Tripoli, 23 April:
Brazil is to send demining speciists to Libya in a move that is seen as Brazilian attempt to rebuild . . .[restrict]what were strained relations between itself and the new Libya. Last year, Brazil was one of the countries that abstained in the UN Security Council’s Libyan No-Fly vote along with Russia and China, consistently supported a negotiated settlement between the revolutionaries and the Qaddafi regime and as late as last August continued to recognize it as the legitimate Libyan government.
The Brazilian move follows the recent visit there by Second Deputy Prime Minister Omar Abdullah Abdulkarim. He held talks with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Patriota and members of the Chamber of Deputies.
Brazil says it will also provide logistical support for the June elections and antiretroviral drugs for combating AIDS.
According to Brazilian sources, the demining specialists are army experts who served in Angola and on the border between Peru and Ecuador. They will be involved on both ordinance search and identification.
The Brazilians will be very familiar with many of the mines. The Brazilian-produced TAB-1 antipersonnel mine was the most common mine used by the Qaddafi forces last year. Between 13 February and 23 March this year, it was reported that one demining group in eastern Libya, the Swiss Foundation for Demining, was detonated 16,694 TAB-1 mines compared to 949 Chinese Type-72SP anti-vehicle mines and 48 Belgian PRB-M3A1 anti-vehicle mines. [/restrict]
