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Libya foundation offers compensation for Berlin bombing
Jordan Times
Friday-Saturday, August 29-30, 2003
BERLIN (AFP) — A charity foundation headed by Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's son offered Thursday to pay compensation to the relatives of three people killed in a 1986 nightclub bombing in Berlin. The offer follows Tripoli's overt attempts to return to the diplomatic fold, accepting responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in the hope of pushing the UN Security Council to lift sanctions against it.
In a statement in Berlin, the Qadhafi Foundation said that its "gesture of humanity" over the nightclub attack was not an admission of responsibility.
The blast at the La Belle nightclub, popular with US servicemen, killed two American soldiers and a Turkish woman and wounded more than 250 people.
The German government welcomed the statement.
"The press release of the International Qadhafi Foundation represents a new element in the context of Germany-Libyan contacts regarding the La Belle attacks and should thus be welcomed," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
"Now it is an issue of reaching a specific agreement with the family members and victims of the attacks about the exact details of the compensation.
"The foreign ministry will energetically continue its efforts to find a just solution."
Fhami Najar, the Berlin coordinator for the foundation, which is headed by Qadhafi's son Saif Al Islam, confirmed the offer but could provide no further details.
In its communique, the foundation said it would "seek talks with relatives in the near future in order to find a swift and uncomplicated solution to the problem."
Najar said the statement was a first step in the process.
Earlier this month Libya formally took responsibility for the December 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie that killed 270 people.
The US State Department, citing lawyers for the Pan Am families, said that Libya's promised compensation of $2.7 was transferred into a Swiss bank last week.
In return for the pay-out, Tripoli had negotiated for a series of diplomatic measures aimed at ending its status as a supporter of terrorism.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported recently that Libya was also thinking of offering compensation for the Berlin bombing.
The United States accused Libya of the nightclub attack shortly afterwards, and 10 days later bombed the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, killing 40 people including Qadhafi's young adopted daughter.
In November 2001 a German court sentenced two Palestinians, a German and a Libyan to long jail terms for the bombing after a trial lasting four years.
But the court also said the Libyan intelligence services were at least partly to blame and the German government subsequently asked Tripoli to acknowledge its part and compensate the victims.
Three years ago, the Qadhafi Foundation mediated in the release of German hostages held on the Philippines' Jolo Island, giving "development aid" to the kidnappers, the radical Islamic Abu Sayyaf group.
Earlier this month, it claimed to have played a key role in the release of 14 European hostages held in the Sahara desert.
It said it had made contact with the Islamic extremist group holding them, passed a message to the European governments concerned and reduced the ransom that was being demanded.
The hostages, including nine Germans, returned home last week. Germany has refused to comment on how their release was brought about.
Britain has proposed a UN Security Council resolution on lifting sanctions against Libya, but no vote has been held yet. Germany is currently one of the 10 nonpermanent members of the 15-strong council.
France is threatening to scupper the resolution if Libya does not also pay compensation to relatives of victims of the 1989 bombing of a French UTA plane in line with that paid to the Lockerbie families.
The Qadhafi Foundation is also involved in Tripoli's negotiations with the UTA victims' families, who say a 1999 compensation payment of $33 million was too small.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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