Muammar Gaddafi in Sri Lanka (1976)
by Maj.-Gen. Lalin Fernando, Sri Lanka Army, Retired
Colonel Gaddafi visited Sri Lanka in 1976 for the Non-Aligned Conference in 1976 and was an immediate sensation because of his maverick behaviour. His first personal contact with Sri Lankan officials was at the previous Non-Aligned Meeting in Algeria. Here he sent out an invitation to Mrs. Bandaranayake, then Prime Minister, to have afternoon tea with him. Nonplussed by the extraordinary invitation, she declined and forsook the opportunity to tap into the Libyan leader’s legendary munificence which went out generously and without restraint, albeit mainly to support revolutionary movements, especially in Africa. His behaviour during his short time in Sri Lanka would have shown anyone that the Colonel was suffering from a major mental imbalance. But a six foot Sri Lankan artillery officer who was his liaison officer, Major Ranjith Wanigasundera, alone tried what many world leaders failed to do. He battled Gaddafi eccentricities but eventually had to admit that Gaddafi was incorrigible.
Gaddafi’s arrival in Sri Lanka was preceded by an ill advised if not crazy advance party of eighty five excited Libyans who arrived at Katunayake Airport without passports in a then state of the art Boeing 707 jet. They had just a sheet of paper listing their names, and in Arabic to boot. After much discussion at the highest levels it was decided to refuse them entry and quarantine them in the nearby Air Force base. A huffed Gaddafi arrived the next day in another Boeing. He ignored the traditional 100 strong Guard of Honour and the Sri Lankan Minister who was to meet him and headed straight for his transport. He was fast tracked to his hotel in Colombo with Major Wanigasundera, his liaison officer, and police security, leaving the Protocol Division and the Security Forces officers responsible for the arrival ceremonies bemused.
A hundred other Libyans too arrived in another plane. They had absolutely no role in the hundred and one (101) heads of state conference but were to make their presence felt satisfying the sensation starved multitudes in Colombo by their eccentric behaviour. This lot however had passports. The previously quarantined Libyans were sent back in the same plane via Karachi.
All the heads of state and delegations were housed in the then newly built Oberoi Hotel and the Inter-Continental hotels except for Mrs Indira Gandhi (in Temple Trees, the Prime Minister’s residence), Hoari Boumedienne (also a colonel when he took over power in Algeria and was deposed later) who had been head of the last Non-Aligned Conference in Algeria (at the luxurious Acland Guest House) and Marshal Josip Broz Tito whose presidential yacht was moored in the Colombo harbour.
Gaddafi possibly took Colombo if not the Non-Aligned Conference by the tail outside the Conference, even though world renowned figures like Indira Gandhi, Tito, Anver Sadat, Archbishop Makarios, Afghanistan’s King, Sadham Hussein, Hafez al Assad, Jamaica’s charismatic Michael Manley amongst others were famously present. His arrival at the Oberoi Hotel saw almost all the ladies of the hotel staff, travel counters and shops mulling around to get a look at him. This happened every time he moved into and from the hotel. He had striking looks accentuated by his flashing green eyes and was dressed in flowing Bedouin robes. He in turn did not hesitate to have a good look at the ladies there and also when he moved around Colombo.
His first impulsive if irrational act was to demand arrangements be made immediately for him to visit Boumedienne, long after the state banquet given by the President of Sri Lanka, William Gopallawa, ended. The time was well after midnight. All the other delegates had long gone to bed. Boumedienne, despite the late hour, had been cajoled to agree. There was no way that Gaddafi’s security escorts and VIP convoy of vehicles could be rustled up at that hour as they had been dismissed many hours before and would be available only for the next day’s sessions. He insisted. He had however not bargained for Major Wanigasundera’s response. A stubborn stickler for protocol, the Major was adamant that he would not make such arrangements as it went against all the protocol and security arrangements. Gaddafi however had his way even if it was by hiring some Mercedes Benz cars instead. These were immediately made available thanks to the organizational acumen and far sightedness of the Foreign Ministry that had placed tour operators on 24 hour duty at the hotels. No one, not even the other wary Arab leaders who had long humoured him, cared to know what was discussed that night in ‘secret’. The Sri Lankan Major, in retrospect, was one of the few persons who had stood up to Gaddafi without blinking. Gaddafi made no complaint.
The following days saw the over hundred Libyan ‘supporters’ touring every part of the capital city distributing big glossy photos of Gaddafi like it was confetti. They also tried to buy every single parrot that was available for sale in the country. They were seen everywhere in trucks carrying an apparently inexhaustible supply of parrots in cages every day while dishing out Gaddafi photos.
