Libya to End Isolation by Compromising on Lockerbie?

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 12, 2002

Libya to End Isolation by Compromising on Lockerbie?

Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy could be nearing the end of his country's long isolation over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after groundbreaking talks with Britain last week, analysts said on Friday.

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Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy could be nearing the end of his country's long isolation over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after groundbreaking talks with Britain last week, analysts said on Friday.

Outside a drab bedouin tent on a Mediterranean beach on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammed Abderrahmane Chalgam sent a message the West has been waiting to hear.

He said Libya was "in principle" ready to pay compensation for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and address the United Nations' (UN) demands that it accept responsibility for the act - the two outstanding obligations before UN sanctions on Libya are finally lifted.

The affair dates back to December 1988 when the Pan Am jumbo jet was blown out of the sky by a bomb in its hold over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 259 passengers and crew - most of them Americans - and 11 people on the ground were killed.

Chalgam's remarks, after nearly three hours of talks between Khadafy and a British government minister, were hailed by British officials as Libya's clearest public commitment yet to meeting the UN demands.

Junior Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien also cautioned that words must be translated into action before further progress could be made towards ending years of hostility with Britain and the United States.

Washington - which has been holding three-way talks with Britain and Libya on Lockerbie - still doubts Khadafy has abandoned his fiery brand of Arab radicalism, support for militants and quest for weapons of mass destruction.

It accused him in May of still seeking to acquire chemical weapons - a charge dismissed by Chalgam, who said Libya had no time for such "silly" projects.

Jim Swire, a spokesman for families of British Lockerbie victims, said Chalgam's remarks on Lockerbie were "the first time a visible and active member of the Libyan Government has made such a comment."

"As such, it's a step forward," he said. "But it's only one step down what has already been a tortuous path."

Three years ago, the UN suspended, but did not formally lift, sanctions imposed on Libya over Lockerbie when Khadafy handed over two Libyan suspects wanted for trial. One was convicted last year, and the other was acquitted.

Lawyers acting for Libya were reported in May to have agreed to pay US$10 million each to the families of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing. Libya immediately denied any state involvement in the deal.

British officials said that Libya fears that accepting responsibility and offering compensation for Lockerbie would open it up to unlimited financial demands, as well as legal suits against its officials similar to the case brought against Chile's former leader Augusto Pinochet.

Chalgam also said any agreement on compensation would have to look at international precedents, pointedly referring to when the US Navy accidentally shot down an Iranian passenger airliner over the Gulf.

"What's the amount that America offered for the victims of the Iranian aircraft?" he asked.

The United States offered to pay US$131.8 million.

Analysts said the likely way through the legal and diplomatic minefield is for Libya to take responsibility for the acts of its officials but say they were not government sanctioned.

Although distrust is likely to run deep after many years of hostility, Britain said Libya should now be given the chance to show it has changed.

Swire said that he knew of no evidence that Khadafy had been involved in terrorism in the last decade and that most families of British victims were ready to see a rehabilitated country that had turned its back on the past.

"He did provide help by supplying information about weapons to the IRA," he said, referring to Khadafy's earlier efforts to arm Irish Republican Army guerrillas fighting British rule in Northern Ireland. "So already he has a track record of turning around."

Saad Djebbar, a lawyer and associate fellow at the Royal International Institute of International Affairs, said he is confident a compromise can be reached on Lockerbie that would satisfy all sides.

"The conditions are right now for this matter to be resolved," he said. "As far as Lockerbie is concerned, we are nearing an end."

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