Human Rights Minister Brands Muammar Gaddafi’s Visit To France A ‘kiss Of Death’

The youngest member of President Sarkozy’s Government made an outspoken attack on her boss yesterday for letting Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, treat France like a “doormat” for “wiping off the blood of his victims”.

Rama Yade, 31, the Minister for Human Rights, stole the show with her tirade as Colonel Gaddafi arrived in Paris for a five-day stay that he regards as sealing his return to international respectability.

Ms Yade, who is of Senegalese origin and the only black member of the Cabinet, was summoned to the Élysée Palace for a reprimand as the Opposition and most media voiced disapproval of Colonel Gaddafi’s first official visit to a Western state for 25 years. The Libyan leader reviewed an honour guard at the palace after being driven with his entourage from the airport in a 60-car motorcade.

Mr Sarkozy, after their talks, announced the conclusion of commercial contracts worth “a dozen billion euros” with Libya, including supply of a nuclear-powered plant for desalinating water. He also said that he had “asked Mr Gaddafi to make more progress on the path to human rights”.

Ms Yade, an appointee with no political experience, called the commercial contracts indecent but rejected calls to resign despite what she said was her disgust with the visit, which began on United Nations Human Rights Day.

“Colonel Gaddafi must understand that our country is not a doormat on which a leader, terrorist or not, can come and wipe the blood of his crimes off his feet. France should not receive this kiss of death,” she told Le Parisien newspaper.

Political insiders assume that Ms Yade will lose her job for overstepping the already wide limits that Mr Sarkozy allows his young protegées.

The President hit back at those who have been attacking him for selling out on human rights. “It’s very pretty to give lessons on human rights,” he said. “You don’t have to dirty yourself, or take any risk, when you say ‘I won’t talk to anyone’. You can be so certain of everything while you take your coffee on the Boulevard Saint-Germain.”

Bernard Kouchner, the Foreign Minister, who is a lifelong human rights activist, said that he was resigned to the visit, which arose from Mr Sarkozy’s intervention last July to release Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor from a Libyan jail. However, Dr Kouchner said that he was glad that the “lucky timing” of a prior engagement enabled him to avoid last night’s banquet for Colonel Gaddafi at the palace.

As well as erecting a large Beduin tent for Colonel Gaddafi, Foreign Ministry staff are struggling to keep up with his wishes. He has sought meetings with “leading women” and Renault factory workers. He is to visit the Château de Versailles and is also said to have requested a spot of foxhunting in the Forêt de Fontainebleau.

The Colonel, who last visited Paris in 1973, is understood to have sought a two-week stay for himself and his retinue, which includes a platoon of women bodyguards. The French, who invited him for a three-day visit, agreed to extend it to Saturday.

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