Today several petitions began circulating around the school where I work demanding a pullback on the death penalty sentence for the six medical workers in Libya.
For those not following the story, it goes something like this. In 1998, medical workers from Bulgaria and a Palestinian doctor arrived in Libya to treat pediatric patients. In 1999 they were detained on suspicion of infecting 426 Libyan kids with HIV. At trial there was testimony that kids had been infected before the arrival of the medical workers and that clinical conditions at the clinic were unacceptable long before the workers arrived. This testimony was ignored or considered too small and the six have been sentenced to death by firing squad.
Based on the facts presented in just about any newspaper account of the trial and evidence, the conviction and sentence are ridiculous. All Libyans involved were acquitted and most see the entire case as a political ploy from Libya. Three easy steps improve Libya's image: 1.)Give six foreigners a death sentence, 2.)Give clemency after international pressure, 3.)Become even more of the "good country" everybody seems to see Libya becoming.
Whatever the case is though, it has my students and the rest of Bulgaria scared and angry. Mostly angry. After half of my first class came in late because they were lighting candles and signing petitions, I asked everyone what they thought of the whole thing, to get them talking about something in English. Most of them gave arguments similar to those above about why the charges themselves were ridiculous. Some seemed confused by the whole situation and looked for some evidence from Libya to latch on to and argue against.
When I asked for possible solutions, I got the inevitable "The United States must help us!" from Gergana in the back of the room. Some of the reasons for this idea were more or less salient. "The U.S. helps everybody else. Now it can help Bulgaria," Deyan suggested. Zladko thought that because Bulgaria is in NATO now that was more than enough reason to help 5 medical workers in Libya. Then, all at once, everybody seemed to come up with the "trade" idea. Bulgaria has 500 soldiers in Karbala, so the U.S. should help them with their problems in Libya. Quid. Pro. Quo.
I thought for a moment about using this as an instructive example of how Bulgaria can help itself, but I realized that it didn't work that way. My students were right. Libya has no problem with Bulgaria and doesn't expect the ransom for these people to come out of Sofia. I think it's a little bit more than a happy coincidence that Qaddafi was in Brussels last week, and chances are his representatives will be there often in the months to come. Libya isn't going to deal with Bulgaria on this, it has bigger fish to fry. Which leaves the U.S. and the Europe to get these people out of a terrible situation. Hopefully, they'll come around and see their responsibility soon.