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Libya
Exiled Opposition
Over twenty opposition groups exist outside Libya. The most important
in 1987 was the Libyan National Salvation Front (LNSF), formed
in October 1981, and led by Muhammad Yusuf al Magariaf, formerly
Libyan ambassador to India. The LNSF was based in Sudan until
the fall of the Numayri regime in 1985, after which its operations
were dispersed. The LNSF rejected military and dictatorial rule
and called for a democratic regime with constitutional guarantees,
free elections, free press, and separation of powers among the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The group published
a bimonthly newsletter, Al Inqadh (Salvation).
The LNSF claimed responsibility for the daring attack on Qadhafi's
headquarters at Bab al Aziziyah on May 8, 1984. Although the coup
attempt failed and Qadhafi escaped unscathed, dissident groups
claimed that some eighty Libyans, Cubans, and East Germans perished.
According to various sources, the United States Central Intelligence
Agency trained and supported the LNSF before and after the May
8 operation. Domestically, some 2,000 people were arrested and
8 were hanged publicly. The LNSF also organized the April 1984
demonstration in London in which a British policewoman was killed
by a Libyan diplomat, leading to the breaking of diplomatic relations
between Tripoli and London.
Another opposition group, the Libyan Liberation Organization,
based in Cairo, was formed in 1982. In 1987 it was led by Abdul
Hamid Bakkush, a prime minister during the Idris monarchy. In
midNovember 1984, Libyan officials were greatly embarrassed by
their premature claims of responsibility for the assassination
of Bakkush. In fact, the entire operation was elaborately stagemanaged
by the Egyptian security forces, who produced a very much alive
Bakkush on television along with members of the four-man hit squad,
which reportedly consisted of two British citizens and two Maltese.
Al Burkan (The Volcano), a highly secretive and violent organization
that emerged in 1984, has been responsible for the assassination
of many Libyan officials overseas. For instance, it claimed responsibility
for the death of the Libyan ambassador in Rome in January 1984,
and, a year later, for the assassination of the Libyan Information
Bureau chief, also in Rome. A Libyan businessman with close ties
to Qadhafi was shot dead on June 21, 1984, in Athens during the
visit of Abdul Salam Turayki, Libya's secretary of foreign liaison.
Less well-known opposition groups outside Libya were the Libyan
Constitutional Union, the pro-Iraqi Libyan National Movement,
the Libyan National Democratic Grouping led by Mahmud Sulaymon
al Maghrabi, Libya's first postrevolutionary prime minister, and
Al Haq, a rightist pro-monarchy group.
The opposition groups outside Libya remained disunited and largely
ineffective. Divided ideologically into such groups as Baathists
(see Glossary), socialists, monarchists, liberals, and Islamic
fundamentalists, they agreed only on the necessity of overthrowing
the Qadhafi regime. An initial step toward coordination was taken
in January 1987 when eight opposition groups, including the Libyan
National Movement, the Libyan National Struggle Movement, and
the Libyan Liberation Organization, agreed to form a working group
headed by Major Abd al Munim al Huni, a former RCC member who
has been living in Cairo since the 1975 coup attempt that was
led by another RCC member, Umar Muhayshi. Some observers speculated
that because Huni appeared to be acceptable to all opposition
groups and in view of his close ties to the military, he may well
be the man most likely to succeed Qadhafi. If the Iranian experience
offered any insights, the hallmark of the post-Qadhafi era would
be a bloody power struggle between erstwhile coalition groups
of diverse ideological beliefs. By early 1987, it was by no means
clear which faction might emerge as the ultimate victor, should
Qadhafi be toppled. It must be kept in mind, however, that the
Libyan leader has outlasted many of his enemies, both foreign
and domestic.
To deal with outside opposition, the Libyan regime continued
its controversial policy of physical liquidation of opponents.
On March 2, 1985, the GPC reiterated its approval of the policy
of "the pursuit and physical liquidation of the stray dogs." During
the 1985 wave of violence, a number of Libyans living abroad were
killed or wounded. Among the casualties were former ambassador
Ezzedin Ghadamsi, seriously wounded in Vienna on February 28;
businessman Ahmad Barrani, killed in Cyprus on April 2; another
businessman, Yusuf Agila, wounded in Athens on October 6; and
Gibril Denali, a thirty-year-old student living in the Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany) as a political refugee, assassinated
in Bonn on April 6. The liquidation policy continued into 1987
when Muhammad Salim Fuhaymah, an executive committee member of
the Libyan National Organization, was assassinated in Athens on
January 7.
The physical liquidation policy has drawn universal condemnation.
However, the impact of the policy, should not be exaggerated.
During 1984, there were 4 assassinations of Libyans abroad and
between 20 and 120 executions internally. Scholar Lillian Craig
Harris, writing in late 1986, stated that since 1980 twenty anti-Qadhafi
Libyans had been assassinated abroad.
Data as of 1987
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