 "Hannibal's war", as diplomats call it, has been taking its toll on the land of Heidi: in the past year Libya has cut back oil supplies to the Swiss and withdrawn more than pound stg. 4.3 billion ($8.5bn) from their banks. Gaddafi has also severed air links with Switzerland, and several Swiss companies in Libya have been forced to close shop.
No match for an Arab nationalist leader used to life in the trenches, the Swiss have run up the white flag, offering talks.
Gaddafi, though, is not yet ready to forgive: his prime minister recently refused to meet the new Swiss charge d'affaires in Tripoli. Two Swiss businessmen are being held as virtual hostages by Gaddafi. "They are forbidden from leaving the country and are being held against their will," said Jean-Philippe Jutzi, a Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman.
The trouble began when 33-year-old Hannibal and his wife, Aline, a former model, were arrested at a Geneva hotel and charged with assaulting their servants. One of them, a 35-year-old Tunisian identified only as Mona, said Aline had often hit her and threatened to throw her out of the window.
Hannibal and his wife, who was heavily pregnant at the time, were soon released and Geneva's prosecutor dropped the case when the plaintiffs withdrew their complaint after an undisclosed settlement.
Even so, Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya as a dictator for the past 40 years, was furious, particularly when he heard an account of what had happened from Aisha, his favourite daughter. According to a witness close to the Gaddafi clan, she told him Hannibal and Aline had been treated "like terrorists" and were held in a prison "worse than Abu Ghraib". "Honour must be saved," Gaddafi told his daughter.
It is just as well that Libya has renounced its bid to acquire nuclear weapons. "If I had an atomic bomb I would wipe Switzerland off the map," Hannibal is reported to have remarked afterwards.
Gaddafi still has the nuclear know-how.
The equipment he surrendered he can re-buy.
The POTUS is a "friend of a friend" (Wright/Farrakan), not to be feared.
He fell for Bush's bluff, and he's furious.
The "international community" doesn't issue a peep of protest as he is openly taking hostages.
I don't think this is going to end well.
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