The Bonn government is coming under increasing pressure from pro-Arab members of the Bundestag and the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) to issue an official invitation to Libya’s leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi to visit West Germany. However, in spite of this pressure, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt is said to be opposed to such a move.
The campaign to invite Qaddafi is being led by Bundestag member Juergen Moellemann, one of the most outspoken anti-Israeli politicians in Bonn. Moellemann, a chairman of the German-Arab Friendship Association, has publicly denied the charge that the Libyan ruler is enhancing international terrorism. The Bundestag deputy, who is close to Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, has often fulfilled delicate missions with which the Foreign Ministry did not want to be publicly associated.
Meanwhile, the German weekly, Der Spiegel, reported that Genscher himself has taken a strong position in favor of inviting Qaddafi to Germany. In private consultations, he is reported to have told Schmidt that West Germany would benefit politically, diplomatically and economically from such a move.
OTHER SUPPORTERS CITED
Another supporter of on invitation to Qaddafi is Hans-Juergen Wischnewski, a long-time sponsor of the Arab cause in Bonn and a top aide of Schmidt. Wischnewski, nicknamed “Ben-Wisch” for his Arab connections, has argued that West Germany could easily fill the vacuum left in Libya by the United States and draw major economic and political benefits.
Still another supporter of the controversial invitation is Interior Minister Gerhart Baum of the Free Democratic Party, the junior coalition. He has expressed hope that improved relations with Libya would convince Qaddafi to stop his logistical aid to West German neo-Nazi groups, to the “Red Army Faction” and to other urban terrorist groups.
Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of Austria is also involved in lobbying for the invitation, according to sources in Bonn. They note that since the Austrian leader is still being criticized for having recently invited Qaddafi to Vienna, a similar visit by Libya’s ruler to Bonn would take him off the hook.
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