minister Paul Martin to Tripoli, Qaddafi requested in an interview with The Globe and Mail a formal apology from the Canadian government, for joining U.S.-led sanctions against Libya after the Lockerbie bombing, and for denying him a student visa to study in Canada in 1997. His request was met with incredulity in Canada, and the Canadian government announced that no apology would be forthcoming.


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Qatar hails Libya’s accession to OPCW
Web posted at: 1/6/2005
Source ::: QNA

THE HAGUE: The State of Qatar has taken part in the 9th session of the signatories to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) which wound up here on Monday.

Qatar’s delegation was led by H E Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the representative of Qatar at the OPCW who is also Qatar’s ambassador in London.

The Qatari delegation comprised group captain Nasser Abdullah Al Sulaiti, the deputy chairman of the National Committee for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Mohamed Ali Al Ali, the councillor at the Qatari Embassy in London, Hassan Ali Al Qasemi, the representative of the Supreme Council for Environment and Natural Reserves, who is also member of Qatar National Committee and a number of representatives from other concerned quarters.

At the speech he gave at the session the Qatari delegate expressed concern by the State of Qatar over the possession of chemical weapons by some countries expressing at the same time his pleasure for the accession of 12 more countries to the OPCW, that rises the number of signatories to 167.

The Qatari delegate also welcomed the accession of Libya to the OPCW as a support for the drive of peace in the world.

He also supported Libya’s proposal to turn Al Rabitta Plant into a pharmaceuticals plant to produce medicines to cure some dangerous diseases noting that accesssion by some countries to the OPCW during the new year would give the OPCW treaty more international support.

Nasser bin Hamd Al Khalifa highlighted Qatar’s efforts for the application of opcw treaty including the measures taken in this respect to organise the import of chemical and radioactive materials in line with the environment protection law, establishment of scientific database for the circulated and locally produce chemical components and products.

He revealed that Qatar is to set up a national authority to deal with and control of all materials connected with mass destruction weapons.

He expressed regret over the deterioration of the situation in the Middle East due to the Israeli intransigent policies towards the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people including their right to set up an independent Palestinian state, and towards the rights of the peoples of the whole region including their rights to prosperity, development and peace.

The Qatari delegate called for making the middle east region an area free from mass destruction weapons through having Israeli nuclear facilities subjected to international inspection and control.

He also thanked OPCW for preparing and qualifying ad hoc teams to deal with chemical incidents and disasters within a programme for the Asian Games of 2006 due to be held in Qatar.

Libya's leader, Muammar Qaddafi

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Libya to unveil sweeping proposals for economic reforms

Morocco TIMES 30/01/2005 | 15:10 GMT


Libya is expected to unveil a vast reform program aimed at making a rigidly-controlled economy more market-friendly and open to privatization, Libyan officials said in an interview appearing, Jan. 28, in the International Herald Tribune.




Seif el-Islam el-Qaddafi. Ph. Archives

"The old times are finished and Libya is ready to move onto a new stage of modernization," Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Moamer Gadhafi, told the paper.



He added that "This will be conducted in a well organized manner that ensures new openness and ownership by the people of Libya, not a small class of oligarchs like Russia or Egypt."



"We are determined," he added. "But of course success can only be measured by the implementation."



This multi-pronged initiative would streamline government, speed up privatization and liberalize the media sector in a bid to begin a transition from what remains essentially an authoritarian regime to a more liberal economy that is competitive in the region, Seif el-Islam el-Qaddafi, and Abdulhafid Mahmoud Zlitni, the chairman of Libya's National Planning Council, said Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.




According to the paper, Dirk Vandewalle, associate professor of government at Dartmouth College who specializes in North African politics and economics, said that “The external pressures on Libya remain high and there is a strong internal feeling that change must happen."



"They realize international investment will be needed for development," added Vandewalle.



A number of Western advisers, including Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School and Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning economist, have agreed to work with Libya in the transition to craft an efficient framework for implementing the changes over the next two years, said the paper.




The advisers will also study a series of Libyan proposals to modernize the economy, before issuing recommendations on how to proceed with implementation.

He seems to be very diplomatic and a good representative for his country. Although I know very little about libya, I wonder why people are responding so poorly to him. after seeing these articles on this forum, I looked him up on google. there are pages of people trashing his name and saying terrible things about him.

anyone know what is going on? He has done so many good works that should be respected. It just seems unusual.

Are you referring to Ghadafi or his son Seif?

is he the one that beat up his pregnant girlfriend in paris?

Oh no, that's Hannibal or Cannibal whatever.

thanks!!!!

I recall watching a documentary on Libya and Ghadafi about 10 years ago and I still remember sequences from this documentary. Think it was a French crew who made that documentary. Anyway, they interviewed young Libyan girls who were in the military who raved about Ghadafi. Ghadafi's mother is said to have been a strong influence on him. She had reportedly told Ghadafi already as a little boy to respect women when he grows up.

When this crew finally gets to meet Ghadafi in person for an interview at his palace, I see a big room full of sofas and the French reporter asks Ghadafi where to sit down and Ghadafi answers "You can sit on the floor...".

This post has been edited by Amazon on March 11, 2005 07:46 pm

I was referring to Seif el-Islam.
There are webpages just trashing him, yet he seems so diplomatic - a good representative for his country.

Here's an interesting topic about Col. Muammar Gadhafi (or however it is spelled) and his family including Seif el-Islam and the "playboy" son "Hannibal" Moutassim. It also includes info on his daugthers.

Gadafy turns reformer

Col. Muammar Gadhafi has only one daughter. she is well educated and very outspoken on many legal issues. she is a lawyer.

Seif el-Islam is one of the best behaving sons of Col. Muammar Gadhafi together with Aisha. the rest of them are very often is some kind of troubles.