| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa: North |
| Libya Slams Travel Ban on Six Bulgarian Medics |
| 2004-05-12 |
| Libya, which has sentenced to death five Bulgarian nurses, has imposed a travel ban on six more Bulgarian doctors on charges they wrongly treated their patients, an official said Wednesday. The names of four of the medics are not known yet, Deputy Foreign Minister Gergana Grancharova said. She said they reportedly were from the team of Prof. Peter Chervenyakov, a Bulgarian surgeon. In an interview for the Sofia daily 24 Chasa Chervenyakov said Libyan authorities were investigating a case from last January, in which he made a life-saving operation to a woman, who had been suffering from acute abdominal infection after giving birth by a Caesarian section. The sixth Bulgarian medic to be imposed a travel ban in Libya is Dr. Anton Botev, also under investigation about the death of a car crash patient, who has been brought clinically dead to a hospital, where he was on duty last Apr. 26. Last Friday a Libyan court sentenced to death five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor on charges of intentionally infecting with the HIV virus more than 400 children at a local hospital. The United States and the European Union have denounced the verdict citing its sheer discrepancy with evidence by the worldâs leading AIDS experts, who had testified the Bulgarians didnât cause the infection as it had existed before the hospital hired them. The Bulgarians are appealing the verdict. A small faction in Bulgariaâs parliament on Wednesday urged the government to clearly warn the countryâs citizens of the risks they stand by travelling to Libya. A declaration by the âNew Timeâ faction said each day brought evidence of rising anti-Bulgarian sentiments in Libya and lack of guarantees for the rights and safety of thousands of Bulgarian specialists working there. Chervenyakov told 24 Chasa that the woman in his case survived thanks to his operation, but a relative of hers launched a legal action against the Bulgarian medical team, which earlier carried out the caesarian. Chervenyakov said the patientâs condition before the operation was critical, because Libyan doctors had put her a wrong diagnosis and treated her by a wrong medicine. Libya has employed for decades thousands of foreign professionals _ medics, engineers, IT specialists for lack of its own qualified personnel. Thousands of Bulgarians have worked and are still working there for payment, which is higher than at home. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |