Summit Seeks to Isolate Libya : Calls It a Terrorist State, Vows Action on Comparable Nations

By JACK NELSON

May 6, 1986 12 AM PT

Times Washington Bureau Chief

TOKYO — The leaders of the seven industrialized democracies Monday labeled Libya a terrorist state and vowed to take specific political and diplomatic steps to isolate it and any other country that sponsors international terrorism.

The Reagan Administration immediately hailed the anti-terrorism statement adopted by the leaders of the 12th annual economic summit meeting as “a strong, positive step” in the fight against terrorism.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz praised the statement at a press briefing, declaring that it will send the message, “You’ve had it, pal,” to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and will put terrorists everywhere on notice that there is “no place to hide.”

At the urging of President Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the summit leaders spelled out the specific measures that the seven nations pledged to take against terrorism “within the framework of international law.”

Instead of committing the seven countries--the United States, Britain, Canada, France, West Germany, Italy and Japan--to act in concert in every case, the statement said they would attack terrorism by “combining national measures with international cooperation.”

Short of Expectations

The document, called the Statement on International Terrorism, fell short of U.S. expectations in one significant area. The other allied leaders rejected President Reagan’s plea to join the United States in slapping new economic sanctions against Libya. That was a distinct disappointment for the Administration, which had counted on the allies to help put an economic squeeze on Libya in hopes of bringing down the Kadafi regime.

Shultz, however, insisted that it was “a very strong statement that will wind up being effective” and said that in addition to diplomatic and political pressures that will be brought to bear against Libya, “you’re going to see the isolation of Libya economically” as Kadafi’s outside contacts shrink.

Kadafi “is obviously more and more isolated,” Shultz said. “He hasn’t had anybody, really, rallying very much to his side. So he’s feeling it.” Shultz added: “From the information we have within Libya, all is not well.” He declined to elaborate.

Among the nations represented at the summit, only Britain and Canada have expressed support for the April 15 bombing raid on the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. But Administration officials here said today that they interpreted the terrorist declaration as an implied endorsement of military action against terrorism, including the Libya raid.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes, asked if the statement was a tacit endorsement of the raid, said the U.S. position of using military force was well known, and “if military action was appropriate, it (the statement) would apply.”

The terrorism statement would have been much milder and would not have fingered Libya as a terrorist state had it not been for the heavy lobbying of Reagan and Thatcher, according to aides to both leaders.

Thatcher personally lobbied French President Francois Mitterrand and “hammered away” at other summit leaders while Reagan “cheered her on,” aides said.

Lack of Enthusiasm

Despite the lobbying, Mitterrand balked at endorsing economic sanctions against Libya, and neither Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi nor West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had any enthusiasm for the proposal, sources said.

In fact, French External Relations Minister Jean-Bernard Raimond said that economic sanctions were basically an American proposition and that there was no support for them in Europe. Raimond also undercut the impact of the joint statement by saying that his government considered the steps approved by the summit to be advisory, rather than binding, on the individual countries.

The summit leaders, who also include Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, endorsed another declaration Monday calling on the Soviet Union to “provide urgently” full information about the disaster at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in the Soviet Ukraine.

No Harsh Language

The declaration noted that the Soviet Union still has failed to provide complete information about the accident, which is believed to have occurred nine or 10 days ago. But the statement stopped short of criticizing the Soviets and contained none of the harsh language Reagan has used during the last week in denouncing them for neglecting to inform their European neighbors about the accident at the plant until about two days after it happened.

Other leaders here also have faulted the Soviets for not being more forthright, but they have been much more moderate in their approach. Japanese Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe said the Chernobyl accident should be treated as “a problem for all humanity” and not as “an East-West problem.”

The declaration noted “with satisfaction” the Soviet Union’s willingness to enter discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency and said the summit nations expect that this will lead to Soviet participation in “the desired post-accident analysis.” Three officials of the Vienna-based agency arrived Monday in Moscow to confer with Soviet authorities on the problem.

The Chernobyl accident and the subject of terrorism have eclipsed economics at the summit so far. Reagan and Shultz have repeatedly denounced Soviet secrecy and conducted an intensive campaign to persuade the other nations to cut all economic ties with Libya, including suspending oil purchases and landing rights for Libya’s commercial aircraft.

Shultz, who called the declaration on terrorism “a terrific statement,” conceded that other summit leaders were reluctant to embrace economic sanctions for what he called “good and sufficient reasons.”

3,000 Italians in Libya

Italy, France and West Germany all depend on Libya for oil to some extent, for example, and more than 3,000 Italians are still living and working in Libya.

Also, although the United States has broken all economic ties with Libya and ordered all Americans to leave the country by Feb. 1, five U.S. companies still operate there, servicing Libyan oil fields with foreign nationals as employees. Their presence proved an embarrassment to the Reagan Administration as it lobbied here for a total trade embargo against Libya.

Shultz said that the United States has given the companies a deadline for shutting down their Libyan operations and that “one way or the other, it won’t be long” until they leave.

The companies--Occidental Petroleum, Marathon (now part of U.S. Steel), Amerada Hess, Conoco (a unit of Du Pont) and W.R. Grace--were granted special licenses by the Reagan Administration so they could continue to operate while trying to work out arrangements for withdrawing in such a way that their properties would not fall into Kadafi’s hands.

Administration officials acknowledged that the anti-terrorist statement adopted by the summit nations does not go far beyond the statement of diplomatic and political measures adopted by the 12-nation European Economic Community in April, after a terrorist bomb exploded at a crowded discotheque in West Berlin, killing an American Army sergeant and a Turkish woman.

But the officials noted that the statement was a much stronger anti-terrorist declaration than the one adopted by the economic summit in London in 1984, and they said it marks substantial progress in the campaign for a more cohesive approach to the problem.

Emphasis on Libya

Although the summit participants stopped short of saying they would work in concert in applying diplomatic and political pressure, they said they would apply the measures “in our own jurisdictions in respect of any state which is clearly involved in sponsoring or supporting international terrorism, and in particular of Libya, until such time as the state concerned abandons its complicity in, or support for, such terrorism.”

The measures that were said to be “open to any government concerned” include:

--Refusing to export arms to states which sponsor or support terrorism.

--Imposing strict limits on the size of diplomatic and consular missions of states which engage in such activities, controlling the travel of members of such missions and, where appropriate, closing such missions.

--Denying entry to all persons, including diplomatic personnel, who have been expelled or excluded from one member nation on suspicion of involvement in terrorism or who have been convicted of international terrorism.

--Improving extradition procedures within due process of domestic law so that those who have perpetrated terrorist acts can be promptly tried.

--Imposing stricter immigration and visa requirements and procedures for citizens of nations which sponsor or support terrorism.

--Upgrading bilateral and multilateral cooperation between police and security organizations and other relevant authorities in the fight against terrorism.

In the first sentence of the declaration, the summit leaders condemned all international terrorism and singled out “governments who sponsor or support it.”

They urged other nations to adopt similar measures in the fight against terrorism and also called for collaboration by such organizations as the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization. And they agreed to intensify among themselves the exchange of intelligence on threats and potential threats of terrorists.

The summit leaders also adopted a Tokyo Declaration that reaffirmed their dedication to maintaining a strong and credible defense while seeking to resolve East-West differences through “high-level dialogue and negotiation.”

They vowed to support balanced, substantial and verifiable reductions in the level of nuclear arms, expressed appreciation to the United States for its efforts to negotiate an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union and called on the Soviets to “negotiate positively.”

Other stories and photo are on Pages 10, 11, 12.