LIBYA’S LEADER COL. GADAFFI SEES HIMSELF AT HELM OF ARAB UNITY

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32541, 26 February 1971, Page 8

LIBYA’S LEADER COL. GADAFFI SEES HIMSELF AT HELM OF ARAB UNITY

(By

SIMON KAVANAUGH

At 29 he is one of the world’s youngest heads of State. He does not drink or smoke. He eats sparingly, and he has been known to drag his senior Ministers away from the fleshpots of his capital at gunpoint. _ To the oilmen of the West he is the most troublesome MiddleEasterner in a business that has seen a lot of them. To his own people, or most of them at any rate, he is the first leader they have had who is not salting away oil revenue in a numbered Swiss bank account. To his fellow Arab leadens he is an itch in the conscience; a constant source of reproach, and a reminder of their sacred mission to wipe Israel off the face of the globe.

To himself Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, President, Prime Minister and Parliament of Libya, is the only man fit to take up the torch of Arab unity let fall by the late President Nasser. By stage-managing the worst oil crisis to hit the West since 1956, he has pulled off the biggest coup in his career—a confrontation between the complacent Arab oil States and the capitalist countries of Europe and America which recognise or support the existence of hated Israel. First vital steps To most outside eyes it is another blast of heat applied to an already bubbling pot To the single-minded Islamic nationalist who rules Libya, it is the first vital step to a united Arab front stretching from Morocco to Iran. The strategy employed was devious but utterly effective. With the Suez Canal closed since 1967 and oil tanker rates soaring, Gadaffi put the squeeze last year on buyers of Libyan oil. The object in his own unequivocal words, was “to make the Americans pay for their pro - Israeli policy." Insisting that Libya was the closest oil producer to Western Europe and therefore transport costs should be lower, he demanded higher prices for Libyan oil and promptly rationed supplies until the oil companies agreed to pay up. Eventually they did, whereupon the other Arab oil States joined the queue for more money. And as soon as they got it, back came Libya demanding that, the differential be restored. This kind of leap-frogging is not uncommon in other spheres, but this is the first time it has been tried in the international oil business. Little wonder Colonel Gadaffi is smiling. Not only does he stand to make more money, but he has also made himself a name, and possibly driven a wedge of animosity : between the Arab oil States and Western interests. ] Rounds of visits ■ - And it brings one stage nearer his dream of Arab unity, with himself at the helm. Up till now his attempts to inspire his fellow Arab leaders have hardly been breathtakingly successful. In fact the only thing be had to show for his endless rounds of visits to other Arab capitals was an informal coalition agreement between Libya, Egypt and the Sudan—an agreement considered by most observers to be barely worth the paper it was written on. Gadaffi’s ultimate object is the destruction of Israel by total war, a philosophy he explained, recently in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper. “We have passed the point of no return insofar as a peaceful solution is concerned,” he said. “We face a ferocious enemy who bases

his policy on enslavement, plunder and barbarism, and who defends his illegal existence. Since the issue has become one of existence, then it can never be settled by peaceful means or by political solutions. Neither side will yield its existence to the other except by force.” Underdeveloped country But it will be a long time before Libya, with its tiny population of one and a half million, is strong enough to do much more than flex its muscles at the Israelis. Colonel Gadaffi leads a country which is one of the least developed in the whole Arab bloc. Outside Tripoli and the handful of towns dotted along the North African coast, there is little but sand and rocks and apart from the oil wells there is no industry to speak of, and little prospect of any developing in the immediate future. “I have no economic policy,” Gadaffi once told a student conference at Tripoli University. And he was not altogether joking. Libya’s oil revenue amounts to more than 1200 million dollars a year, and the Colonel considers that quite adequate to keep the economy running. Foreigners excluded But if money is plentiful there is an acute shortage of scientific and technical talent, thanks largely to Gadaffi’s policy of purging Libya of foreign influences. Under the old pro-Western regime of King Idris, ousted by Colonel Gadaffi and eleven army cronies in 1969, the economy was mostly managed by the 25,000 Italians who remained after the war and a handful of Jews. But Gadaffi lost no time in getting rid of them when he came to power. Under the guise of returning to the Libyan people "property usurped by the Fascists who came from over the sea to impose their tyranny," he confiscated all their assets, forcing them to return to Italy. Since then he has nationalised all foreign banks, and set up a special

secret police force to keep an eye on all foreigners working in Libya. But his Puritanism (he has banned the sale of alcohol and closed down the sleazier nightclubs of Tripoli) and his distrust of foreigners is balanced in the eyes of his people by the ruthless way in which his regime has rooted out corruption in the civil service. Under King Idris graft was a way of life among government officials, and oil company representatives were forever handing out bribes to get concessions.

and his distrust of foreigners is balanced in the eyes of his people by the ruthless way in which his regime has rooted out corruption in the civil service. Under King Idris graft was a way of life among government officials, and oil company representatives were forever handing out bribes to get concessions. Independence policy Another point in Gadaffi’s favour is his rigid insistence on Libyan and Arab independence. One of the few things he disliked about President Nasser was the way he allowed the Russians to take control in Egypt. "The Arab nations,” Gadaffi said recently, "can never have self-respect unless they learn to stand on their own feet" And he followed up the assertion with a firm refusal to allow the Russians to use the Tripoli air base vacated by the British a year ago. He also refused an offer of military aid from Moscow, turning instead to France for the 100 Mirage jets he needs to equip his airforce. All this is little consolation to the oil companies at present caught up in Gadaffi’s political dreams, however, and the worst of it is, from their point of view, that there is no prospect of relief from his demands. The physically frail colonel who makes his point at conferences by banging his revolver butt on the table, is firmly ensconced at the head of his twelve-man junta. A coup has already failed to remove him, and there is even less chance of an upsurge of democratic feeling. As he told the student conference at Tripoli recently: “Under the exregime there was a parliament, but there was also corruption and no freedom. Therefore parliament is not necessary in a just and free society.”