Return of Gadhafi: From outlaw to heart of Western civilisation

The visit, although publicly denounced by many, including the French human-rights minister, is the latest chapter in the rehabilitation of a former revolutionary who seized power at 27 in 1969 and proceeded to earn a reputation for treachery by diverting Libya’s oil wealth to support rebels and Islamic militants. Former President Reagan labeled him “the mad dog”.

Gadhafi, 65, has since made a big investment in not being an outlaw by owning up to a series of Libyan-sponsored terrorist attacks and paying millions of dollars in compensation for the downing of a commercial jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and of another 10 months later over the desert of Niger in western Africa. In 2003, Gadhafi negotiated his way to further respectability with a decision to give up his program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

“As much as it pains me to see Col Gadhafi in France, if we don’t accept him it gives power to the people who want Libya to continue to be a terrorist state,” said Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, whose father died in the bombing over Niger. “As long as Libya continues to be a normal country, we have to accept Gadhafi.”

Gadhafi was received in Brussels, Belgium, at the European Parliament in 2004, and several heads of state have visited Tripoli, the Libyan capital, in recent years.

But the last barrier to reciprocal invitations was the imprisonment of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were charged with infecting Libyan children with HIV/AIDS. After international diplomats spent months negotiating for their release, French President Nicolas Sarkozy closed the deal in July when his then-wife, Cecilia, went to Tripoli and helped convince the Libyan chief that eight-and-a-half years was too long to keep the medics imprisoned. Sarkozy traveled to Tripoli after their release and assured Gadhafi that he would receive lucrative French contracts. Sarkozy also extended the red-carpet invitation to Paris.

Critics from a raft of human-rights groups and French liberal circles have eviscerated Sarkozy for granting the visit. As well, his own secretary of state for human rights, Rama Yada said that her country was not “a doormat on which a leader, terrorist or not, can come and wipe the blood of his crimes”.

After an initial meeting on Monday with Gadhafi, Sarkozy said he had asked him to make “progress” on human rights but also said France had a responsibility to encourage “those who renounce terrorism, who renounce the possession of nuclear arms”. Many international experts are wondering if the visit is a prelude to another trip abroad, the next time to America.

“Gadhafi wants to be part of a united Africa, he wants to be a historical leader,” said Abdel Qassem Smida, a Cairo, Egypt-based Libyan expert and a former Egyptian Cabinet member. “We say if wants to go next to New York, to Washington, why not?”