Libya Accepts Responsibility for Lockerbie Bombing, Asks Lift of Sanctions

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, August 16, 2003

Libya Accepts Responsibility for Lockerbie Bombing, Asks Lift of Sanctions

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Libya formally accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and demanded an end to an 11-year United Nations sanctions against it, in a letter it delivered to the UN Security Council on Friday.

Libya "has facilitated the brining to justice of the two suspects charged with the bombing of Pan Am 103, and accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials," it said in the letter, handed to current president of the Security Council, Mikhail Wehbe, Syria's UN ambassador.

Libya also pledged to renounce terrorism in all its forms and cooperate fully with the investigators in the probe of the bombing,which killed 259 aboard and 11 on the ground.

Libya "affirms that it will have fulfilled all Security Councilrequirements relevant to the Lockerbie incident upon transfer of the necessary sums to the agreed escrow account," it read, referring to 2.7 billion US dollars it has agreed on in compensations to the relatives of the 270 victims.

Libya is therefore "requesting that upon that event the UN Security Council immediately lift the measures set forth in its resolutions" adopted in 1992 and 1993, it added.

On behalf of the other two parties involved in the dispute overPan Am 103, British Ambassador to the UN, Emyr Jones Parry, and USDeputy Political Counselor, Gordon Olson, also delivered letters to Wahbe, confirming Libya has met conditions set for the lifting of the UN sanctions.

"It sets out very clearly what it believes to be its responsibility, and the British government believes -- as does theAmerican government -- that it fulfills the commitment," Parry said of the three separate letters.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters that Britain would soon table a draft resolution to the Security Council to remove the UN sanctions on Libya.

But a US official was quoted by media reports as saying earlierthat the removal of the UN sanctions will not mean an automatic end of US sanctions against the country.

In Helsinki, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the United Nations will lift sanctions against Libya as the country has agreed to accept the responsibility for the bombing.

An air and arms embargo on Libya were imposed by the UN Security Council in March 1992 to pressure it to extradite two Libyan agents, Abdel Basset Ali el-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, who are charged with plotting the bombing.

In December 1993, further UN sanctions were imposed, including the freezing of Libyan assets in foreign banks and an embargo on oil industry-related equipment.

The United Nations suspended some sanctions on arms sales and flights in 1999 after Libya agreed the suspects were extradited and could serve terms in Scotland if convicted.

The French government insisted that before the UN sanctions on Tripoli were lifted, the compensation from Libya for the 1989 downing of a French airliner must be increased.

"France is not prepared to waver on this," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Cecile Pozzo di Borgo, said Thursday. She added that Libya should provide more compensation for the families of the 170people killed in the attack against a DC 10 airliner of the FrenchUTA airline, flying from Brazzaville to Paris, on September 19, 1989.

Under a 1999 bilateral deal, Libya agreed to pay from 3,000 to 30,000 euros (3,400 to 34,000 dollars) to each of the victims of the French airliner, which seemed too little compared to the average of 8.8 million euros (10 million dollars) to each of the victims of the American airliner.

"France has revised its policy last year and decided to try to obtain an increase of payouts for the victims of DC 10," reported the French daily, Le Figaro, on Friday.

"The signal came from Tripoli. The son of Kadhafi, Seif al-Islam,when staying in Paris in February 2002, has implied to families ofthe victims that a new accord was possible," said the paper.

The firmness of the French demand was highlighted after Libya agreed on Wednesday to instruct its central bank to pay 2.7 billion US dollars in compensation to the families of the victims.

Relatives of the victims on Friday welcomed the official confirmation of the compensation offer, but said they would continue efforts to seek an independent inquiry.

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