利比亚的耻辱
我在几个星期前的一篇短文中写道，“科研、新闻和司法追求的都是事实”。9月21日，《自然》杂志的编辑发表了一篇措辞激烈的评论，用到了一个类似的句子，“The principles of law and science have the common aim of discovering the truth”（“法律和科学的原则中有着发现事实的共同目标”，http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443245b.html）。文章的背景是利比亚的HIV丑闻。
六名外国医疗志愿者（五名保加利亚护士，一名巴勒斯坦医生），从1999年起就关押在利比亚的监狱里，正处在他们的审判的最后阶段。他们的罪名是：故意用爱滋病毒感染了四百多名利比亚儿童。他们在2003的审讯中被判处死刑；利比亚最高法院从去年起重新审理此案。
利比亚当局最初指控这些医务人员是美国和以色列的间谍；这项指控后来因为没有证据而撤销。国际爱滋病专家Luc Montagnier和Vittorio Colizzi应利比亚政府之邀，对受感染儿童携带的病毒作了分析。他们的报告认为这些医务人员是无辜的；这些利比亚儿童的感染源自于利比亚医院的底下的卫生条件，许多感染发生在这些外国医务人员到达利比亚（1998）之前。利比亚法院对这份报告不予采用。于是，据一位辩护律师称，此案没有了任何科学证据的基础。
对于这样一个重大案件，独立的科学调查显然是澄清真相的主要途径。利比亚法院不采用科学证据的作法显然是与其政府保持一致——利比亚政府很早就表明了拿这些外国人开刀的“决心”。这个事件在当地的民愤当然很大——显然利比亚政府认为外国人是比自身更好的民愤的目标。何况案发的Benghazi是利比亚的一个政治敏感地区。而真相，和如何杜绝未来的传染，似乎并不重要。
好像利比亚还有更远大的目标。在初审宣判六人死刑后，利比亚在不断与欧盟和保加利亚谈判，以六人为价码，要求释放苏格兰监狱里的一名利比亚谍报人员（此人因参与1988年洛克比炸机恐怖活动被判刑），并索取约50亿美元的赔偿（与洛克比遇难乘客相当的人均赔偿金额）。保加利亚在认为六人无罪的基础上拒绝赔偿。但迄今利比亚已经获得了欧盟和保加利亚的多项援助。
看来利比亚很方便地把这一事件当作了国际、国内政局中的一枚棋子。可能也算得上一步妙棋。然而这步棋走出了现代文明的底线。政治家们有时给自己找一条捷径。作为一个群体、一个社会的发展，捷径是不存在的。代价，总要有人买单的。
民众有时是愚昧的，那些利用愚昧的人是邪恶的。法律是可以玩弄的，结果是真正的法律的运行成本剧增，甚至会导致社会的破产。科学是可以扼杀的，扼杀的后果正是愚昧。这个代价，正是要利比亚人作为一个社会来买单。愚昧的代价是最昂贵的——愚昧的代价是文明。
《自然》的编辑也谴责了欧盟和美国外交不力，为了石油而巴结利比亚。他们呼吁国际科学界尽快对此案施加影响，“It is time not only to save the doctor and nurses, but also to defend a common vision of science and law in establishing the truth, above all other imperatives”（“当前不仅是要拯救这些医生和护士们，而且在所有的要务之上，要保卫科学和法律判定事实的共同目标”）。最后这句话与大家共勉。
Nature Editorial
Nature 443, 245-246(21 September 2006) | doi:10.1038/443245b; Published online 20 September 2006
Libya's travesty
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Abstract
Six medical workers in Libya face execution. It is not too late for scientists to speak up on their behalf.
Imagine that five American nurses and a British doctor have been detained and tortured in a Libyan prison since 1999, and that a Libyan prosecutor called at the end of August for their execution by firing squad on trumped-up charges of deliberately contaminating more than 400 children with HIV in 1998. Meanwhile, the international community and its leaders sit by, spectators of a farce of a trial, leaving a handful of dedicated volunteer humanitarian lawyers and scientists to try to secure their release.
Implausible? That scenario, with the medics enduring prison conditions reminiscent of the film Midnight Express, is currently playing out in a Tripoli court, except that the nationalities of the medics are different. The nurses are from Bulgaria and the doctor is Palestinian (see page 254).
Despite the medics' plight, the United States agreed in May to re-establish diplomatic relations with Libya, 18 years after the bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland that killed 270 civilians. Many observers had expected a resolution of the medics' case to be part of the deal. And the European Union has given Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, red-carpet treatment at the European Commission in Brussels.
International diplomacy, dealing as it does with geopolitical and economic realpolitik, by necessity often involves turning a blind eye. But its lack of progress in response to the medics' case in Libya is an affront to the basic democratic principles that the United States and the European Union espouse. Diplomacy has lamentably failed to deliver.
The principles of law and science have the common aim of discovering the truth. A previous assessment of the case by two prominent AIDS researchers, Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi, concluded that the charges are false, that the medics are innocent, and that the infections resulted from poor hygiene in Libya's hospitals. It was not a plot orchestrated by the CIA and Israel's Mossad, as President Gaddafi alleged in 2001 — an allegation that has driven a popular thirst for vengeance in Libya.
The case is politically embarrassing for Gaddafi. Finding a scapegoat is easier than having to admit that the infection of the children was an accidental tragedy. But the most likely diplomatic compromise — that the medics will be condemned to death, with this being commuted to a life sentence — is unacceptable. They are innocent, and the law and science can prove it, if they get the belated opportunity.
That is why scientists should lend their full support to the call by Lawyers without Borders — a volunteer organization that last year helped win the freedom of Amina Lawal, who had been sentenced to death in Nigeria for having a child outside marriage — that Libya's courts should order a fully independent, international scientific assessment of how the children were contaminated.
In 2004, an Editorial in this journal stated, with respect to the medics' case, that "Gaddafi has a chance to show the world that he now understands that true leadership means embracing justice, compassion and a respect for scientific evidence" (Nature 430, 277; 200410.1038/430277a). Two years on, we are still waiting, and Lawyers without Borders is right to hold President Gaddafi and the international community to account.
The scientific community has also been relatively silent on the case, perhaps in the hope that it would be sorted out by diplomacy. But the latter has not proved to be the case, and scientific leaders need to use all their influence urgently, as the fate of the medics will be sealed in the coming weeks. It is time not only to save the doctor and nurses, but also to defend a common vision of science and law in establishing the truth, above all other imperatives. Meanwhile, Gaddafi has the opportunity to put this affair behind him by giving the six an immediate pardon.