Muammar Gaddafi’s regime has been in power in Libya since 1969 — the duration of eight U.S. presidencies, beginning with President Richard Nixon. In February of this year, major political protests broke out against the regime, and Gaddafi’s forces have responded violently — killing hundreds of Libyan protesters.

Currently, 59 Libyan students are enrolled at MSU and have been monitoring the situation in their country closely.

“In Libya, if you got into any kind of confrontation with any of Gaddafi’s sons or relatives, then there’s no justice for you,” Gibril said. “You could be killed, or you would just disappear. Anything could happen to you.”

Gibril is one of 35 Libyan students who are a part of the MSU Visiting International Professionals Program, or VIPP — selected by the Libyan government to study abroad. At the end of March, the program funding was pulled by the Libyan National Economic Development Board, or NEDB, amidst government chaos leaving students and MSU officials searching for options.

Influence from abroad
While Gibril was growing up, a different kind of chaos — one orchestrated partially by a former MSU student, Moussa Koussa — was taking place. Koussa, who earned his master’s degree in sociology from MSU in 1978, returned to Libya as an ambassador and later as the chief of the Libyan intelligence agency. He has been linked to the 1988 Lockerbie bombings in the United Kingdom and numerous murders of Libyan dissidents abroad.

In 1988, Pan American World Airways Flight 103 crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, when a bomb detonated on board killing 270 people, including 189 Americans.

Later in his career, Koussa would go on to head the foreign ministry, the body which helped Libyan students pursue higher education outside the country.

The VIPP was one of the programs students were sent to during his time with the ministry.

Gibril first heard of the VIPP at MSU when he was returning from the United Kingdom after earning his master’s degree in global politics and intercultural studies. He met with the director of the NEDB who suggested he apply.

“I said, ‘Why not?’” Gibril said.

Gibril didn’t have any direct interaction with Koussa — only the NEDB. But Koussa was one of the principal contacts responsible for rebuilding the relationship between the U.S. and Libya when he began working as the head of the foreign ministry in 2009, said Salah Hassan, associate professor of English and a core faculty member in the Muslim Studies Program.

One year later, in January 2010, VIPP students from Libya began to arrive on campus.

There have been initiatives by the Department of State to build education exchange programs with Libya for the past six or seven years, trying to rebuild relations that had deteriorated in the 1980s, Hassan said.

The VIPP program is a non-degree professional education program designed for mid-level career professionals from across the world, university spokesman Kent Cassella said. The program lasts two years — the first focusing on learning English and the second year learning a specific area of study, he said. In the case of the Libyan students, that meant a basic understanding of international relations.

MSU also has VIPP students from countries such as Japan, Taiwan and China, Cassella said.

According to Cassella, about 10,000 Libyans originally applied for the program, which targeted potential future diplomats. Of those, 600 passed an exam, and 90 were selected for scholarships to study abroad. Thirty-five of these students are the ones currently at MSU.

The program was slated to end in December of this year. That nearly came to a halt March 29 when MSU received a letter from NEDB indicating it wanted the program to end March 31, Cassella said.

Right about the same time, on March 30 — in a seemingly unrelated incident — Koussa defected from his position with the Libyan government.

MSU officials decided to continue the program through the end of the semester, and the students’ visas will expire 30 days after their program ends, said Dawn Pysarchik, senior associate dean for international studies and programs.

“We’ve been very concerned about our Libyan participants and students,” she said. “We’ve really assembled a broad base of representatives here on campus that handle all sorts of issues related to international students.”

Once their visas expire, the students in the program will have to apply for asylum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services if they want to avoid returning home.

If they do choose to apply for asylum, each student’s application would be reviewed by the department to determine if he or she has a founded fear of prosecution upon their return home significant enough to allow them to stay in the country without a visa, said Marilu Cabrera, spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Cabrera said conflict in Libya is not grounds enough for granting everyone for the country asylum.

“There isn’t a law for governments in turmoil,” Cabrera said. “We would handle it on a case-by-case basis to determine if there is a risk, taking into consideration the applicant’s testimony and any evidence available.”

A home in turmoil
For Gibril, returning to Libya is not an option. When he began to hear reports that his neighborhood back home was being bombarded by Gaddafi’s forces a few weeks ago, threatening the safety of his family and friends, he openly began to speak out against the Libyan government — holding protests on campus and at the Capitol.

This doesn’t sit well in a country where saying something as simple as, “I don’t like Gaddafi,” can cause a person to be detained in jail for a few days, said Gibril, who is serving as a spokesperson for about 18 students pursuing U.S. asylum procedures.

“For many of us, returning to Libya would mean suicide,” he said.

Hassan said any students involved in protests who were photographed or quoted in the press likely would not be treated well by the Gaddafi regime upon return. The government funded their studies in the U.S. — a number Cassella quoted at $55,600 per participant — and critiquing the regime puts them and their families in a critical position, Hassan said.

“They’re expressing their free speech rights in the U.S. as students,” he said.

“It’s an impossible situation for them.”

Other students are eager to return to Libya. Ambarek Elatrash, also a VIPP student, entered the program to learn the skills he needed to become a diplomat in Libya. Now, he hopes to return to Libya and be involved in the negotiations it will take for the government to undergo reforms to solve the “big mess” his country is facing.

He does not feel his personal safety is in danger if he returns, he said.

“It’s all about dialogue without interference from anyone from outside (countries),” Elatrash said.

“Change has to be (from) within.”

But Gibril said change will be difficult in a country where people such as Koussa have held power.

“(Koussa) is a figure that you hear about and you want to stay away from,” he said.

Gibril said he can’t remember a time in Libya when free speech was allowed.

