Libya takes responsibility for Lockerbie in UN letter
Sat Aug 16, 6:42 AM ET
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UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Libya has formally accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, in a letter handed to the United Nations (news - web sites).
AFP/File Photo
"Libya, as a sovereign state, has facilitated the bringing to justice of the two suspects charged with the bombing of Pan Am 103 (news - web sites) and accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials," said the letter, which was handed on Friday to the current president of the UN Security Council by Libya's ambassador to the UN, Ahmed Own.
The letter, which followed years of talks with the families of the 270 dead, said Libya had "arranged for the payment of appropriate compensation" to victims' families.
"A special fund has been established and instructions have been issued to transmit the necessary sums to an agreed escrow account within a matter of days," it said.
A US official had said earlier that Libya's letter would confirm it intended to deposit 2.7 billion dollars in a Swiss account as early as Tuesday but the letter did not mention those details.
A separate letter to the UN, the US and Britain said they were prepared to allow the lifting of UN sanctions on Libya "once the necessary sums" had been transferred to a holding account.
Britain said on Saturday it would "shortly" table a draft Security Council resolution lifting the sanctions now that Libya had accepted responsibility for the bombing, agreed to pay compensation, renounced "terrorism" and pledged cooperation in any further Lockerbie probes.
Friday's letter marked "the proper re-emergence of Libya into the international community", Britain's junior Foreign Office minister, Denis MacShane, said in a statement.
"Libya has met all the remaining requirements of the UN Security Council on Lockerbie. We are therefore supporting the lifting of sanctions by the UN."
The White House said on Friday it would not oppose the lifting of UN sanctions but separate US sanctions would remain in effect until Tripoli addressed concerns about its "threatening ... behaviour".
"The United States has notified the United Nations Security Council that it will not oppose the lifting of UN sanctions on Libya, which were suspended in 1999," the White House said in a statement.
"(But) the Libyan regime's behaviour -- including its poor human rights record and lack of democratic institutions, its destructive role in perpetuating regional conflicts in Africa and its continued and worrisome pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their related delivery systems -- remains a cause for serious concern," it said.
"The United States will intensify its efforts to end threatening elements of Libya's behaviour and US bilateral sanctions on Libya will remain in full force until Libya addresses these concerns."
"Libya must also continue to take definitive action to assist in the fight against international terrorism."
The president of the UN Security Council, Syrian ambassador Mikhail Wehbe, said he was "delighted" to have received the letters and expected a draft resolution to be put to the Council on Monday.
But a dispute with France could prove a stumbling block.
France has threatened to veto the lifting of sanctions unless Libya increases compensation to the families of 170 people who were killed in the bombing of a French UTA aircraft over Niger in 1989.
Libya has already paid 30 million euros (33 million dollars) under what Tripoli and Paris said last October was "a definitive resolution" of the UTA matter. But the French foreign ministry insisted on Thursday that a "complementary settlement" should now also be made in light of the Lockerbie deal.
The initial sum Libya paid France went to only a third of the victims' families -- only those kin who had registered as civil plaintiffs in a French trial of the case -- and each payment ranged from 3,000 to 30,000 euros, compared to the 8.8 million euros to be paid to the families under the Lockerbie arrangement.
"We have been very clear (with the French) about the depth of our concern that we move ahead on Lockerbie," said a US official in Washington after talks between Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin.
"I understand the concerns about UTA families but our bottom-line concern is to ensure that the interests of the families in the case of Pan Am 103 are protected and that we move ahead," the official said.
Responding to the news in London on Friday, Reverend John Mosey, whose 19-year-old daughter Helga died in the Lockerbkie bombing, said families of victims would continue to push for an independent inquiry.
"For some I hope the compensation will bring closure. For many of us it is almost a distraction to finding the truth about why this horrendous thing was allowed to happen," he said. |
