Libya said yesterday it may consider paying compensation to the Lockerbie victims -- but it will never accept responsibility for the bombing.
Amid conflicting signals from the Tripoli government, Washington and London united in insisting that Libya must pay up and accept the blame.
PHOTO: AP
Libyan state-run television said on Wednesday that a Libyan convicted on Wednesday of murdering 270 people in the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing would lodge an appeal.
It said defense lawyers would appeal within 14 days against the court's verdict on Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, 49. Another Libyan, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, was found not guilty by the special Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.
Fahima left the Netherlands yesterday morning for Libya, the Dutch Justice Ministry said.
"He's on the way to Libya," spokesman Victor Holtus said. "He left Soesterberg [airbase] at 11:30 this morning."
Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima flew home on a Dutch Air Force Hercules aircraft, under the responsibility of the UN, and arrived at Maatika airport in Tripoli later yesterday and was immediately surrounded by journalists.
Holtus could not say for sure if Fahima's destination was the Libyan capital Tripoli, a journey which he estimated would take around four hours.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam said Libya wished "to turn a new page in its relations with Britain and the US and establish new relations based on respect for its sovereignty and independence."
But "we will not give in to blackmail," he added in a statement faxed to the media.
Libya's ambassador to Britain said that once the appeal process was over, Libya may consider paying compensation.
"After the appeal result, in that time we can speak about compensation and we will fulfil our duty as we said before to the Security Council," Mohammed al-Zwai told BBC Radio. "But we still think not now."
Pressed on whether Libya was considering the question of compensation, he said: "If our people are guilty we will pay any compensation in that time." He stressed that nothing was final until the appeal had run its course.
But there may be another major stumbling block to the lifting of UN sanctions against Libya which was accused for years by the West of actively promoting state terrorism.
Asked by the BBC in Tripoli if Libya would accept responsibility for Lockerbie, the country's foreign minister, Mohammed Abderrahmane Chalgam, replied: "Never."
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said London would be pushing for compensation from Libya "extremely hard."
He said both he and US Secretary of State Colin Powell agreed that before sanctions could be lifted, Libya must fulfill all the requirements of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
"That means that they have to accept responsibility for the appalling mass murder, destruction of Pan Am 103 and they also have to pay further compensation to the relatives," he told BBC radio.
"I was quite interested, the ambassador did not rule out taking these further steps. What he was saying is it will have to wait until the appeal is discharged."
Should the convicted man choose to appeal, he will "of course have a fair hearing, as he's already had a fair trial," Cook said.
"But in the event of the guilty verdict standing, Libya has to accept that it must take those two further steps."
President George W. Bush adopted a similar stance after the conviction. He insisted that Libya must take responsibility for the bombing and pay compensation before the lifting of sanctions will be considered.
In New York, Libya's UN Ambassador Abuzed Omar Dorda told CNN that Libya as a state had had nothing to do with the Lockerbie bombing. He said Libya wanted normal relations with the outside world.
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
Singapore yesterday swore in Lawrence Wong (黃循財) as the city-state’s new prime minister in a ceremony broadcast live on television after Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) stepped down following two decades in office. Wong, formerly deputy prime minister, was inaugurated at the Istana government office shortly after 8pm to become the second person outside the Lee family to lead the nation. “I ... do solemnly swear that I will at all times faithfully discharge my duties as prime minister according to law, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. So help me God,” the
BASIC OPERATIONS: About half a dozen navy ships from both countries took part in the days-long exercise based on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea An unpublicized joint military exercise between Taiwan and the US in the Pacific Ocean last month was carried out in accordance with an international code, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. According to a Reuters report citing four unnamed sources, the two nations’ navies last month conducted joint drills in the Western Pacific. The drills were not made public at the time, but “about half-a-dozen navy ships from both sides, including frigates and supply and support vessels, participated in the days-long exercises,” Reuters reported, citing the sources. The drills were designed to practice “basic” operations such as communications, refueling and resupplies,
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for