For the LSE to revoke the alumni status of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and to cease all cooperation with the Libyan regime

In light of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Libya, the country's 42-year dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, deployed his troops and foreign mercenaries in a brutal crackdown on anti-dictatorship protesters. This has resulted in the killing of at least 233 people in Benghazi alone as of Sunday, according to Human Rights Watch. We were shocked to find out that the LSE has accepted a 1.5 million donation from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF); an NGO headed by Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.

The regime of Muammar Gaddafi has a record that is known to all, and his son - Saif - has always been an integral part of the regime. We are astonished that the donation was accepted in the first place. We are even more astonished by the LSE press release which stated that [i]t is a generous donation from an NGO committed to the promotion of civil society and the development of democracy". This is clearly a laughable statement.

The situation is even more critical and ethically less ambiguous now than when the press release was made. Saif Gaddafi made a speech on behalf of the Libyan regime late on Sunday 20 February 2011. In his speech, he accused protesters of being "drunkards, thugs and drug addicts". He also threatened that Libyans would be "mourning hundreds of thousands of casualties", and that the Gaddafi's would "fight to the last bullet". Gaddafi continued to say that "rivers of blood will be shed". The speech was nothing but an attempt to terrorise the people of Libya.

Any attempt now to claim that Saif Gaddafi is a reformer, a pro-democracy voice, and a "promoter of civil society" is nothing short of preposterous. We feel troubled by the school's association with Saif Gaddafi, and we demand a quick and public action towards the donation made by him to the LSE. If the association was questionable at the time when the donation was made, it is certainly unacceptable now. We welcome the school's attempt to issue a letter on the LSE website on Monday 20th of February but find that it does not do enough to distance the LSE from the brutal Libyan regime and its gross violations of Human Rights.

There is a precedent set by Imperial College Business School when the school decided to drop the Tanaka name from its title after Gary Tanaka had been charged with fraud. If Imperial College felt it was necessary to disassociate itself from an alleged fraudster, we believe it's absolutely crucial for the LSE to disassociate itself from a prominent face (and heir apparent) of a 42-year dictatorship and a mass murderer.

We demand that the School must immediately act to distance itself from the brutal Libyan regime and its bloodstained money by:

a) revoking Saif Gaddafi's LSE alumni status, as his public statement on Sunday 20th of February and the various reports issued by International Human Rights Organisations clearly demonstrate that he is implicated in the killing of innocent civilians as well as other human rights violations. His association with the LSE community and particularly its student body is a disgrace that is not tolerated by the LSE staff, students and alumni

b) rejecting the rest of the yearly installments that are being received from the 1.5 Million donation of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) and work towards creating a scholarship fund for underprivileged Libyan students using the 300k that LSE has already accepted and not spent yet

c) refraining from cooperating with the Libyan regime and any other dictatorial regimes that are known to be implicated in gross violations of human rights

d) publicly committing that no grants from officials of such oppressive regimes will be accepted in the future by establishing a set of standards and a process of democratic decision-making with student representation that determines whether or not the School should accept money coming from controversial donors

Failing to do these would not only betray the LSE's ethical values, it would also tarnish the School's reputation in a region whose people are currently fighting to reclaim their freedom from corrupt dictatorships--and are winning the fight so far.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.