Lack of international action feared

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 8

Lack of international action feared

NZPA-AP London Colonel Gadaffi will keep hunting down his opponents abroad, despite the diplomatic uproar since the killing of a British policewoman by a gunman in the Libyan Embassy, terrorism experts say. They fear that there will be little international action to smash what one authority called nests of terrorists disguised as diplomats. They believe that European Governments will toughen diplomatic rules to curb fanatical students — the cutting-edge of Colonel Gadaffi’s terror campaign — who use Libyan embassies as bases. “He’ll go easy for a while,” said Major-General Richard Clutterbuck, a former Royal Engineers officer and now a university lecturer and author. “But he won’t abandon his campaign against his opponents because he really doesn’t mind how many people he kills. > He’s very unscrupulous and very reckless.” Paul Wilkinson, professor of international relations at Aberdeen University, said, “He'll probably now change tactics, possibly focusing on dissidents in North Africa and the Middle East rather than Europe. His people have been very active in that region lately.” “The Times” has quoted Libyan sources in Britain as saying that Colonel Gadaffi had ordered his hit-squads to lie low since the embassy siege.

Libyan death squads have killed at least 11 key dissidents in London, Paris, Rome, and Madrid in the last four years and attacked scores more in a bomb-and-bullet campaign. Colonel Gadaffi threatened at the week-end to take action against Britain for protecting terrorists and “the enemies of the Libyan people.” He did not spell out what he meant, but European governments expect trouble. Anthony Preston, naval editor of “Jane’s Defence Weekly,” noted that Libya had widened its offensive capability with a fleet of remote-controlled boats that could threaten shipping in the Mediterranean. Rear-Admiral John Butts, head of United States Naval Intelligence, told a closed session of the House Armed Services Committee on February 28 that the Libyans had 50 such unmanned boats and that they had increased Colonel Gadaffi’s potential for terrorist activity. Western Intelligence reports last (northern) summer said that the world’s most wanted terrorist, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as “Carlos,” had re-established links with Colonel Gadaffi and trained 190 gunmen and saboteurs in a camp west of Benghazi, Libya. The French, in particular, are concerned about Colonel Gadaffi’s actions. They have blamed the Venezuelanborn, Soviet-trained "“Carlos” for two recent train-

bombings. Professor Wilkinson said that Colonel Gadaffi wanted to punish the French for opposing him in Chad, the former French colony engaged in a civil war. Li-byan-backed forces there are fighting the French-sup-ported Government of Hissene Habre. “Reports that ‘Carlos’ is back with Colonel Gadaffi are founded on well-based information,” Professor Wilkinson said. “ ‘Carlos’ is an added reason for worry. He’s a skilled organiser in this type of operation.” General Clutterbuck and Professor Wilkinson are gloomy about the likelihood of concerted European sanctions against Libya. “Britain breaking off diplomatic relations is not enough,” General Clutterbuck said. “That’s like water off a duck’s back. The rest of the world isn’t ready for economic sanctions against Libya. There’s a lot of self-interest involved.” The British experts believed that the most likely form of protest would be Europeans telling Colonel Gadaffi that he cannot allow revolutionary students to take over embassies, as they did in London and other cities in February. “We should not allow nests of terrorists to exist under the guise of being diplomats,” Professor Wilkinson said. “We all should have been much tougher.” Britain put its embassies on terrorism alerts yesterday.