Gaddafi's 'shaky start'

Gaddafi's long rule began in 1969

By the BBC's Rick Fountain in London

Secret British official papers from 1971, released today in London, show that the Foreign Office thought that the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, had lost control of the Revolutionary Council in Tripoli in 1971 and was about to be overthrown.

British diplomats reported that Gaddafi had twice been the target of assassination attempts, he had had a severe nervous breakdown, and even tried to kill himself.

The files were released at the Public Record Office at Kew in south-west London.

It is now nearly 32 years since Colonel Gaddafi and other young army officers overthrew the Libyan royal family; he now looks one of the more durable Arab leaders.

But 30 years ago, it was all very different. A 1971 Foreign Office file has reports from British diplomats that the colonel spent three weeks in a Cairo clinic, staffed by Belgian doctors, being treated for a complete breakdown, in February and March of that year.

The Libyan people were told that he was in a remote area of Libya looking at farm projects.

Assassination attempts

In the same year, the file says, there were two attempts on Gaddafi's life, neither publicly acknowledged; in one, his motorcade is thought to have been attacked and five motorcycle outriders were killed; in the other, a bomb on his plane failed to explode.

In September, 1971, Indian diplomats in Tripoli told the British of a report that Colonel Gaddafi had attempted suicide.

The British thought he was finished and that his number two, Major Abdul Salam Jalloud, would take over.

They described Jalloud as the most effective member of the ruling council, although not liked by the army or the bureaucracy.

The British ambassador in Tripoli, JP Tripp, told the Foreign Office that Gaddafi had survived as long as he had, only because of his charisma and sense of mission.

In fact, Major Jalloud did take over briefly, in September, 1971, at a summit meeting with Egypt and Syria.

But by the end of the year the erratic, flamboyant - and charismatic - Gaddafi was back in charge.