Yesterday, on May 4, Der Spiegel International carried an interview with Moammar Gadhafi. This is an extract.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Gadhafi, for years you repeatedly got into shouting matches with the Western world before making your peace with arch-enemy America four years ago. Now you have declared a holy war on tiny Switzerland, of all countries. Why?
Gadhafi: Switzerland is one country among many; sometimes you have trouble with one country, sometimes with another. We never had difficulties with Switzerland before. We used to appreciate it as a holiday destination. We used to appreciate its companies and its watches. But then Switzerland began to treat us badly. For example, the minaret issue and the publishing of nasty portrayals of the Prophet. It was necessary to draw a line with the Swiss. That is what I did in my speech in Benghazi to mark the Prophet’s birthday.
SPIEGEL: And now Swiss national Max Göldi, who has absolutely nothing to do with this, has to pay for your anger against Switzerland? A man whose visa allegedly expired, who has not been able to leave Libya for nearly two years and has been in prison for months. Why are you doing nothing for him?
Gadhafi: Only the courts can decide on this.
SPIEGEL: Do you mean to tell us that you don’t have the power to pardon him?
Gadhafi: This is a matter for the legal system. But I’m talking now about Switzerland. Switzerland is a state that stands outside the international community. It is not bound by any EU regulations. It is good that it joined the United Nations in 2002, but the whole time before that it was not a member. Why? It wanted to stand above international law. And that has made Switzerland into a mafia.
SPIEGEL: Whatever you may now say about Switzerland, previously it didn’t bother you in the least. You did business with the country – your company, Tamoil Suisse, has dozens of filling stations in Switzerland.
Gadhafi: Money is laundered on a grand scale in Switzerland. Anyone who robs a bank later invests the money in Switzerland. Anyone who evades taxes goes to Switzerland. Anyone who wants to deposit money in secret accounts goes to Switzerland. And a large number of owners of such secret accounts have died under mysterious circumstances.
SPIEGEL: Excuse me?
Gadhafi: Yes, Switzerland is behind it all.
SPIEGEL: Don’t Libyans also have secret accounts in Switzerland?
Gadhafi: Yes, there are also Libyans who have such accounts, and many of them have also died in unexplained ways. All around the world, the families of these people are going to sue Switzerland. And one more thing: Switzerland is the only country that allows euthanasia. Why does only Switzerland do that?
SPIEGEL: Medical euthanasia is also legal in the Netherlands. And, it cannot go unmentioned that Libya has previously had citizens killed abroad who were said to be disloyal.
Gadhafi: But we are talking now about Switzerland. It is possible that among the Libyans who you are asking about – and who died abroad – there were also some who died because they had secret accounts in Switzerland.
SPIEGEL: And you are seriously maintaining that Switzerland as a state ordered the killing of these people?
Gadhafi: The investigations will show this. And this brings me back once again to the phenomenon of assisted suicide. A large number of people have been deliberately eliminated under this pretext. Switzerland maintains that these individuals expressed the desire to take their lives. But in reality it was done to get at their money. More than 7,000 people have died like this. I am thus calling for Switzerland to be dissolved as a state. The French part should go to France, the Italian part to Italy and the German part to Germany. Even Ayman al-Zawahiri…
SPIEGEL: …Osama bin Laden’s deputy…
Gadhafi: …took al-Qaida’s money to Switzerland, where it is still located. Switzerland finances terrorism.
SPIEGEL: Once again: even if all of this were as you say – why did this never bother you before?
Gadhafi: We had already noticed that money is laundered in Switzerland and people die in unexplained ways. But recently Switzerland has given itself away.
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
I must say that Ghaddafy’s harangue against Switzerland is extraordinary. I did not really read about that speech in Benghazi. From WW II I know that Switzerland is not lilly-white, but that……. I always loved Switzerland, but I know they are very money-minded. RKJ
Now that we know the truth should we not boycott chocolate?
Yes
Ghadhafi wasn’t making up the facts when it comes to assisted suicide. Here’s a news story from a few days ago:
An investigation has been launched after the discovery of at least 300 cremation urns containing human remains, lying at the bottom of Lake Zurich.
Divers from the Swiss Rescue Service found them quite by chance and promptly handed them over to police for analysis.
The urns bear the logo of the Nordheim crematorium, which is used by the clinic Dignitas which is located nearby.
Switzerland’s world famous clinic is known for facilitating assisted suicides for the terminally ill and severely disabled.
Over 1,000 people are said to have made use of the organisation, but little is known of how it disposes of remains.
According to former Dignitas employee, Soraya Wernli, its founder told her that the clay urns would dissolve in water. She claims he disposed of them this way as it was too expensive to send the urns to a foreign country.
In 2008, two Dignitas employees were caught dumping ashes into the lake. At the time the founder, Ludwig Minelli, refused to comment but a former worker claimed it was common practice.
Such disposals are illegal if carried out without a permit, no matter where they turn out to have come from.
Besides any criminal consequences, the discovery has upset locals who want Zurich to be a normal tourist destination rather than be described as Europe’s suicide capital.
I will have to get a lecture on the Swiss legislation on this subject before I grasp the situation. What is – and what is not – illegal? No doubt the disposal of the ashes in the lake is illegal, but why is this necessary? If assisting suicides is legal – as it seems to be – why not pour them in a hole on the ground – or in a glacier????