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09-03-2009, 03:26 AM
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| Forum Addict   Join Date: Jul 2004
Bike: Blue Suzuki GSX 1400 (2003)
Location: Canton Basel-Land, Switzerland (47.4493, 7.76536)
Posts: 13,039
|  Libya - YMBK
There is a political "tension" which has been escalating between Switzerland and Libya over the past year. It started when Hannibal Qadhafi (son of the Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi) and his wife were arrested in Geneva for beating their maid. Both were charged with assault, but both claimed diplomatic immunity. Shortly thereafter, two Swiss businessmen were kidnapped / arrested in Tripoli. After a few weeks of negotiations, Geneva agreed to drop the charges and deport the Qadhafis back to Libya. The negotiations in the other direction (the release of the two Swiss businessmen) have been going on for over a year now. Two of the seven Swiss leaders (Switzerland has a committee of 7 "executives" instead of one president and one vice president) have visited Tripoli and negotiated the release of the "prisoners". The contracts were signed and all demands were met, but the businessmen have still not been released - which is causing a political crisis here in Switzerland. In the past year, Muammar Qadhafi has withdrawn almost 6 billion dollars in assets from his Swiss accounts. It's unclear where he has moved the money, but in any case, it's no longer in Swiss banks. Several times, he's made statements that "if I had the bomb, I would erase Switzerland from the map" and such. A few weeks ago, the UK released one of the people responsible for the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, and deported him back to Libya, where he was received with a hero's welcome. Needless to say, this angered many people in Scotland, not to mention the USA. A terrorist who had murdered several hundred innocent people was treated like a returning hero, instead of a cold-blooded murderer. As of September 15, 2009, a Libyan (Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki) will preside as President of the UN General Assembly for the sixty-fourth session. The latest chapter, in the newspaper today: Muammar Qadhafi has submitted a motion to the United Nations to dissolve Switzerland, dividing it up among Germany, France and Italy. Of course, this motion will never be taken seriously, but still ... |
