Kadhafi Given Hero's Welcome in S.Africa Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - AFP on Yahoo! Asia Kadhafi arrives in South Africa, hailed as an 'icon' CAPETOWN,June 13(AFP)--Muoamer Kadhafi, travelling abroad for the first time since sanctions against Libya were suspended in April, was met with open arms here Sunday by President Nelson Mandela, who hailed him as "one of the revolutionary icons of our times." Mandela, receiving Colonel Kadhafi as the last visiting head of state before he retires on Wednesday, said his own "modest" contribution to the resolution of the Lockerbie impasse was one of the highlights of his presidency. "No one can deny," he told his guest at a luncheon, "that the friendship and trust between South Africa and Libya played a significant part in arriving at this (Lockerbie) solution." The South African leader gave Kadhafi a hearty welcome when he arrived Sunday morning at Cape Town airport from Zambia, where he held talks late Saturday with Zambian President Frederick Chiluba on the conflict in the Great Lakes region. Greeting him as "Brother Leader", Mandela flung his arms around the Libyan, embraced him warmly and then walked hand-in-hand with him to a waiting media contingent, where he presented his guest as "the big man." Kadhafi, dressed in white suit with black cloak, said arriving in South Africa was an "historic occasion" and a "dream come true." After holding private talks with his guest, Mandela hosted him at a luncheon at the presidential Tuynhuys office here, attended by South African and Libyan government leaders and prominent members of the Moslem community. Both leaders were effusive in their praise for one another, with Kadhafi outdoing his host by presenting him with a special Libyan award, the Decoration of Steadfastness. Mandela last year bestowed South Africa's highest award, the Order of Good Hope, on Kadhafi during a visit to Tripoli. In a speech punctuated by praise for Kadhafi, Mandela defended his friendship with the leader who, until recently, was treated as an outcast by the international community for harbouring alleged terrorists. Mandela, 81 in July, was instrumental in negotiating the handover by Kadhafi of two Libyan suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing for trial in the Netherlands. The suspects are accused of placing a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded in mid-air over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people. The handover of the suspects effectively ended the UN-imposed sanctions on Libya, which barred international air travel to and from Libya and halted the import of arms and spare parts for its oil industry. Mandela said his decision to keep open the lines of communication with Tripoli "vindicates our view that talking to one another and searching for peaceful solutions remains the surest way to resolve differences and advance peace and progress in the world." He said he was "overwhelmed to have here on the southern tip of Africa one of the revolutionary icons of our times." Kadhafi, for his part, praised Mandela as a "hero" and said through an interpreter that it was because the South African leader was a "freedom fighter" that he had been able to help resolve the Lockerbie impasse. "Only freedom fighters in South Africa were able to deal with the problem" he said at the luncheon. "When the South African people won the battle against apartheid, they were able to support their brothers in Libya in one of the most difficult problems in the world, the Lockerbie question," he said. Mandela, he added, was "bigger than seat of power or presidency." "He will remain hero Mandela before and after the presidency. The role of Nelson Mandela is not the role of president, it is the role of a freedom fighter." Kadhafi is due to end his official visit to South Africa on Tuesday but, according to foreign ministry officials, will remain in the country for the inauguration of the next president, Thabo Mbeki, on Wednesday. (c) 1999 Agence France Presse ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-06.13.99-19:45:23-21247