EMPLOYMENT : Thailand Finds Itself Caught in U.S.-Libya Weapons Dispute

In an unusual twist to the long dispute between America and Libya over Tripoli’s alleged production of chemical weapons, the government here is bracing for the possible return of thousands of Thai workers sent home by an embittered Col. Moammar Kadafi.

Thailand has an estimated 25,000 workers in the North African nation, doing everything from working on oil platforms to building roads and buildings. The loss of those jobs would be a huge blow to the Thai economy, which depends on the workers to send home the money they earn, usually to areas of high unemployment in north and northeast Thailand.

Last August, the Clinton Administration gave Thailand and other countries with workers in Libya details of intelligence reports that Libya was building huge underground chambers to produce and store chemical weapons. It called on these countries to observe an international agreement banning proliferation of chemical weapons.

Thailand announced that it was investigating Thai employment agencies that recruited workers for Libyan jobs and would prosecute any who engaged in illegal activities. Three firms were charged, but the accused were quickly released.

Incensed about possible collusion between Washington and Bangkok over the weapons charges, Kadafi said his country would do without Thai workers. “Let them go and get fed by America,” the Libyan leader said.

Thai officials, who had been hoping to smooth over Libya’s ruffled feathers, were dumbfounded by Kadafi’s expulsion order.

The Foreign Ministry here said it still had not received any official notice or explanation.

But Middle East news agencies quoted South Korea’s ambassador in Tripoli as having said that thousands of Thais employed by Korean construction firms were to be returned to Thailand in groups of 200 each.

The repatriation has been made difficult because of a United Nations-imposed air embargo against Libya over the extradition of two intelligence officials charged with masterminding the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

One official said that some Thais, whose contracts to work in Libya had expired, were already coming back. But he said there did not appear to be any wholesale deportations.

Wiwote Sakulmutita, owner of an employment agency at the center of the dispute, said he was bringing home by the month’s end about 50 workers and five engineers who were working on a civilian bomb shelter on the outskirts of Tripoli.

“I better stop working in Libya or my company will be sabotaged,” he said in a telephone interview from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, where he operates the W&M; agency.

Wiwote said he had just inspected the project in Libya, which he described as an empty tunnel. He maintained that there was no evidence that the site was being prepared for chemical weapons production or storage.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman here said the Administration had advised the Thai government about the Libyan construction sites but did not ask it to withdraw workers.

“The U.S. government is convinced that the Libyan government has an active chemical weapons program that poses proliferation problems,” the spokeswoman said, making it clear that the dispute is between the Thais and Libyans.

The loss of the Libyan jobs is especially troubling to Thailand now because it has lost tens of thousands of Saudi Arabian construction jobs in another controversy. The Saudi government has refused for more than a year to issue visas to Thai workers after a scandal involving a Thai janitor’s theft of millions of dollars in jewels from a Saudi princess’s home.

The Thai returned home, where he was arrested with his loot. But by the time the stolen jewels reached Riyadh, many had been replaced by cheap imitations; other gems were missing.

Outraged Saudi officials blamed corrupt Thai detectives for the loss and said a police general’s wife was wearing the stolen jewels in public.

Riyadh has refused to hire any Thai workers until the culprits are arrested. Embarrassed Thai officials claim that they have no evidence about the thefts.