Gadaffi ruling with junta, says London paper

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 6

Gadaffi ruling with junta, says London paper

NZPA-AP London Colonel Muammar Gadaffi appears to have been divested of exclusive control in Libya after the American bombing raids last week, "The Times” newspaper reports. It said the country appeared now to be ruled by a junta, in which Colonel Gadaffi had to share power with four other military officers. “A five-man junta of military officers appears to be governing Libya in the aftermath of the American air raid — a collective leadership which includes Colonel Gadaffi as the nation’s nominal leader but which has divested him of his exclusive control over the country,” it said. The report, from the Libyan capital of Tripoli, said that in the reported new administration,

“Gadaffi now performs the tasks of a figurehead rather than the sole political and military leader.” “The Times” report noted that since the raids Colonel Gadaffi had not appeared either at public rallies or at news conferpnrpQ Colonel Gadaffi appeared on Libyan state television yesterday in an address, in which he called for Ronald Reagan and the British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, to be tried as war criminals. Mrs Thatcher backed the raids by letting United States Air Force Fills fly from their British bases to bomb Libya. “The Times” said the other four members of the reported junta were Colonel Gadaffi’s deputy, Major Abdel-Salam Jalloud; Commandant Hweldi Hamedi, the Deputy

Chief-of-Staff; the Com-mander-in-Chief of the Army, Brigadier Abu Bakr Younis Jabir; and the In-spector-General of the Army, Brigadier Mustafa Karroubi. “The Times” reported, “It would be wrong to assume that Gadaffi’s personal power has been broken. “In Libya he is seen as. a desert, tribal man, and however unpopular he is among his Regular Army officer corps and among the middle-classes, his personal stature appears to have increased among Libyans. “The formation of a new collective leadership, which in any case only reflects the ‘people’s power’ in which Gadaffi has always professed to believe, may well have been taken to prevent the possibility of a coup d’etat,” the report said.