While no one can remember what Gaddafi said at the conference, it was in the committee rooms that he made his mark. Every insurgent and revolutionary movement around the world sought a meeting with him. He was rumoured to be dishing out money lavishly to them. The gigantic Joshua Nkomo, who must have been the largest built insurgent/revolutionary in the world, was most visible amongst others as well known. Gaddafi’s meetings were preceded by his rambling discourses that often prevented other countries that had booked the committee rooms from using them at the times given. On one particular day this delay became unacceptable to many. Many liaison officers to other delegations, together with Major Wanigasundera, tried to impress on Gaddafi’s staff that other country delegations had to use the room as well but to no avail. Someone sent word to Col. Cyril Ranatunge who was one of the coordinating officers on duty but in plain clothes. He came forward sure that Gaddafi’s military body guards (who were all men then, unlike now when all forty of them are supposed to be virgin women), would listen to him. They being fluent only in Libyan Arabic could not read the impressive details on Ranatunge’s identity card and would not budge. The small made Ranatunge then decided to push past a strongly built son of the desert descended from the likes of Hannibal who defeated the Roman Scipio. That was a mistake. Suddenly Ranatunge went flying as the Red bereted Libyan shoved back hard. The liaison officer for Nigeria remonstrated with the Libyan and shouted ‘Hey man, that is a Sri Lanka Colonel’. The visibly moved Libyan hurried to apologise profusely in Arabic and gave way.
Gaddafi also asked to speak to the local Muslim community. Those assembled in the Holiday Inn Hotel were prominent, well-heeled but elderly leaders of that community. Gaddafi had two special messages for them. He wanted to see only younger Muslims next time and wanted them all to produce about 10 children in each family to make up for the demographic imbalance in the country which has only a small Muslim minority!
One thing that was very apparent was that Gaddafi took every step to avoid meeting Egypt’s Anver Sadat. Many Arabs, however wealthy and powerful they are, have a complex about Egyptians. They were also wary about the maverick Gaddafi.
When arrangements for Gaddafi’s departure were made, Major Wanigasundera having had enough, delegated his deputy, Captain Asoka Amunugama (Army Volunteer Force-later Major General) to do so. Gaddafi’s remaining assorted Bedouins arrived some time later at the hotel to see their leader off. They were highly agitated when told that he had already left. They scrambled into hired lorries and hared off to the airport.
There was no doubt Gaddafi was certifiable. What was surprising was that so many world leaders, despite their misgivings, dealt with if not exonerated him, no doubt lured by the oil wealth Gaddafi commanded. He wanted at different times to turn Libya into a socialist paradise, unite the Arabs into one huge pan-Arabic state and latterly thought of himself as the King of Africa. (He dressed latterly in African, not Arab robes). He supported terrorists and global terrorism and was guilty of arming them, including the IRA. He waged war on neighbours. He spent his nation’s wealth lavishly to improve his international image while his own people were limited to state hand outs to survive. Yet the Libyan per capita income was said to be US$ 14,400.
He was despised by many Libyans and not trusted by his fellow Arab leaders, Islamists and even his own military. He not strangely had friends in Cuba and Venezuela. He isolated himself, distrusting, persecuting and murdering so many of his own countrymen. While there is little proof that he made himself rich, his family members had a stranglehold on Libya’s wealth. He himself lived a simple life. He did not drink, smoke, gormandise or womanise. His preference was for living in a tent. He promoted himself from Captain to the rank only of Colonel, even though he was Commander-in-Chief. (He was serving as a Captain in the Army Signals when he led the bloodless coup that deposed 72 year old King Idris). The elements were so mixed in him that no one knew what he was trying to achieve, especially when he talked, sometimes four to eight hours on the go in an Arabic dialect few outside Libya comprehended. He was responsible for the Lockerbie air crash that killed 270 people. The cracking point for the Libyans was reached this month after 42 years of repressive, dictatorial brutal and completely mad rule.
The lesson that is clear and not only in Egypt and Libya, is that military men who overturn governments by force eventually become infinitely worse than the people they had overthrown. Gaddafi was referred to as a ‘mad dog’ by President Reagan. The sad thing is that despite countless examples of dictatorships becoming rotten, there are still people in impoverished Third World countries who like a flutter of dictatorial rule to win back/sustain their personal ill-gotten wealth, privileges and power. Unfortunately, Western leaders back most such leaders if they have oil and mineral wealth to share. Gaddafi’s disappearance, as with Middle Eastern or other dictators being deposed by people’s power, will not be grieved. In 1976 he was in need of psychiatric help. Today he has declared genocide on his own people and faces awesome retribution. Even our Major Wanigasundera could not have prevented that!