“Within Libya, you don’t have a position,” he said. “If you’re against Gaddafi, you’re dead, so you can’t be against anything.”

Koussa on campus
During the years Koussa attended MSU, there was a general increase in the number of Middle Eastern students on campus, sociology professor Tom Conner said.

In the 1980s, Libya went through a cultural revolution — burning all foreign books and banning languages except for Arabic from being taught at schools, Gibril said.

When Koussa was at MSU in the 1970s, he already had expressed his support for the Gaddafi regime.

Conner was the associate chair and graduate program director of the sociology department in 1978 when Koussa wrote a 214-page thesis paper, which praised Gaddafi and his regime. Conner said he never had Koussa in any classes, and he did not know him personally — but from what he heard from other professors, Koussa was a diligent student.

Conner was a friend of professor Christopher Vanderpool – Koussa’s thesis adviser – and consulted him about the validity of Koussa’s thesis. Conner said he didn’t think it was “up to snuff” by his standard, but Vanderpool approved of it.

During his time at MSU, Koussa was part of what Conner referred to as the “conflict and change” group, a faction of the sociology department organized by professors James McKee and John Useem – both of whom Koussa thanked in his thesis. The group focused on the necessity of conflict in bringing about social and political change, Conner said.

It was understood throughout the sociology department Koussa would not pursue a doctorate after earning his master’s degree but instead return to Libya to join the revolution he wrote so passionately about in his thesis, Conner said. Koussa then went on to become an ambassador to the United Kingdom.

“I was not surprised that he went to England after his (master’s degree),” Conner said in an email. “He approved — and probably ordered — the assassination of Libyan dissidents in England. Nor was I surprised that intelligence agency evidence implicates him in planning the bombing of the airliner over Scotland.”

Conner said Vanderpool, Useem and McKee were the people closest to Koussa during his time at MSU.

Vanderpool and Useem have since died and McKee, who is in his early 90s, does not fully recall having worked with Koussa.

Harry Schwarzweller, a retired sociology professor who was in the department in 1978, does remember Koussa but has a different memory of him than Conner — not as a politically active Libyan nationalist but rather as the handsome, young kid with the red convertible.

Other than one chance encounter, Schwarzweller said he did not associate with Koussa outside of school, but his impression was positive.

“I was waiting at the bus stop in front of Berkey (Hall), and he actually stopped and offered me a ride home,” Schwarzweller said. “He ended up coming in and having cheese and crackers with my wife and I.”

Schwarzweller said there were several students from Libya in the department at the time, as well as Iranian and Palestinian students – most of whom were too nervous to participate in any type of protesting. Schwarzweller didn’t know Koussa well enough on a personal level, so he couldn’t comment definitively on his activities. But, he said for the most part the Libyan students kept to themselves.

“The nervousness from the Libyan (students) was about their own people — they were worried that some might be spies,” he said.

Overseas connection
Recently, the number of degree-seeking Libyan students also has been on the rise. In 2007, there were no Libyan students at MSU. In 2008, the number rose to six. The following year, the number was at 32 and now is holding at 59, including the VIPP students.

There are currently 24 degree-seeking students from Libya — outside of the VIPP — including a graduate student, who chose to go only by the name Taher out of concern for personal safety.

Taher was not selected by the Libyan government to come to MSU, but he does receive some government aid. He said he will be able to keep the scholarship for now but does not know what the future will hold.

“The situation in Libya is very bad, (and) I cannot go back for a while,” he said. “I contact my family almost everyday by phone, (but) all the phone lines are monitored — so it’s very difficult to talk about the things that are going on.”

Taher only can contact his mother because he is afraid, if he tries to contact any of his brothers, the government will go after them.
Gaddafi’s regime has been killing people who oppose the government for years, and a change is long overdue, Taher said.

“They control everything; every small decision and big decision, they make it,” he said.

“People there are suffering, lacking everything — health care, education, everything.”

Peter Briggs, director of the Office for International Students and Scholars, said in the past MSU has not always been up to par in terms of keeping in contact with its international graduates as it has with its domestic alumni.

“Historically, I couldn’t say (MSU has) been as focused on keeping up with international students (as it has with U.S. graduates),” he said. “But we are making steps in the right direction.”

Going home
Before coming to the U.S., Gibril worked with the United Nations in Libya. He also was offered a position as an assistant to one of Gaddafi’s son’s assistants — something he politely declined since he has no aims of seeking power in the country.

If someone asked him two months ago, Gibril said he would have said he loved his country and its leader. When the reports came in a few weeks ago that his neighborhood was being bombed, he didn’t want to put on a happy face any longer. At any moment, he feared he would receive a phone call saying a relative or friend had been killed.

“We know Gaddafi’s regime — it’s not something new,” Gibril said. “Anyone who would be decent enough to tell the truth would tell you there’s no value for human life in Libya.”

Cassella said a team at MSU — including Pysarchik, other VIPP and international studies and program faculty — are working with U.S. agencies and partners to identify possible options for the VIPP students once their program comes to a close in May.

“Our primary concern is, as it always is, for our students,” he said. “We want to make sure that these students have the opportunity to, if they want to, stay and continue their studies. Right now, we don’t know if that’s going to be an option.”

Although Gibril understands the university will not be able to provide the students’ funding, he hopes it will be able to provide the students who wish to remain in the U.S. with university housing until their situation is sorted out.

Returning to Libya is not something that’s out of the question forever.

Gibril said he misses the social life and night life back home — calling East Lansing “a bit quiet” — and hopes to return to his apartment by the seaside.

But while Gaddafi is in power, he fears for his safety, he said.

“I am 200 percent sure, if I enter Libya, I’m dead,” he said.

“Personally, I would rather sleep on the streets than go back now.”