Newly arrived at the University of Denver, Libyan electrical engineer-turned-student Khalifa Tamer remembers U.S. warplanes bombing his country.
“Many children died,” he laments. And Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy remains “first for me,” said Tamer, 30, who contends Libya is more democratic than the United States.
But he’s eager to learn about U.S. technology and return with new skills: “I want to build up my country the best I possibly can.”
He’s the first in a group of four Libyan students sent to test a shaky U.S.-Libya rapprochement after 20 years as enemies.
The resumption of cordial relations began in 2004 after oil-rich Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction and agreed to compensate victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.
President Bush embraced Libya. He held out the north African nation as an example for Iran and other countries developing weapons and supporting anti-U.S. groups. Bush promised “an open path to better relations,” and U.S. diplomats announced educational exchanges as a first step to build understanding.
DU officials took Bush at his word. They dispatched the first U.S. university recruiting team to Libya.
But today, two years later, the U.S.-Libya relationship still is finding its footing.
Government bureaucrats are uncertain how to proceed. A few weeks after Tamer arrived, U.S. officials again put Libya on their latest list of countries that sponsor terrorism. That deeply disappointed Libyan officials who felt they had made amends.
Formal diplomatic relations still are severed – though security officials cooperate – and U.S. diplomats make Libyan students travel to neighboring Tunisia to apply for visas to enter the United States.
The political cross-currents leave universities and students in a lurch. A second Libyan student, structural engineer Moad Hassen, 26, arrived at DU last week. But 13 others admitted by DU are delayed.
(Three Libyans recently arrived at Oklahoma State University. Some 3,000 Libyans studied in the U.S. in the early 1980s before relations soured.)
DU officials are eager for the U.S. government to follow through on its commitment.
“Libya is not on our blacklist. We want their students here,” said Ved Nanda, DU’s vice provost for internationalization.
“To keep (Libya) on the State Department list doesn’t make that much sense. We welcomed Iraqis. We welcome Iranians – even today. I personally am happy to have the exchange of ideas,” Nanda said, recalling that academic exchanges with Russians helped ease tensions during the Cold War.
Last week, Libya’s representative in Washington, Ambassador Ali Aujali,visited Denver.
Aujali came out with golf clubs at the invitation of Shaul Gabbay, director of DU’s Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East.
“I am optimistic that we won’t go back. But we have to go forward,” Aujali said of U.S.-Libya relations. “We expect more from the United States, especially with respect to the list.”
Nobody at the State Department believes Libya supports terrorism today, Aujali said.
“Nobody can claim Libya is involved in any acts since quite some time,” he said.
Beyond sending students to U.S. universities, he said, “we want Libyans to come to see the United States, to talk with American people, and at the same time we want Americans to come to our country, see the great civilization we have, see the antiquities, see the man-made rivers, see the Libyan experience in people’s democracy. … This is what we need. We need mutual understanding, to make the world safer, to come closer to the United States people.”
Aujali addressed a gathering of scholars Thursday at DU. Gabbay and others hoped to continue this sort of dialogue, perhaps inviting Libyans and officials from other countries to discuss Arab-Israeli relations.
Libya ended its nuclear and other weapons programs in part to show good faith in nonconfrontational ways of dealing with the United States, Aujali said. Under former President Reagan, U.S. warplanes bombed Libya in 1986, including a compound where Khadafy relatives reportedly were killed.
Today, with U.S. leaders riled about Iran’s nuclear program, Libya could persuade Iran to cooperate as Libya has done, Aujali said.
“But they will just ask: What did you get?” he said.
Not only has anticipated foreign investment in Libya lagged, but Libya still is blacklisted, and visiting the United States is difficult with heavy bureaucracy, he said.
“So how can we say: ‘Please, follow us. Look what you get’?” Aujali said.
State Department officials declined to comment on the record. Yet one education exchange official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “We certainly hope differences can be resolved. … We believe in our mission: mutual understanding.”
A separate branch of the State Department compiles the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Meanwhile, Tamer hustles between DU’s English language lab and the engineering building trying to get settled, missing his family.
“I am sure I will return to my country” after obtaining a master’s degree, he said.
And he hopes the U.S.-Libya relationship will grow.
“You should help Libya,” he said. “Give help, not bombs.”
Staff writer Bruce Finley can be reached at 303-820-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com.
