Just when the fuss over Unesco’s rejection of Egypt’s culture minister seemed to be dying down, Libya has entered the fray. It is threatening to boycott the organisation if Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova is formally installed as its head on October 15.

"Libya does not agree with the election of a Bulgarian citizen to the post of the Unesco director general and is planning to stop all co-operation with this organisation and pull out from all Unesco committees," Abdelkebir Fakhri, head of the Libyan General People's committee on education and scientific research 
is reported as saying.

The Libyan objection is apparently linked to the sad but farcical case of five Bulgarian nurses who were convicted of “deliberately” infecting children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi during the 1990s. The nurses were initially sentenced to death but, after a lot of diplomatic activity by the EU, returned to Bulgaria in 2007, where they were pardoned by President Georgi Purvanov amid protests from both Libya and the Arab League.

According to one report, Libya claims Bulgaria flouted international conventions by setting the nurses free. However, if it does withdraw from Unesco under Ms Bokova’s leadership, it is unlikely to be missed.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 12 October 2009