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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 12, 1983
PAGE 10
ON THE WORLD SCENE
KADAFI ESCAPES HIS
BOX:
OMINOUS TIMING IN CENTRAL AMERICA
Libya's ever
dangerous Muamar Kadafi (spellings of his names vary in English) is once
again trying to expand his empire.
He has intervened with troops and air
power in Chad, Libya's neighbor to the south.
Chad is vast in size, arid,
underpopulated and riven with about 200 ethnic groups, roughly divided into
Arabs in the north and black Christians and animists in the south.
Hence,
forever ripe for meddling.
Kadafi, by moving into Chad, could put pressure on the Sudan as well as
Egypt, two countries he has blood feuds with.
The United States has reacted rather swiftly to this latest of Kadafi
forays. An aircraft carrier group has moved close to Libya's Mediterranean
coast; AWACS surveillance planes and F-15 jets are on standby in the Sudan:
military aid, including anti-aircraft missiles has been flown into the
Chadian capital of N'Djamena.
The French have come to Chad's assistance, but not to the same degree as the
conservative governments of the past have done.
Socialist President
Mitterrand and his cabinet are more "Third World" oriented, less likely to
intervene in Africa, even to protect ex-colonial members of the French com
munity.
Mitterrand could only muster 180 non-combat logistical support
troops for Chad duty.
The wily Kadafi, of course, knows about the French reluctance.
When
Mitterrand came to power in 1981, he said he would curtail France's "inter
ventionist policy" in Africa.
During the election campaign he had referred
to former President Giscard d'Estaing as a "pyromaniac fireman."
Worldwide Troublemaker
Almost everywhere in the world a revolution is underway, Kadafi's hand is
in it to some degree.
Here is a report about the mercurial Kadafi
1
s acti
vities from an August 9 Associated Press release:
ROME--Moammar Khadafy, who the United States thought was back "in
his box where he belongs," is once again accused of whipping up
trouble for his neighbors, this time in Chad.
Since the Libyan
colonel took power in 1969, he has been accused of sponsoring
revolution, terrorism and wars around the globe....
If there is a constant in Khadafy's behavior, it is his dream of
Illl1ng the -shoes of the late Egyptian PresTdeiit Gamal Abdel
Nasser as idol of the Arab iiiasses.
Nasser, who ruled Egypt from
1954
untfl""""FiI'saea�in 1970, first brought about a unity of Arab
nations with the United Arab Republic in 1958 that joined Egypt
and Syria under his presidency.
The union collapsed three years
later, but it is a dream kept alive by Khadafy, who has tried-
and failed--to engineer mergers with Egypt, Tunisia, Chad, Niger,
Mali, Sudan, Algeria and Syria.
Khadafy tried to prop up the
brutal regime of Uganda•s Idi Amin, a Moslem convert.
Another setback for the 40-year-old son of a desert herdsman has
been his repeated attempts to gain the leadership of the Organi-