The World - News from Aug. 31, 1988

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi has criticized the killing of political “deviates” in his country, saying the executions have given his revolution a bad name. In a speech broadcast on state television, Kadafi said he is aware that people who had deviated from the course of the revolution had “infiltrated” some committees, and that the committees took it upon themselves to liquidate some of these people. These actions caused the “masses to come to hate” the revolutionary committees, he said. He also declared that Libya’s growing black market economy is a positive development that should be encouraged, calling it “revolutionary,” since it is what the people want.