LIBYA / EGYPT: LIBYIAN LEADER GADDAFI URGES ARAB COUNTRIES TO EXPELL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES

Record ID: 639795

  • Title: LIBYA / EGYPT: LIBYIAN LEADER GADDAFI URGES ARAB COUNTRIES TO EXPELL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
  • Date: 4th October 1995
  • Summary: LIBYA-EGYPT BORDER (OCTOBER 4, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV LIBYAN LEADER MUAMMAR GADDAFI ON TOP OF HIS CAR / GADDAFI WALKING AMONG CROWD (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. SV GADDAFI ADDRESSING CROWD (ARABIC) / LV CROWD (5 SHOTS) 0.47 3. SV YOUNG WOMEN CHANTING PRO-GADDAFI SLOGANS 0.54 4. SV BORDER SIGN / PAN TO GV DEMONSTRATORS AROUND BUS 1.04 5. SLV PALESTINIANS LYING IN FRONT OF BUS 1.10 6. SV PALESTINIAN MAN SAYING, "IF WE DO NOT RETURN WE WILL RETURN TO BECOMING TERRORISTS AND FIGHTERS" (ARABIC) 1.21 7. SV SECOND MAN SAYING PALESTINIANS MUST HAVE ALL OF PALESTINE (ARABIC) 1.28 8. SV UNHCR REPRESENTATIVE PANOS MOUMTZIS SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.50 9. LV/SLV PALESTINIAN TENT ENCAMPMENT, PALESTINIANS HAMMERING IN TENT PEGS (5 SHOTS) 2.08 SEQUENCE 8 TRANSCRIPT: MOUMTZIS: "WE ARE TRYING TO ESTABLISH NUMBERS AND CONDITIONS, WHAT ARE THE PAPERS THEY HAVE WITH THEM AND SEE HOW WE CAN HELP. IT IS VERY CLEAR THAT LITTLE BABIES, WOMEN, CIVILIANS HAVE NOT DONE ANYTHING WRONG IN THEIR LIVES AND WE HOPE THAT THIS SITUATION WILL COME TO AN END VERY SOON." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 19th October 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LIBYA-EGYPT BORDER
  • Reuters ID: LVA4RIMFLYUEDWMZE1ELGNSN9SR7
  • Story Text: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urged Arab countries on Wednesday (October 4) to follow his example and return all Palestinian refugees to their homes to expose Israel's intention to create a Palestinian state in name only.

    Gaddafi, furious at the PLO-Israeli peace accord, has called on the 30,000 Palestinians in his country to leave and return to Palestinian self-ruled areas and expose the shortcomings of the peace deals.

    Libyan authorities have since fired hundreds of Palestinian expatriates from their jobs and also confiscated their houses.

    Speaking at a makeshift camp in the desert area between the borders of Egypt and Libya, Gaddafi told a crowd of thousands of Palestinians that the expulsion would serve the great aim of establishing their homeland and that it would uncover the hypocrisy of making peace with Israel.

    "The Zionist plan is to create a Palestine without Palestinians...other Arab countries are taking part in this Zionist plan by allowing the Palestinians to stay in their land," he said as camp residents and Libyans cheered, waving banners saying "Palestinians should go home".

    "If we prevent the Palestinians from the right to return then we are participating in the imperialist plan which calls for their settlement in Arab lands forever." Gaddafi called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to allow the Palestinians at the camp to cross through Egypt en route to Gaza and the West Bank.

    But Egypt will only let through the few Palestinians who have permission to enter Jordan or the self-rule areas, where Israel has control over immigration. The rest remain at the camp.

    The representative for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cairo, Panos Moumtzis, who is visiting the area, said it was unfair to send so many Palestinians away to be left stranded between borders.

    "These people have not committed any crime to be dumped in a no-man's-land between two countries," he said.


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