Sunday 28 May 2000 Haider meets Libyan leader for secret talks by Michael Leidig in Vienna and Tony Paterson in Berlin JORG HAIDER, Austria's far-Right leader, has been called on to explain a secret meeting this month with Libya's Col Gaddafi amid growing speculation over clandestine financial links between the Austrian Freedom Party and Tripoli. Mr Haider admitted last week that he made what he described as a "private visit" to Libya on May 9 after he was seen emerging from the Libyan leader's tent by an American journalist waiting for an interview. Mr Haider was accompanied by a leading Austrian banker. While the Freedom Party insists that there was nothing untoward about the meeting, opposition politicians in Austria have voiced concern. Doris Bures, the manager of the Austrian Social Democrat Party, said: "This meeting was extremely dubious and demands an immediate explanation." Concern about Mr Haider's links with Libya has since been fuelled by remarks given in an interview by Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to the Austrian magazine, News, in which he pledged to give political support to the Freedom Party during the next Austrian elections. Gaddafi's son told the magazine: "At the next election he [Haider] has his best chance of becoming chancellor and I will do all I possibly can to support him." Asked if he would provide financial support, he said: "I will start a campaign for him." Wolfgang Kulterer, the chairman of Austria's Hypo Bank, last week admitted accompanying Mr Haider to Tripoli. The presence of a leading banker on an allegedly private visit caused alarm among opposition politicians in Austria. The Social Democrat politician Melitta Trunk, said: "You do not need a bank director to make a private visit to Libya." Austria's Social Democrats have demanded a parliamentary inquiry into the affair. Their calls have been given added weight after disclosures last week of longstanding links between the Freedom Party and Libya. They said Mr Haider's "various statements" on the subject of his visits to Libya on May 9 and on at least two other previous occasions were "at the least dubious". Mrs Trunk said Mr Haider had been highly evasive over his trip. She said: "First he was not there, then he was there to see Gaddafi's son, then for business reasons, and finally a private visit." She pointed out that Mr Kulterer admitted accompanying Mr Haider a day after the politician had insisted: "It would have been great if a banker had come along, at least it would have meant the trip was financed." She said Mr Haider needed to explain why he had accepted the use of the private Lear jet of Robert Rogner, a Carinthian businessman, to travel in. The Freedom Party's "Libyan connection" appears to have been established in 1988, the year in which the party scored its first success in an Austrian general election. The party's then financial manager, Harald G�schl, was exposed for maintaining links with both Libya and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He was widely rumoured to have been involved in supplying weapons to the Libyan leader. Although Mr G�schl denied charges that he had helped Gaddafi to set up a missile defence system - four years after the 1985 American air strike on Libya - he admitted in an interview that he was prepared to supply everything "that helps Libya to strengthen its armed forces". But Mr G�schl denied charges that he had used Libyan cash to fund the Austrian Freedom Party. Mr Haider has also maintained close links with Libya. He befriended Saif al-Islam Gaddafi three years ago, when the Libyan leader's son began a postgraduate economics course at the private "Imadec" university in Vienna. Last year Mr Haider appeared in public with Gaddafi junior. Since then Mr Haider has been televised during his meetings with Saif al-Islam in Austria on numerous occasions. However, Gaddafi junior failed to make any significant political impact in Austria until last week when he pledged to offer support to Mr Haider's cause. In his interview with News he said: "J�rg Haider is a very good friend of mine, my father's and of our country." Although the Freedom Party has declined to provide a full explanation as to what occurred during Mr Haider's visit, the Austrian foreign ministry said that there was nothing unusual about the trip. A spokesman said: "Austria maintains diplomatic relations with Libya. Therefore Haider's visit was not unusual." The Austrian Green Party condemned the visit outright. The MP Peter Pilz said: "Whoever courts dictators like Gaddafi is sending completely the wrong signal." Gaddafi's son said last week that the visit was merely concerned with attempts to supply Austrian timber to Libya. Saif al-Islam said: "The Libyan government would like to get into the timber trade with Carinthia." <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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