Kadafi Quelled Libya Uprisings, Sources Report

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi has violently quelled a series of uprisings within his own army and security forces that broke out in three areas of central Libya over a period of several days, diplomatic and opposition sources said Sunday.

Sources opposed to Kadafi said the uprisings reflect growing discontent within the army, and the public as well, over the deteriorating quality of life in Libya since international sanctions were imposed 1 1/2 years ago on the North African nation, one of the last radical holdouts in the Arab world.

One of the uprisings, led by disgruntled army leaders, sparked street fighting in the industrial town of Misratah, on the Mediterranean coast 125 miles east of the capital, Tripoli, before it was put down by the Libyan air force’s security battalions, sources said.

At least 260 people have been injured in the clashes that began Oct. 11, many of them civilians wounded in air attacks launched against army barracks in central Libya, according to opposition leaders.

About 600 people have been arrested, said the opposition sources, whose reports could not be independently verified. Some reports said an unknown number of citizens were killed.

The Libyan government has denied that there has been any attempted coup.

“It is a bloody, bloody situation, and the question is how many lives will Libyans have to lose until Kadafi is removed?” said Mohammed Youssef Magariaf, secretary general of the London-based National Front for the Salvation of Libya. He spoke in a telephone interview from Virginia.

“Unfortunately, it seems the only way by which we can get rid of Kadafi is just force and more force. But I’m sure this will be the last aborted coup. The next one will bring the end of Kadafi,” Magariaf said.

Diplomats in Tripoli said security has been tightened around the airport, the port and the military barracks in which Kadafi resides. But they said the city is otherwise tranquil.

“All that we know is that there was an apparent military coup which started off in (Bani) Walid (about 90 miles inland southeast of the capital), and it was suppressed,” one Western envoy in Tripoli said.

“Our information indicates that there was some violence involving some colonels who were close collaborators of Kadafi and who were wounded, apparently. We have also had reports that there were explosions heard, but we haven’t been able to get anyone on the spot.”

Diplomatic sources said the uprising in Misratah was apparently timed to coincide with a planned visit by Kadafi to the central Libyan port city, home of the nation’s most important steel-manufacturing plant.

The sanctions against Libya, ordered by the U.N. Security Council in April, 1992, include a military embargo and the blocking of all air travel to and from the country. The measures are intended to force Kadafi’s regime to hand over two suspects in the bombing of a U.S. passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and comply with other measures requiring its renunciation of international terrorism.

With President Clinton now threatening to seek an escalation in the sanctions, concern is mounting among Libyans as their government makes only halfhearted gestures to comply with the international demands.

Libya has officially said it will allow the two Lockerbie suspects, Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, to surrender.

But a lawyer for the two men has said they will not stand trial in Scotland or the United States, although they would accept another venue, preferably an Arab or Mediterranean country.

Kadafi has struggled for more than a year to try to find a solution that will satisfy both the international community’s demands and the demands of his own security forces, who form the underpinnings of his regime.

Diplomatic sources have said that handing over the two suspects could spell Kadafi’s undoing--this despite the fact that his public is becoming fed up with the effects of the sanctions.

Diplomatic sources said a third uprising appeared to have occurred in and Tarhunah, about 45 miles southeast of Tripoli. Tarhunah was the site of a fierce uprising after a U.S. bombing raid on Libya in 1986.

Opposition leaders said they have been attempting to capitalize on mounting discontent within the army.

“Since late last year, we managed to convince a number of people to cooperate with us toward achieving the goal of toppling Kadafi, because we are determined as we have always been that the only solution for a better Libya, for a constitutional Libya, is to get rid of Kadafi,” Magariaf said.

Opposition groups often claim credit for discord after the fact, but Magariaf said his group had been in contact with leaders of the reported unrest in all three areas.

“This revolt has got many new lessons for people who are observing the Libyan situation, and No. 1 is that the opposition to Kadafi comes from all sections of Libyan society,” Magariaf said.