Libya HIV Case Needs Humane Solution -- German Chancellor Schroeder

Amid a thawing in German-Libyan relations, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Friday he has made explicit his opposition to the death sentences a Libyan court handed down for five Bulgarian nurses convicted of infecting over 400 children with HIV at a Benghazi hospital. The European Union, which Bulgaria plans to join in 2007, has called the sentences to death by firing squad "disappointing" and a major sticking point to Libya's push to renew ties with the West after three decades of isolation. The death sentences are on appeal.

"I said [to Gadhafi] very clearly that we want the problem to be solved in a humanitarian way, and we think that this is important," Schroeder told journalists during a visit to Sofia, Bulgaria. "I will make this very clear in my comments in an eventual visit to Libya." Schroeder's spokesperson said the visit would be soon, though no date has been set.

Several of the nurses claim their confessions to the crimes were made under torture, and medical experts have pinned blame for the hospital epidemic on poor sanitary conditions that preceded the nurses' tenure.

In its bid to restore relations, Libya has agreed to pay the families of victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, for which a Libyan secret agent was convicted. A compensation arrangement has also been made for a French airline bombed over Niger in 1989.

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