Havoc at Home, Too, for Gaddafi

By William E. Smith

After 15 years, the colonel faces rising opposition

Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is often depicted in the West as a volatile dictator, unloved and distrusted on the world stage but firmly in command of his people. That assessment may no longer be altogether true. While his diplomats in London were creating havoc before their expulsion from Britain late last month, reports were circulating in Libya that Gaddafi's troubles were mounting at home. According to Western residents and Libyans in Tripoli, he is less popular today with his 3.2 million countrymen than at any time since he seized power in 1969 from the aging and ineffectual King Idris. Despite the country's tightly controlled press, a highly efficient rumor machine keeps Libyans fairly well informed about the latest groundswells of resentment. The rumors suggest a spectrum of discontent that ranges from Islamic fundamentalists to students to part of the army.

Until now, students and young adults have been the most forceful backers of "the Leader" as he swept aside many traditional social values and replaced them with his own populist ideas. But some of Gaddafi's more recent "reforms," including obligatory military training, have produced considerable disenchantment. Many younger Libyans are also uneasy about the regime's internal repression and its penchant for forcing Gaddafi's austere life-style on everyone. The seriousness of the situation is heightened by the fact that Libya's petroleum-based economy is ailing as a result of the worldwide oil glut.

The demonstration by anti-Gaddafi Libyans outside the country's London embassy three weeks ago was sparked by the hanging on the Fatah University campus in Tripoli last month of two Muslim fundamentalists, a veterinary student and a chemistry graduate. The pair had been in prison for four years but managed nonetheless to keep in contact with a Sunni Muslim student group opposed to what it regarded as Gaddafi's perversion of Muslim teachings. Gaddafi is said to have met with the two imprisoned students on more than one occasion in an effort to "convert" them to his way of thinking, but without success. His patience finally snapped over the issue of drafting women along with men, a proposal Gaddafi favored and the Muslim students fiercely opposed. So did many older Libyans, who were appalled at the idea of teen-age girls serving in army camps alongside men. When conscription for women was finally defeated in February by the People's Congress, the two students became the object of the government's wrath.

It was, by all accounts, a particularly grisly execution. The hangman had to climb onto the shoulders of one of the students, who was so thin that he could not choke to death, in order to complete the work of the noose. To ensure that the spectacle was properly attended, students were prevented from leaving the campus, but many turned their backs and refused to watch. When the hangings were over, someone in the crowd released a dog wearing a colonel's uniform with quotations from the "Green Book" of Gaddafi's wisdom pinned to the sleeves. Police reportedly chased the dog around the campus and, failing to catch it, shot the animal dead.

The dissatisfaction of some leaders of the armed forces stems in part from the involvement of at least 6,000 Libyan troops in the civil war in Chad. The officers are also reported to be upset about the growth of the "people's army," a politicized militia whose existence threatens the armed forces' influence. Last month Libyan air force planes bombed an army base in Benghazi after all or part of the garrison mutinied. Reports from foreign residents say that about 20 soldiers were killed. But the biggest disruption occurred on March 25 when a mysterious explosion heavily damaged the army's arms and ammunition depot at El Abjar, outside Benghazi. Western observers believe the destruction at El Abjar, the main supply base for Libyan forces on the eastern border with Egypt, could have been caused by Egyptian saboteurs.

The Reagan Administration has made no secret of its dislike of Gaddafi. Secretary of State George Shultz recently called the Libyans "troublemakers in the world" and declared some months ago, "We have to put Gaddafi in a box and close the lid." But how? The U.S. has already virtually severed diplomatic relations, banned Libyan oil imports and restricted the travel of Americans to Libya (though 2,000 still live and work there). The Administration was hopeful that the events in London would lead reluctant Western allies to take similar measures against the recalcitrant Gaddafi.

The chances of that happening are slim. Though they have ample reasons for opposing Gaddafi, the Europeans are simply not interested in "closing the lid." Britain still has 8,500 of its citizens in Libya, Italy has 17,000. Those countries, as well as France, West Germany and, for that matter, the U.S., have considerable business dealings with Libya. While admitting last week that it was difficult to envisage a resumption of relations between Britain and Libya as long as Gaddafi remains in power, a senior British official told TIME: "That doesn't mean we want to engage in operations to bring about his downfall. The world is too dangerous a place for that sort of strategy."

If Gaddafi's position at home continues to weaken, however, he may be forced to pay less attention to funding world terrorism and more to his domestic concerns.

--By William E. Smith. Reported by Roland Flamini/Tripoli and Johanna McGeary/Washington

With reporting by Roland Flamini/Tripoli, Johanna McGeary/Washington