Britain Will Expel 21 Libyan Activists : Group Includes Pilot Seeking Suicide Mission; German, Danish Curbs Told

The British government announced Tuesday that it has detained and intends to expel 21 Libyan students, including a pilot who allegedly telephoned Tripoli and offered to launch a suicide mission against U.S. bases.

One day after the 12-nation European Communities agreed to measures reducing and restricting Libyan diplomatic representation in member countries, two other U.S. allies in Europe announced plans to act on those measures.

The British action and the European announcements marked the first concrete action against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s regime by West European countries since the U.S. air attack on Tripoli and Benghazi last week.

Curbs on Butter

West German government sources and Denmark’s foreign minister announced plans to sharply reduce the number of Libyan diplomats in their countries. The European Commission in Brussels called an end to the shipment of surplus butter to Libya. However, the Greek government indicated that it will not be hurrying to apply the measures it agreed to Monday in Luxembourg.

British Home Secretary Douglas Hurd referred to the 21 detained students as leaders of pro-Kadafi student activities in the country.

“I came to the conclusion after looking at all the evidence that their presence here could harm our security,” Hurd explained.

He said the students had been under surveillance for an extended period, adding that they are expected to leave for Libya within the next few days.

“I will not hesitate to use powers to deport other Libyan nationals if evidence is received of their involvement in activities which might endanger national security,” Hurd said.

There are about 7,500 Libyans living in Britain and about 1,800 of those are students, a small fraction of the more than 28,500 Libyan students who lived here as late as 1983.

Those numbers dropped dramatically after an incident in 1984, when shots fired from the Libyan Embassy in central London killed a policewoman controlling anti-Kadafi demonstrators outside. That led Britain to close the embassy and break off diplomatic relations with the Tripoli government.

Speaking in the House of Commons late Tuesday, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher indicated that further action will be taken against an estimated 250 Libyan nationals undergoing training either as pilots or as mechanics and engineering apprentices with British airlines at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

New Steps Considered

“We are considering further matters about Libyan pilots and any further action we can take,” she said.

On Tuesday evening, British Caledonian Airways issued a statement that the Libyan trainees are not permitted near the company’s aircraft. British Airways said its Libyan trainees are restricted to classrooms.

The best known of those detained is 23-year-old Adil Masoud, who recently completed training as a pilot at a flight training school near Kidlington, about four miles north of Oxford. In a telephone call to a Tripoli radio station after U.S. and Libyan forces clashed over the Gulf of Sidra in March, Masoud allegedly offered to lead suicide missions against U.S. targets.

In Tripoli, Libyan officials called the expulsion order an act of racism and called Thatcher a “mere instrument” of the Reagan Administration.

“The 21 Libyans are only students. This is racism,” Information Minister Mohammed Sharif Faturi told a news conference.

In Washington, official spokesmen welcomed the British action.

“We are pleased that the United Kingdom has taken this action,” State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said. The expulsion order “underscores the concern that non-official Libyans can be used for terrorist purposes.”

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said, “These are the kinds of steps, this is the kind of cooperation that is essential if we are going to combat terrorism on an international basis.”

British opposition lawmakers also tended to approve the expulsion order--some even asked why it had not been carried out sooner. But Thatcher came under renewed pressure in Parliament on Tuesday evening after television reports from Benghazi showed cluster bomb casings, which Libyan officials cited as evidence that U.S. aircraft had used anti-personnel devices in their attack.

Anger Rekindled

The charge rekindled anger among opposition members of Parliament, who said Thatcher had relinquished too much control to President Reagan in allowing some of the attacking U.S. planes to take off from British bases.

If true, the allegations of cluster bomb use would appear to contradict Thatcher’s insistence that the raid be tightly focused on military targets.

Government sources later noted that F-111s that took off from Britain were used only against Tripoli and not Benghazi, where the cluster bombs were found.

The planes attacking Benghazi came from aircraft carriers based in the Mediterranean.

Thatcher Mum on Details

Despite intense questioning, Thatcher refused to detail the conditions of her approval for the attack.

“We set down certain criteria . . . the Americans selected the targets within those criteria,” she said.

Charged Labor member of Parliament Tom Dalyell: “It is quite clear from her answers that she did not make deep inquiries. It is simply debt repayment for the Falklands.”

That was a reference to one theory that Thatcher, alone of all the allied governments in Europe, had supported the U.S. raids out of gratitude for U.S. backing of Britain’s war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982.

However, in a speech to American correspondents, Norman Tebbit, chairman of Thatcher’s ruling Conservative Party and one of her closest aides, hinted broadly that Britain felt that the United States now had incurred a debt.

“I hope they recognize this action has caused us some political difficulties in the short run,” Tebbit said of the Reagan Administration. “I am sure that virtue is its own reward. I hope it comes in this life rather than the next.”

Asked what the British government wanted in return, Tebbit referred to extradition legislation to ease the return of Irish Republican Army suspects to Britain and a softening of the U.S. position in quarrels over European Communities farm production.

Cut in Personnel

Meanwhile, in Bonn, the West German government sources said a drastic cut was planned in the number of Libyan diplomatic personnel stationed there. The sources said Libya is being told to reduce the staff of its embassy to fewer than 15 from 41, including 11 accredited diplomats.

At the same time, West Germany will reduce its diplomatic personnel in Libya to the same level, the sources said. Currently, Bonn’s embassy in Tripoli has a staff of 22, including 11 diplomats.

That new level is the minimum staff needed to look after the estimated 1,500 West Germans employed in Libya, government aides said.

Two weeks ago, West Germany expelled two Libyan diplomats on charges of carrying out activities incompatible with their embassy status. The expulsion was announced four days after the West Berlin discotheque La Belle was bombed, killing two people--including a U.S. serviceman and a Turkish woman--and wounding more than 200.

Not Tied to Bombing

The expelled Libyans were not directly linked at the time to the discotheque bombing, but the Bonn government has supported charges by President Reagan that hard evidence exists connecting the attack to the Libyan Embassy in East Berlin.

The April 5 incident was cited by Reagan as justification for the bombing attack on Tripoli and Benghazi.

In a radio interview late Tuesday, West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher said that cuts in Libyan diplomatic activity are necessary for security interests.

Genscher’s aides said he is determined that the gap between the United States and its European allies over how to deal with Kadafi should not be widened.

Also on Tuesday, Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen said in Copenhagen that Denmark will expel some of the seven resident Libyan diplomats in that country. Those Libyans remaining would be restricted in their movements, he said.

However, Greece indicated Tuesday that it had changed its mind about the measures that its foreign minister had supported in Luxembourg, according to the Associated Press.

Tyler Marshall reported from London and William Tuohy reported from Bonn.