Italienske myndigheter har kommet over meldinger som viser at Muammar Gaddafi bevisst sendte flyktninger til Lampedusa for å drukne øya i problemer.

Utenriksminister Frattini sier de vil gjøre meldingene offentlig. En slik story vil skremme mange europeiske ledere: å benytte flyktningestrømmer som våpen er noe som er vanskelig å verge seg mot.

Col Gaddafi directed tens of thousands of refugees towards Italy as “human bombs” with the intention of turning the tiny island of Lampedusa into a “migrant hell”, the Italian government said yesterday.
The Libyan leader deliberately unleashed the floodgates of African immigrants desperate to reach Europe, as punishment for what he saw as Italy’s betrayal and its participation in the Nato-led air campaign.
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“Italy has proof of orders given by Col Gaddafi to turn Lampedusa into hell,” said Franco Frattini, the foreign minister.
“There is proof Gaddafi gave the order to send thousands of desperate people on boats, in order to throw the island into chaos,” he said.
“We have terrible messages (in our possession) and they will be made public soon,” Mr Frattini said in an interview with Avvenire, a Catholic newspaper.
Hafez Gaddour, Libya’s ambassador in Italy, who defected from the regime in February, told Rai radio that Gaddafi controlled illegal immigration “in person, saying that he wanted to turn Lampedusa black with Africans,” to punish Italy for its role in the Nato campaign. The migrants would act as “human bombs”, he said.

Libya: Col Gaddafi ‘directed tens of thousands of refugees towards Italy as human bombs’