Libyans Protest Following US Call to Free Bulgarian Medics

Politics | October 18, 2005, Tuesday // 00:00
Libyans Protest Following US Call to Free Bulgarian Medics Families and relatives of AIDS-suffering Libyan children rallied in centre Tripoli chanting slogans such as: “Bush defends criminal nurses.” The protest was instigated by a US call to Libya to set free the Bulgarian medics on a death row. Photo by AP/BTA

Hundreds of Libyans have took on the streets of Tripoli to protest against President Bush after he called for the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death.

Families and relatives of the AIDS-suffering children rallied in central Tripoli with chants: "Bush defends criminals," "Bush supports terrorism," and "Bulgarian nurses are criminals and terrorists."

During Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov's visit to Washington, George W. Bush said Monday that "there should be no confusion in the Libyan government's mind that those nurses should be, not only spared their life, but out of prison". "The position of the United States is the nurses ought to be free," Bush said.

At least 40 of the more than 400 infected children have died of AIDS, fueling widespread outrage in Libya over the case.

Demonstrators in Tripoli called on Bush to apologize and urged the Libyan foreign ministry to freeze contacts with the United States.

"Bush's words hurt the sick children's mothers, families and relatives," the Association of Families of the Victims Children said in a statement.

"We demand that the Libyan foreign ministry freezes its contacts with the United States until Bush apologizes in public for his comment," declared spokesman Ramdane Fitouri, who read the statement.

Libya has urged Bulgaria to offer money to families of the infected children to persuade them to save the nurses from death. Bulgaria has refused reiterating the nurses are innocent.

Libya's Supreme Court is to rule November 15 on an appeal by the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor.

The medics, convicted last year for deliberately infecting more than 400 children at a hospital in Benghazi, insist they are innocent and that the only evidence against them are confessions extracted by torture.

For the children's families, "the high court must confirm the sentences and announce the date when they will be killed by firing squad."

The United States and the European Union have condemned the verdicts, which have hindered Tripoli's drive to normalize relations with the West after decades of diplomatic isolation.

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