DJ Libyan Pan Am 103 Compensation Offer Said $10M Per Family
05/28/2002
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
WASHINGTON (AP)--Family members of the victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing have reported to the Bush administration that Libya has promised compensation totaling $10 million to each family as part of a settlement process, a senior official said Tuesday.
Negotiations between the Libyan government and lawyers representing the families have been carried out in secret without U.S. government participation.
Compensation for families of the 270 victims is one of several demands of the U.N. Security Council in exchange for a lifting of U.N. sanctions against Libya. The dead included 181 Americans.
Last year, a Scottish court found a Libyan intelligence agent, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, guilty of murder, concluding that be planted an explosive aboard the flight, which went down in Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
The senior U.S. official said the administration has been told Libya had agreed to pay the compensation piecemeal. The release of tranches would be tied to progress toward lifting U.N. sanctions and to the lifting of a separate set of sanctions imposed unilaterally by the U.S.
The official, asking not to be identified, said the administration would not feel bound to comply with any such arrangement, describing it as outrageous.
The official added that the Congress would reject it as well. He said the U.S. couldn't commit to lifting its sanctions unless Libya is in full compliance with Security Council demands.
Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who represents some family members, said he is unable to comment on settlement negotiations.
The reported $10 million per family compensation, amounting to a total of $2.7 billion, is believed to be the largest such package of its kind.
In addition to compensation for the families, the Security Council also has demanded that Libya renounce terrorism, acknowledge responsibility for the crime and disclose all it knows about it.
If these conditions are met, the U.S. conceivably could lift its own sanctions. The U.S. has barred Americans from using their passports to travel to Libya and U.S. oil companies from operating there. In addition, Libya as one of seven countries listed by the State Department as sponsor of international terrorism, is subject to a series of economic sanctions.
Libya has shown indications of moderating its behavior recently - a point underscored in the State Department's annual report on terrorism, released last week.
"Libya appears to have curtailed its support for international terrorism, although it may maintain residual contacts with a few groups," the report said.
(END) DOW JONES NEWS 05-28-02
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