The ethics of doing project management for dictators

What do you do when you realise that the way you make a living is unethical and perhaps even immoral? Well, one of the options is to quit. And in the case of the Dutch engineer Freek Landmeter, who in the 1980s was involved in the construction of a bunker for Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi, you start working for organisations that promote peace, stability and human rights.

Over the past few months, Landmeter’s name has been buzzing in the news around the world – and not without reason. He is, after all, one of the engineers who, in 1988, helped build a bunker – one that is atomic bomb proof – for Gaddafi.

“I doubt whether Gaddafi has actually ever sought refuge in that bunker. He is a very paranoid individual, I have been told, who prefers to stay in a tent,” Landmeter said in an interview that was aired live on Dutch national television in March this year.

The said bunker is situated near the town of Brega on the coast of the Gulf of Sidra.

It is the same region where South African photographer Anton Hammerl was reportedly killed by pro-Gaddafi forces in April this year.

“My employer at the time – Dutch construction firm, Interbeton – was asked by a local oil company to build the bunker as a present for Gaddafi,” explained Landmeter.

Interbeton, which in 2009 was rebranded as BAM International, has been responsible for the construction of, among others, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth and the First National Bank stadium in Johannesburg.

“I had been in Libya for a couple of years, initially for the construction of roads and bridges, when I was transferred to a project called ‘Guest house’. The name sounded friendly, so I did not think much of it,” Landmeter recalled.

“I was told that we had to build an extension of a guest house, which to my surprise had to go underground. I was then told it was a bunker, one that had to be able to sustain an atomic blast and had to be equipped with all sorts of communication equipment.

“This was just before the Lockerbie bombing took place,” he added.

On 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 – which was on its way from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International – was destroyed by a bomb. All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed instantly. In the process, sections of the plane fell on the Scottish town of Lockerbie – killing another 11 people.

It is said that former South African foreign minister Pik Botha was to have boarded this flight. He was on his way to New York to sign a tripartite agreement to hand control of Namibia to the United Nations. Botha and his delegation escaped their fate by taking an earlier flight.

Thirteen years after the tragedy, the former director of Libya’s Centre for Strategic Studies Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment on 270 counts of murder. He was released eight years later on compassionate grounds due to terminal prostate cancer.

While Gaddafi has always denied his involvement, Libya’s former justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil told the media recently that the leader was indeed the one who ordered the bombing. The former minister, however, has never released the proof he said he had.

The bunker had to be 60x20 square metres, Landmeter explained to his hosts and audience, one with space for 24 people.

“The interior ended up being surprisingly luxurious,” he explained. “It also comprised a television studio with a hidden antenna. The purpose of this was to enable Gaddafi, in case of a blast, to show his country he was still alive.

“I only realised later what my job really was all about, although I have always been aware of the fact that the bunker was for Gadaffi,” he replied when the TV presenters asked him whether he knew on behalf of whom he was working.

Landmeter said the situation became schizophrenic very quickly. “While the operation was top secret, everyone knew what was being built and for whom: Drawings of the bunker, which were drawn up by Dutch architects, were floating between Brega and The Hague. It was a very weird situation.”

As time went by, he became more and more uneasy.

“One day I woke up and realised the scope of the madness; I became very angry. This was and is a regime that oppresses people, robs them of their freedom and spends money on things that are unnecessary things while Libyans are forced to live in poverty,” he noted

“By that time, I had gotten to know Libya as a nation of warm and friendly people. I started to feel sorry for them.

“I was also angry, as over time I had been confronted with my very one-sided view on the world, like many people in the West have, I think. We think in the West that we are the good guys, and that the crooks live elsewhere. That, while we in the West have caused and are causing those problems that exist elsewhere in the world,” Landmeter expressed.

He said he had become angry with the international community as well. “The international community had no problems doing business with a dictator like Gaddafi and his regime, even after the Lockerbie bombing. This became more and more problematic for me. That is why I, at some point, decided that I no longer wanted to be involved.”

When he left Interbeton, Landmeter started working for the international non-governmental organisation, Doctors without Borders.

Currently, he is the director of IKV Pax Christi. This non-profit organisation was founded in The Netherlands and is involved in peace-building and reconciliation around the world.

“After Libya, I wanted to improve people’s lives: Pax Christi is also active in Libya, where we assist those who are oppressed, and human rights activists,” said Landmeter.

While Pax Christi aims to end wars and prevent more casualties, he supports the United Nations intervention in Libya.

“I am happy that the UN has stepped up to protect civilians. That is very important. We don’t support violence, but things are different when this violence is necessary and effective,” Landmeter said, 

Miriam Mannak