Libya Opens Door to Compensating Lockerbie Victims

TRIPOLI, August 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Libya said for the first time Wednesday, August 7, it was ready in principle to negotiate compensation for the families of victims of the 1988 mid-air Lockerbie bombing.

Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham said - after groundbreaking talks between Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and British minister Mike O'Brien in the Mediterranean coastal town of Sirte - that Libya had "a real desire to close this file" which resulted in U.N. sanctions being imposed on the country.

"In principle, the question of compensation is on the table and we are ready to discuss it," Shalgham told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by telephone after the talks between Kadhafi and O'Brien, the British minister for the Middle East.

It is the first time Libya has officially announced its readiness to discuss compensation for the families of the victims of the bombing of a Pan American jumbo jet that blew up over Lockerbie, southwest Scotland in December 1988, killing all 259 passengers and crew plus 11 people on the ground.

But sources at Britain's Foreign Office went even further, saying Libya has indicated a willingness "in principle" to pay compensation to the victims.

A British Foreign Office source told AFP: "Libya gave a clear signal that it wanted to put the issue of Lockerbie behind it."

Shalgham stressed to AFP Libya's desire to "define a clear basis" on the compensation discussions, saying it would be found "in international conventions or in the jurisprudence of international law."

He added that Tripoli had not ruled out "discussing United Nations resolutions to arrive at a formula that is acceptable to all."

However, the Foreign Office source said that Kadhafi asked O'Brien to spell out exactly what he must do to comply with United Nations requirements and have sanctions against his country lifted.

Meanwhile, O'Brien told the BBC after his talks that Libya was considering the wording of a declaration of "general responsibility" for the Lockerbie bombing.

"They are looking at a form of words which they can sign up to and I hope that we will be able to agree that form of words."

O'Brien, the first British government minister to visit Tripoli in nearly 20 years, had stressed he was going to Libya to seal Kadhafi's commitment to the fight against terrorism following the September 11 attacks.

He said Kadhafi had assured him of his willingness to co-operate with the international community on issues such as weapons of mass destruction and the war against terrorism.

He added that the Libyans had given Britain intelligence on fundamentalist terror groups, including a list of names of potential suspects.

O'Brien told the BBC that Kadhafi "said all the right things, but statements need to be put to the proof, particularly on issues like weapons of mass destruction."

Libyan officials told AFP that O'Brien's meeting with the Libyan leader in a Bedouin-style beachfront tent in Sirte, 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Tripoli, was also attended by the two officials in charge of the country's Lockerbie file, its ambassadors to London and Rome, Mohammad al-Zouay and Abdel Ati Laabidi.

Kadhafi agreed in 1999 to turn over two suspects in the Lockerbie attack. Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi is now serving a life sentence in a Glasgow jail, while the other suspect was acquitted after the court found him not guilty.

U.N. sanctions imposed on the country after the bombing were then suspended but have not yet fully lifted, while the United States has imposed its own unilateral sanctions against Libya.

Preconditions for the raising of sanctions include compensating the victims' relatives, accepting responsibility for the bombing and a renunciation of terrorism.

The possibility of compensation has risen steadily in recent months. In late May, Tripoli denied having proposed a compensation scheme, but acknowledged that informal contacts were underway when a U.N. official revealed it was prepared to offer 2.7 billion dollars (2.9 billion euros) to the families of those killed in the bombing.

Talks between British, Libyan and U.S. officials on compensation were then held in London in early June. The Foreign Office said the discussions had "made progress" but were adjourned to an unspecified date.

O'Brien had also said ahead of the meeting that Kadhafi was shaking off his reputation as a global pariah, unlike Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The British minister, who arrived Tuesday, August 6, is the first one to visit Libya since 1984, when a British policewoman was killed by a shot fired from the Libyan embassy in London.