Rights groups want Rice to spotlight abuse in Libya

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A visit to Libya by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week is expected to improve business and diplomatic ties with Tripoli but activists are demanding that Rice also focus on human rights.

They fear that a promise of improved opportunities for U.S. firms will result in muted criticism by the United States of oil-rich Libya's rights record and that Washington will not use all its leverage to pressure Tripoli.

"It must not be drilling rights over human rights," said Fred Abrahams of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"My fear is that Rice's visit and Libya's further integration into the international community will allow (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi to further stall reforms and take the heat off him to democratize," added Abrahams, a Libya expert.

One case Human Rights Watch and others are tracking is that of Fathi al-Jahmi, an ailing political dissident and former provincial governor held against his will in a Tripoli medical center despite appeals for his release.

Jahmi's brother Mohamed El-Jahmi, who lives near Boston, told Reuters the dissident was kept in a cockroach-ridden hospital room and his family had very limited access to him.

He said his brother's wife last saw Fathi Jahmi on April 4 and that she had been waiting in vain for a month in Tripoli to be allowed to see him again.

"Fathi's room is bugged with audio and video devices. The room remains locked even when Fathi receives visitors," said his brother in an interview with Reuters.

He said a member of his tribe was told Jahmi would be "liquidated" -- killed -- at the end of President George W. Bush's term in January, 2009, and he feared for his life.

Jahmi was first arrested in 2002 after he criticized Gaddafi and called for open elections, a free press and the release of political prisoners. A court sentenced him to five years.

"BIG MISTAKE"

On March 1, 2004, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, now the Democratic party's vice presidential pick for November's U.S. election, met Gaddafi and called for Jahmi's release. Nine days later, an appeals court gave Jahmi a one-year suspended sentence and ordered his release on March 12.

However, he was rearrested later that month after he gave more interviews repeating his criticisms. He was charged with trying to overthrow the government, insulting Gaddafi and contacting foreign authorities.

Mohamed el-Jahmi said he was disappointed by what he saw as the Bush administration's lack of focus on his brother's case.

"They have fumbled the whole thing," he said. "Now the secretary of state is going to provide legitimacy to a dictator ... My advice to the Bush administration is that you are making a big mistake," he said.

Libya expert Michele Dunne of the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said it would be a "goodwill gesture" on behalf of Gaddafi if he announced the release of Jahmi during Rice's visit.

Rice's visit and her expected meeting with Gaddafi has also drawn the ire of families of victims of the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, which killed 270 people. Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing in 2003.

"It is a kick in the teeth to the relatives of those who lost people. To meet with this guy is wrong," said Dan Cohen, whose only daughter Theodora perished in the airline bombing.

"This country has become so weak and cowardly. Oil trumps everything," he said.

Other human rights issues that should be on the agenda include the recent return of several terrorism suspects to Tripoli from U.S. detention in Guantanamo Bay, said Abrahams.

He said there had been very little information about these men, despite diplomatic assurances that they would be well treated and the United States should follow up on these cases.

(Editing by David Storey)