Bureau ready for search

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 10

Bureau ready for search

NZPA-Reuter London The Libyan People’s Bureau in London lost its diplomatic immunity on the stroke of midnight (11 a.m. yesterday, N.Z. time), becoming once again just plain 5, St James’s Square. Bomb squad officers with sniffer dogs were expected to go inside last evening followed by forensic experts who hope to be able to confirm that the gun which killed a young policewoman on April 17 was fired from a first-floor window of the embassy. The shooting of Yvonne Fletcher and 10 demonstrating opponents of the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, who were wounded, provoked a police siege of the embassy, only resolved after Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Tripoli last week. The embassy' staff and British diplomats in Tripoli returned home simultaneously at the week-end. The Opposition Labour Party has called for an inquiry into the Government’s handling of the crisis. The call was a clear warning to Mrs Margaret Thatcher’s Government that the affair had not ended with the formal severance of Anglo-Libyan diplomatic ties. Smaller opposition parties, the Liberals and the Social Democrats, have also demanded that the Govenrment should explain why Constable Fletcher was shot outside the Libyan mission and her killer allowed to go free. Gerald Kaufman, Labour’s home affairs

spokesman, said that there were important questions to be answered. “People will not accept that the Government should keep cards to their chest which could prevent this kind of thing in the future,” he said. The Government’s critics want answers to: ® Why was the embassy not placed under closer scrutiny after it was taken over by militant Gadaffi supporters in February? © Was the Government warned by the United States Intelligence services, as some press reports have alleged, that the demonstration might provoke bloodshed? ® Why were embassy

staff who were not accredited diplomats allowed to leave the country when they might have included the killer? The British Press Association reported that the Home Secretary, Mr Leon Brittan had confirmed that 11 of the Libyans in the bureau had not been accredited diplomats and could have been detained on a criminal charge. But the police believed that it would not have been possible to obtain enough evidence to press charges against any of them. About 19 of the 30 Libyans inside the bureau had had diplomatic immunity, he said. A statement defending the Government’s handling of the siege is likely to be

made to the House of Commons this week. The severing of diplomatic ties does not mean that links between the two countries are broken. About 10,000 Libyans live in Britain and about 8000 Britons in Libya. Their interests will be looked after by skeleton teams of officials working under the auspices of friendly embassies. Formal Government-to-Government contact has ceased. Any communication will have to go through the “protecting Powers” — Italy acting for Britain, and Saudi Arabia for Libya. The Libyan news agency reports that Colonel Gadaffi had accused Britain of protecting terrorists and had called for “reciprocal” action against the British authorites. The agency said that Colonel Gadaffi had told the returning Libyans they had been “victims of an air and ground armed attack.” This appeared to be a repetition of Libya’s allegation that the London police and the anti-Gadaffi demonstrators had been responsible for the shooting. Libyan officials had previously referred to a British police helicopter that they said had flown over the embassy that day. “Now the time has come to treat Britain in a reciprocal manner after it has been confirmed that Britain protects terrorism and the enemies of the Libyan Arab people,” the Jana agency quoted him as saying. It was not clear what he meant by treating Britain “in a reciprocal manner."