The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF), known as GIFCA, is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) with headquarters formerly located in the Libyan capital Tripoli and offices in Chad, Germany, the Philippines and Sudan.[1] GICDF was established in 1998 upon signature of its charter in Geneva, Switzerland. The president of the Foundation is Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Contents |
The Gaddafi International Foundation's donations to the London School of Economics have been a source of controversy.[2] In February 2011, LSE students occupied their university[3] in response to Muammar Gaddafi's repressive measures taken against the Libyan people.[4]. As a result of the LSE Libya Links's affair, LSE's director Sir Howard Davies resigned from the School on 3 March.[5]
Elected by the Foundation's executive committee, the executive director is Yousef Swani who oversees GICDF's seven subsidiaries, each of which has its own management. The subsidiary societies of GIFCA are:
GICDF's objectives are:
The Gaddafi International Foundation has intervened in various hostage situations involving Islamic militants and, most notably, the crisis of the HIV trial in Libya and the resulting European Union-Libyan rapprochement.[6] In January 2004, GIFCA was instrumental in resolving the compensation issue in relation to the 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 when it concluded an agreement with the UTA relatives organisation "Les Familles du DC10 d'UTA"[7] to pay $1 million to each of the 170 victims' families. Interviewed by French newspaper Le Figaro on 7 December 2007 GIFCA's president Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said that the Libyans convicted for the Pan Am Flight 103 and the UTA Flight 772 bombings "are innocent". When asked if Libya would therefore seek reimbursement of the compensation paid to the families of the victims ($2.33 billion in total), Gaddafi replied: "I don't know."[8]
{{}}