Many blacks slain before the exodus

TECHIMAN, Ghana - Ghanaian migrant workers who recently returned from Libya after attacks there against black Africans said they are relieved to be home, though their hopes of finding their fortunes have been destroyed.

At least 5,200 Ghanaians have returned since October after violence against blacks that, by unofficial accounts, left more than 135 dead. In addition, thousands of laborers from Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, and other nations have fled Libya, taking a strong resentment toward Libyans with them.

''It was not easy, because being a black man, you can't live there simply,'' said George Auther, 26, who returned after spending two years in Libya as a builder's apprentice. ''You can't move around freely. The problem is, the Libyans don't like blacks.''

Although the violence appears to have eased, the attacks threaten to undermine efforts by Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy to drum up support for a union of African nations.

Ostracized by the West, Khadafy has sought to build African solidarity and in recent years has eased immigration rules, increasing the number of black African workers in Libya to about one-sixth of the nation's population of more than 5 million.

But with the Libyan economy under strain in recent years from lower oil prices and a trade embargo, animosity toward migrant workers seems to have boiled over. The violence erupted in September, after an order by Libyan authorities to crack down on employment of foreign workers. Officials also accused some black Africans of making illegal alcohol, running brothels, and engaging in financial scams.

Khadafy laid the violence to ''hidden hostile hands'' bent on sabotaging his plans for greater African unity. Many of the repatriated laborers, who expressed support for the Libyan leader's pan-African ideals, attributed the hostility to racism.

''President Khadafy has a good idea, but his people don't like blacks, and they don't think they are Africans because of their skin color,'' said Kwame Amponsah, 22, a Ghanian who spent three months in Libya.

The goals of most of the migrant laborers are to make money to send home and eventually to find passage to Europe. Desperation has led thousands of Ghanaians between 18 and 30 to make the monthlong trip through at least two other countries, risking banditry and starvation and braving the Sahara Desert to reach Tripoli.

''I had made up my mind that I would not come back to Ghana,'' said Auther. But he counts himself lucky, saying he was the only one of four housemates in Tripoli who was not killed.