Libyan envoys defy U.S. orders to leave

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 6

Libyan envoys defy U.S. orders to leave

NZPA-Reuter Washington i Four Libyans remained in-! side the Libyan mission in Washington yesterday in [what they called peaceful defiance of United States orders for them to leave the country.

Officials said the four were to be expelled for unacceptable diplomatic behaviour — alleged in-

timidation of Libyan students in the United States opposing, the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. The mission, -which has called itself the Libyan People’s Bureau for several months, denied t’ -.t the four! had acted illegally. A mission spokesman. Mr I Ali Houderi, also rejected! the State Department’s description of the four as diplomats, even though he acknowledged that they were involved in foreign policy. i

if “They will not depart the [United States voluntarily,” ■ihe said. As he spoke to reporters inside the mission, uniformed police and Gov- . ernment agents in plain clothes waited outside with orders to arrest the four if they left the mission. 1 Mr Houderi said the four men in question would not

; resist any officers who appeared with arrest warrants. But they would remain inIside the mission indefinitely, to avoid bowing to the State Department’s expulsion order. The department’s spokesman, Mr Hodding Carter, [said the four were Ordered 'to leave the country within! 172 hours last Friday. Their [visas were invalidated on [Monday. In -London, Britain has warned the Libyan Government that it will not tolerate terrorism in any form after[ the recent London murders I iof two Libyan dissident!

i; exiles, a Foreign Office ’[spokesman has said. - He declined to confirm , London press reports that ■ action against Libyan diploi mats appeared to be immii nent, and that some might ’ be expelled. ! Two Libyan exiles were ■ shot dead in London earlier last month in separate incidents. One was a journalist, Mohammed Mustafa Ramadan, [aged 35, killed on April 11 ■as he left the London mosque after Friday prayers. The other victim was a lawyer, Mahmoud Nafa, aged 40, shot dead on April 25 in his London office. ! The Foreign Office spokesman said that a senior British diplomat, Sir Antony Acland, recently went to Libya for talks with its Government after a speech in which Colonel Gadaffi said [opponents who did not return home immediately were idoomed.