Libya: Embassy Row

The mob of 300 demonstrators did a thorough job on Venezuela's embassy in Tripoli last week, smashing furniture, torching rooms, even uprooting plants from the garden. The sacking followed the United Nations Security Council's imposition of sanctions against Libya for refusing to surrender six suspected agents sought in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988 and a French airliner over Africa in 1989. Crowds also attacked or demonstrated before the embassies of other countries that had voted in favor of the sanctions.

Venezuela was apparently targeted because it had chaired the Security Council session that imposed the sanctions. Another object of mob ire was Russia's embassy. The former Soviet Union was once Libya's best friend and supplier in the "anti-imperialist" struggle.

But post-Soviet Russia has taken a firm stand against terrorism. At week's end, it joined with all the other members of the Security Council to strongly condemn the latest violence in Tripoli.