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Libya ties French compensation to sanctions vote
Jordan Times, Sunday, August 31, 2003
PARIS (Reuters) — Libya is ready to improve compensation for the families of those killed in a 1989 French airliner bombing if Paris backs the end of UN sanctions against Libya, an adviser to Tripoli told Reuters on Saturday. Saad Djebbar, a London-based lawyer who has worked with the Libyans over the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, said that an intervention by French President Jacques Chirac could break the deadlock.
"I am sure that if President Chirac picked up the phone today and told Colonel Muammar Qadhafi that France would not veto the resolution, or better still that it would vote for the resolution, that this will pave the way for better conditions for the families," he told Reuters.
Chirac telephoned Qadhafi last weekend to urge him to offer more cash, but a presidential spokeswoman declined to say whether the French leader planned to make a second call.
In a surprise development, however, the French foreign ministry said representatives of the families left for Tripoli late on Saturday afternoon for a fresh round of negotiations.
Diplomatic sources said the UN Security Council vote on ending sanctions against Libya — twice delayed by its sponsor Britain to allow more time for Franco-Libyan negotiations — had been tentatively rescheduled for Wednesday.
The French foreign ministry was unable to confirm that date.
Veto-wielding France has said it cannot allow UN sanctions to be lifted until Libya increases the $34 million compensation paid to families of the 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner over Africa.
Britain moved to end UN sanctions imposed on Libya over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after Tripoli agreed this month to pay $2.7 billion to families of the Lockerbie victims.
To avoid another embarrassing split in the Security Council after the row over the Iraq war, London twice agreed with Paris to delay the vote. But Britain signalled this week it was not prepared to wait indefinitely.
Libyan irritation
Although Libya has not admitted responsibility for the UTA bombing, it did pay compensation after a Paris court convicted six Libyans for the bombing in absentia.
A source familiar with the Libyan position, who did not wish to be identified, said Libya was irritated that France was using the Lockerbie award to justify demanding more cash for French families years after the original UTA settlement.
Tripoli had wanted a deal to be ready in time for Monday's national holiday, which marks the anniversary of the coup that brought Qadhafi to power in 1969.
The source told Reuters Libya had to date offered around $300,000 per family — far above the original payment — to be paid by a fund run by Qadhafi's son Saif Al Islam. He declined to say whether Tripoli was prepared to increase its offer.
If France backed the UN vote, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam could meet his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin and publicly state Libya's intention to make a gesture towards the UTA families, the source added.
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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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