Libyan Official Denounces Attacks on US

Neither Libyans, nor people based in Libya, were responsible for last week’s terrorist attacks on the US, a Libyan diplomat visiting Phnom Penh said Wednes­day.

“We are against all acts of terrorism against civilians everywhere….We are not behind these actions,” said Salem Ali Salem Dannah, secretary of the People’s Bureau of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahirya.

Salem Ali Salem Dannah is based in Hanoi and is responsible for his country’s diplomatic relations with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. He is spending this week in Phnom Penh to see the sights, celebrate his country’s 32nd anniversary and perhaps meet with government officials.

Salem Ali Salem Dannah said Cambodia and Libya have had a “historic and traditional relationship” with each other. He is here to discuss his country’s “cooperation” with Cambodia, although he said meetings with government officials have yet to be scheduled.

Tonight, he will host a reception at the Hotel Cambodiana to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Great Al-Fateh Revolution.

In September 1969, Moam­mar Gadhafi took power. Since then, his quixotic leadership has led to conflict with the US. The US ac­cused Libya of sponsoring international terrorism. The US has pla­ced economic sanctions on Lib­ya, and in 1986 bombed Libya in retaliation for alleged acts of terrorism.

Salem Ali Salem Dannah denied Libya has ever been involved in terrorism.

While expressing sympathy for last week’s loss of lives, Salem Ali Salem Dannah urged the US not to bomb Afghanistan, the country that is thought to harbor Osama bin Laden, who the US believes was most likely behind the attacks.

“To reply by the same way is not solving the problem. You attack me. I attack you. There is still a problem,” he said.

Salem Ali Salem Dannah proposed that all nations meet together in a conference on terrorism. There are more than 120 different ways to define terrorism, and some alleged terrorists are merely conducting a justifiable struggle for freedom and liberation, he said.

 

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