Britain ‘an old hag’

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 8

Britain ‘an old hag’

NZPA-Reuter Tripoli A Libyan weekly newspaper described Britain yesterday as an old hag dreaming of her lost beauty and accused its Government of terrorising Libyan students. “Green March,” organ of the powerful Revolutionary Committees, described Britain as an old hag who had lost her silky hair and beauty but refused to admit her ugliness.

“Britain refuses to see its weakness and its incapacity and has been trying to escape reality by claiming heroism against the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands first and later against Arab Libyan students on its soil by practising terrorism against them,” an editorial said.

“It should learn that storming into the Libyan People’s Bureau in London cannot prolong its dream because the Libyans have many ways and means by which they can remind Britain of its reality and remove its mask for the whole world to know that Britain has been defeated." The Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, told a French television channel yesterday that he

would allow the Irish Republican Army to open offices in his country because diplomatic relations between Tripoli and London have been broken.

He reaffirmed bis support for the 1.R.A., which is fighting a guerrilla war against British rule in Northern Ireland.

“The I.R.A. will have offices open unless there is an agreement between Great Britain and ourselves. I think Northern Ireland has the right to its independence and identity and that this fight, which has gone on for so many years, is being waged for liberation,” he said.

Colonel Gadaffi said that Libya was giving total support to the independence and unification of Ireland, “but we condemn the methods used by the British Government, just as we do the methods used by the 1.R.A.”

“If the English consider the I.R.A. is a terrorist organisation, we on our side consider that Libyans fighting against the revolution of the Libyan Jamahariyah (Government) are also terrorists,” Colonel Gadaffi said.