Inside the building, police believed, was the killer who yesterday opened fire with a sub-machinegun from an embassy window, on a peaceful demonstration in the square, killing woman police office Yvonne Fletcher, 25, and wounding 10 other people, one seriously. Constable Yvonne Fletcher was killed by the gunfire coming from the embassy. Credit:AAP In the face of Press and public demands for resolute action, the Home Secretary, Mr. Leon Brittan, who has taken personal charge of the siege, was facing an agonizing dilemma. In the Libyan capital of Tripoli, soldiers and students were besieging the British Embassy, with 24 diplomats inside, including the ambassador, Mr. Oliver Miles. There was also a cordon around the houses of many British diplomats. Mrs. Julia Miles told reporters that she was not anxious for their safety “yet”. The Jordanian embassy in Tripoli was recently burned down by demonstrators. The American and French embassies have previously been burned down. There are about 9,000 British citizens working in Libya, mostly in the oil industry. The British Foreign Office today issued a warning to them that they should stay indoors and listen for BBC world service bulletins.

A Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Mr. Richard Luce, told reporters today that the people inside the People’s Bureau building had expressed “regret” over the death of Constable Fletcher. He had no doubt that this expression of regret was made at the direction of the Libyan Government and probably of Colonel Gaddafi personally. Police sources said they were in constant contact with those inside the building through a special telephone installed yesterday. They were trying to keep the situation calm so that it could be resolved peacefully. They regarded the expression of regret by Libya as evidence that Tripoli, too, wanted to defuse the situation. But the Libyan people were being told that Constable Fletcher died in the course of an heroic defence of the People’s Bureau by its staff in the face of an attack by British police and agents of several nations, a distortion which observers though might inflame anti-British feeling in Libya. In the past, frenzied mobs have often taken to the streets to burn down buildings in such circumstances and the Gaddafi regime has always defended such action as a legitimate expression of the public will.

As Mr. Brittan and a team of ministerial, police and defence advisers grappled with Britain’s dilemma in a Whitehall command post codenamed “Cobra”, the British media were exploring answers to three questions: Under the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic representation, is the Libyan People’s Bureau an embassy and are its staff diplomats? The Foreign Office says it is an embassy, even though it has had no ambassador since 1978. But some of those inside the building have diplomatic status, while others do not. Among those who do not are four so-called students sent from Tripoli in mid-February to take control of the People’s Bureau and whose identity is not even known to the Foreign Office. They were sent because their predecessors were thought to be too pro-Western. Would Britain be justified in flouting the Vienna convention it ratified in 1964? Legal experts are pointing out that although the present situation is unprecedented, it was considered as possibility by those who drafted the convention and even in such a case the convention holds embassy property as inviolate. Thus in the event that the Libyans might agree to evacuate the building and direct personnel to submit to police questioning, Britain would be in apparent breach of the convention in sending police to search the building. If the present stalemate continues, will British public opinion accept a pragmatic decision to order everyone inside the People’s Bureau to leave the country? In such a case, transport might be provided to the airport and arrangements made with Libya fir a Libyan aircraft to take everyone back to Tripoli, including the killer. This is the course of action favored by the former Foreign Secretary, Dr. David Owen, now leader of the Social Democrats, and by Mr. Roy Hattersley, deputy leader of the Labor Party. They say the risk to potential British hostages is too great for the Government to insist on the killer standing trial in Britain.

If the Government and British public opinion will not accept such pragmatism, what can Britain do in the face of Libyan Intransigence? The ‘Sun’ newspaper believes it has the answer: “The Government should present Gaddafi and his followers with a simple choice. Either they hand over the wanted man for trial or the police – and, if necessary, troops – will storm the Libyan’s lair and take him.” But, as the ‘Guardian’ points out, the emotional appeal of such an action could lead to tragedy in Libya. The police have refused to give the Press even a guess at how many people are inside the People’s Bureau building. Last night police delivered sandwiches, lemonade and cigarettes to those inside but they will not disclose the quantities. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Newman, arrived at the besieged embassy early this morning. Police said they were prepared for a long siege. They were continuing negotiations but by mid-morning there were no sign that the Libyans were ready to emerge from their building. Early this morning a man of Middle Eastern appearance was arrested by police near St James’s Square when he was found to be carrying a two-foot machete. There was no indication that he was connected with the siege. Last night, police detained six Libyans at Heathrow Airport. Three were released later and three were still in custody today. There was no information on charges which might be brought against them, or whether they had come from the People’s Bureau in London.

Of the 10 wounded survivors from yesterday’s shooting, nine were described as “stable” in Westminster Hospital. The tenth has been released. There are believed to be about 7,000 Libyans living in Britain, of who 4,000 are students. Britain has become the most important center for anti-Gaddafi organisation and agitation in recent years. Four years ago, Colonel Gaddafi began to send death squads around the world, but particularly through Europe, to assassinate his opponents. The Libyan People’s Bureau in London was established in 1979. The change in title of the former embassy marked the 10th anniversary of Colonel Gaddafi’s coming to power in power in Libya. In February, a faction calling itself the Libyan Revolutionary Student’s Group, took control. The group claimed it would rethink relations with Britain which, it said, “has given refuge to Libya’s enemies.” In March, 27 people were injured when bombs exploded in London and Manchester. One bomb, in a Mayfair restaurant frequented by Arabs, injured 27 people.

Five “students” from the People’s Bureau in London, believed to have been connected with the explosives, were later expelled from Britain. After the incident, the Foreign Office summoned representatives of the People’s Bureau and demanded assurances that the violence would stop. These were not given. In 1989, members of the Gaddafi death squad murdered a dissident Libyan journalist in London, Mr. Mohammed Ramadan. In Brighton, two children of a dissident family became gravely ill after eating poisoned food. In Rome, two Libyan businessmen were shot dead as they drank coffee at a café. One group of dissidents in London claimed this week that Libya had recently sent a new death squad to Britain, based outside the People’s Bureau. Colonel Gaddafi, 42, seized power in 1969 in a bloody coup. President Reagan has called him “public enemy number one.”

Britain has put up with Colonel Gaddafi’s insults and eccentricities for the sake of the $500 million-a-year trading income it gains in direct exports and the indirect benefits of having so many well-paid Britons working in Libya. That situation seems sure to end soon.