>Libya:
>
>News and Views
>
>Wednesday, 30 August, 2000: Libya staged an elaborate ceremony on Tuesday to
>formally hand over six Westerners freed after being held hostage in the
>Philippines for more than four months. Libyan negotiator Rajab Azzarouq,
>basking in the positive publicity generated by Libya's role in the release,
>pledged that Libya would continue its efforts to win freedom for seven others
>still detained by Moslem Abu Sayyaf rebels. "We promise you with the
>supervision of the Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi and support of his son
>Seif al-Islam that we will pursue our efforts to free the remaining hostages,
>said Azzarouq, speaking at the ceremony on the outskirts of Tripoli. "Don't
>forget the name of Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi... It's the name of the man who freed
>you," added a spokesman for the Qadhafi International Foundation for Charity
>Associations, which negotiated the release. [Reuters] Wednesday, 30 August,
>2000: Libya is ready to mediate for the release of an American whom the
>Islamist rebel group Abu Sayyaf says it captured in the Philippines Monday,
>Libyan foreign ministry official Hassuna al-Shaush said Tuesday. "I don't
>think that the Qadhafi Charitable Foundation would sneak away if its help were
>requested by the United States," Shaush said of the Libyan organization that
>has conducted negotiations to free western and Philippine hostages from the
>Abu Sayyaf. "Saving the life of a human being, be he European or American, is
>important to the Foundation," he said. "We are teaching the world how to
>behave," he said. [AFP]
Wednesday, 30 August, 2000: - Libya's minister for African affairs, Ali
Triki, and the Egyptian foreign minister, Amr Moussa, are to meet with
Sudanese government officials in September to re-launch their efforts to
broker national reconciliation in the civil-war rocked country. According
to official sources in Tripoli, the decision to revive the initiative was
decided during recent meeting of the Executive Council of the Community of
Sahelo-Saharan States, which was held in Asmara, Eritrea. The sources said
the Sudanese foreign minister, Mustapha Osman Ismail, would attend the
forthcoming meeting. Triki met with Ismail in Khartoum Monday to discuss
the Libyan plan to revive the national reconciliation initiative. [PANA]
>
>Wednesday, 30 August, 2000: The French foreign minister thanked the
>Philippines and Libya Tuesday for working to free six western hostages as the
>Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin arrived in Tripoli to greet the former
>hostages. "We thank the Philippines but also Libya for what they did to obtain
>this liberation, but I repeat that what we want is the freedom of all the
>hostages," Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said on Europe 1 radio station in
>France. He stressed that Paris had not paid a ransom for the three French
>hostages, released with three others on Sunday and Monday by the Muslim group
>Abu Sayyaf in Jolo Island, as this would only increase the risk of kidnappings
>in the world's trouble-spots. [AFP]
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