CBC News - 31 March, 2011

Libya's main rebel group is urging the Canadian government to close the conflict-torn country's embassy in Ottawa, amid accusations that diplomats may be harassing community members opposed to leader Moammar Gaddafi.

One day after the British government expelled five Libyan diplomats from the U.K. for safety reasons, Sufyan Maghur of the Libyan National Transitional Council called on Ottawa to do the same.

"They call themselves diplomats, but they don't really do anything out of the listening, watching, taping or scaring the Libyan community," Maghur said of the Libyan diplomats. "There's no real diplomatic issues that they deal with."

Some Libyan students in Canada who have spoken out against Gaddafi's regime said they recently received threatening phone calls and that they believe diplomatic staff were involved.

Safiah Aghliw, who organized a Thursday protest demanding the embassy's closure in Ottawa, said many of the students told her they were too afraid or reprisals from diplomats operating within the Libyan embassy to attend the rally.

Threats of deportations reported

"They will cut their student visas, they will deport them right away. At times, we heard reports of bribes," she said.

Baset Elzagallai, a student at the University of Western Ontario, was told his scholarship would be cancelled. He showed up at the demonstration anyway, saying he wanted the diplomats to renounce the Libyan regime.

"Their duty actually is established from the legitimacy of the people, not of a dictator," he said.

Ihab al-Mismari, the only diplomat to have defected, said his wife was recently visited and confronted by a driver working for the embassy, who called al-Mismari a traitor.

When his wife threatened to call 911, the chauffeur drove away, but also left a letter warning that al-Mismari could be charged with treason.

Ambassador declared support for Gaddafi

While British Foreign Secretary William Hague reasoned that the Libyans were sent packing because their presence in Britain was considered a possible security threat, al-Mismari's cousin, Balqees Mihirig, said Canada is being naive.

"Some of the members of the embassy are part of the Libyan intelligence services, " said Mihirig. "And those are the most dangerous people in Gaddafi's regime."

So far, Canada has not taken steps to expel any Libyan diplomat, including the head of Libya's intelligence operation in Canada, Saleh Ramadan Zaidan.

The Canadian Libyan Council recently condemned the Libyan Ambassador, Abdulrahman Abututa, for making official his support for Gaddafi on the embassy website.  (original link)