FOR MEDIA15 April 1986
The Australian Government was advised by the US
Administration early this morning of immediately
impending military action against Libya. President
Reagan has since confirmed that the US has taken
military action against targets which it regards as
supporting terrorism.
The Australian Government has counselled restraint by
both the US and Libya in the course of the developing
tensions between them. It deeply regrets that this
conflict has taken place and urges both sides to suspend
hostilities and engage in genuine efforts to bring about
the peaceful resolution of their differences.
This will mean that the US terminate its military
engagement against Libya. It also means, as an absolute
essential, that Colonel Qadaffi terminate his
government's indiscriminate export of terrorist activity
against civilians and civilian targets, especially US
civilians. The United States has said that its action was motivated
not only by evidence of Libyan involvement in and
direction of past terrorist activities but also by
indications of Libyan planning being well advanced for
further operations against American citizens in a number
of countries.
The United States' military action was explained to us
not in terms of revenge or reprisals but in terms of
demonstrating that terrorism will incur a significant
cost.
The Government accepts that there is a substantial body
of evidence of Libyan involvement in and direction of
international terrorism. The Foreign Minister and I
have been privy to apparently compelling evidence of a
direct line of command between Libya and the Berlin
nightclub bombing.
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It is a matter of serious concern that following the
Gulf of Sidra episode where Libya attacked American
forces exercising in international waters and the United
States retaliated -Libya's policy of extreme hostility
against the United States has continued.
The Government, in response to a request from President
Reagan in January, took a number of economic measures
against Libya and reduced Libya's official
representation in Australia as part of collective
international measures to demonstrate to Libya that its
behaviour in support of international terrorism is
totally unacceptable to the international community.
The Government has expressed a desire to work with
Western and other Governments for a concerted approach
to dealing with international terrorism. The Minister
for Foreign Affairs is pursuing this matter with Western
and other Governments and will be reporting back to
Cabinet on measures to promote a sustained long-term
effort to defeat the threat of international terrorism.
The Government is profoundly concerned that the
situation has reached the point where Libyan actions
have driven the US to regard it as essential that it
take military action.
Australia works persistently for a peaceful world. We
are opposed to the use of violent means to resolve
differences between nations and in particular to the
resort to terrorism.
Terrorism recognises no rules and respects no moral
standards. The victims are almost always innocent
victims. Australians have already been victims of this
sort of activity. And that is another reason why we are
implacably opposed to this sort of behaviour.
Let me sum up the Government's position:
We wish to see restraint and an early end to
hostilities. We hope that the conflict will not widen and
escalate.
We are fully conscious of the intractable and
bitter conflicts of the Middle East, and the need
for them to be resolved if the Middle East is to
cease to be a source of violence and terrorism not
only in that region but throughout the world. We
look for such a resolution.
But an essential requirement for ending the
fundamental confrontation between Libya and the US
must be that Libya completely and convincingly
disavows recourse to terrorism.