Libya Orders Expulsion of 36 West Europe Diplomats

Libya ordered the expulsion of 36 Western European diplomats and imposed travel restrictions on others today to retaliate for “oppressive measures” that the Western allies have taken against Libyan embassies throughout Europe.

The official Libyan news agency JANA said 25 Italian Embassy diplomats and employees, four West Germans, two Spaniards, two Belgians and one each from the embassies of Denmark, France and the Netherlands were ordered out.

The diplomats were given from one week to 10 days to leave the North African country, JANA said in a dispatch monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp.

JANA said the Peoples Bureau for Foreign Liaison, Libya’s foreign ministry, also imposed restrictions on diplomats remaining in Tripoli, barring them from travel outside the Tripoli area without official permission.

The news agency said the ousted diplomats were ordered out for engaging in activities “incompatible with their diplomatic roles.”

But Tripoli radio, also monitored by the BBC, made clear the move was “in retaliation for the oppressive measures taken by European states, under pressure from the U.S.A., against members of Libyan Peoples Bureaus (embassies) in Europe on the pretext of terrorism.”

The affected countries are members of the European Community, or Common Market. The 12-member bloc approved diplomatic and economic sanctions against Libya on April 21, six days after the United States bombed two Libyan cities in retaliation for a West Berlin disco bombing that killed two people, including a U.S. soldier. U.S. officials said they had evidence that Libya was involved.

The European Community ministers agreed to cut the size of Libyan diplomatic and trade missions to a minimum, limit movement of Libyan diplomats and tighten immigration controls on other Libyans.

About 60 Libyan diplomats and embassy employees have been expelled from Western Europe since the European Community ministers made their decision on sanctions last month.

Greece, a Common Market member that refused to take action against Libya, was not mentioned in the radio broadcast today. Nor was Britain, which cut diplomatic ties with Libya in 1984 after a London policewoman was killed by a gunman firing from the Libyan embassy.