‘A Great Life--I Hate to Give It Up’ : Americans in Libya: Cloudy Future

TRIPOLI, Libya —  “I can’t believe I’ve done anything to contribute to world terrorism by teaching kids to play baseball,” said Skender Brame, an American who works at an oil company school here.

“I don’t want to appear like I’m anti-American or pro-Kadafi, because I’m not,” Brame said, referring to Libya’s leader, Col. Moammar Kadafi. “It’s just that the President’s order makes you feel like a criminal. What laws am I breaking working with these children?”

Brame, who is 50 and from Tahoe City, Calif., is the recreation director at the National Oil Co. School, an amalgam of single-story buildings that used to be known as the American School until most American children and all the American teachers left in 1981 following an earlier conflict between the United States and Libya.

Agonizing Over Future

Like most of the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 Americans remaining in Libya, Brame is agonizing over his future in the wake of President Reagan’s order Tuesday for all Americans working here to leave the country by Feb. 1.

“We’re going to comply with the order,” said Brame, who has been here for 14 years with his wife, Carol; their 13-year-old son, Greg, was born in Tripoli. “It’s been a great life, and I hate to give it up. I don’t think any American likes to be shoved.”

Interviews with American workers here suggest that most of them will comply with Reagan’s executive order and depart. But few are happy about it.

“If they threatened to put you in jail, what would you do?” said a Texan who works for a Libyan oil concern. “President Reagan is interfering with my life style, and I don’t like it. I’ve been coming here since 1966, and this is the second time I’ve been burned by the President.”

The President’s order has resulted in some soul-searching along the trim rows of small, pastel-colored bungalows of oil company housing projects outside Tripoli, such as Gargarish, Friendship Village and Zanzur.

An American who works for Libya’s National Oil Co. paused and shook his head in disbelief in front of his suburban home when asked if he would leave. “Reagan has thrown us to the wolves. What else can we do?” he asked.

While none of the workers said they felt threatened by Libyans, none of the employees of Libya-based oil companies would speak on the record.,

“We’re on the way out,” said an exploration expert for Oasis Oil from Missouri. “It won’t be easy. I can’t possibly see how this can be construed as a national emergency.”

Reagan’s order was part of a package of economic sanctions that the United States imposed in retaliation for Libya’s alleged assistance to terrorist groups such as the one that attacked Rome and Vienna airports on Dec. 27.

Kadafi has denied any responsibility for the airport attacks and, at a press conference Thursday, said he would welcome the Americans staying on.

“I shall accept all of those who choose to stay or seek political asylum,” he declared.

Most of the Americans employed in Libya are technicians working in the country’s oil fields, which are located in remote areas and are inaccessible to visiting journalists.

At Least $6,000 a Month

According to oil company officials here, however, most of the workers earn between $6,000 and $10,000 a month. They work 35 days in the desert on 12-hour shifts and then are given 35-day vacations in Europe.

At any given time, only about half the work force is in Libya.

Following a request to Americans to leave the country in 1981, most of the oil companies withdrew their American staffs and sold a majority of their local assets to the Libyan government.

In an apparent effort to protect Americans from the retaliation of their government, the Libyans also stopped putting stamps in their passports and instead now place visas on pieces of paper that can be later thrown out.

Many of the workers here are nearing the ends of their careers and say that they will find it hard to get work when they return to the United States.

“I’m 66 years old and making a lot more money than any man my age could in the States--even if he could find work,” said an accountant.