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UN to lift Libyan sanctions after France backs down

Fifteen years after the bombing of Pan Am 103, the UN Security Council was set yesterday to lift UN sanctions against Libya, triggering the release of US$2.7 billion to the families of the 270 killed in the attack.

Council approval of a resolution lifting the sanctions slapped on Libya over the 1988 midair attack over Lockerbie, Scotland, was assured after France announced on Thursday it was withdrawing a threat to veto the measure.

Paris dropped the threat after relatives of the victims of a separate 1989 bombing of a French airliner won the promise of additional compensation from Tripoli.

The US and Britain first called for adoption of the resolution last month, after Libya accepted blame for the Lockerbie bombing, renounced terrorism and agreed to put US$2.7 billion into a special account for compensating the victims, after 15 years of international pressure and negotiations.

The payment -- enough to provide up to US$10 million to each of the Lockerbie families -- deeply embarrassed France, which accepted far less a few years ago for the midair attack on a French UTA airliner over the African nation of Niger that claimed 170 lives.

France then threatened to block the US-British resolution unless it could get more money from Libya for the UTA victims.

That further irritated diplomatic ties already rubbed raw by France's successful fight to prevent London and Washington from winning advance UN approval for the war on Iraq.

Their patience wearing thin, Britain and the US agreed to five separate delays in the sanctions vote before the UTA families' announcement their efforts had born fruit. The UTA relatives came away with a promise from Libya rather than a definitive agreement, and are expected to end up with far less than the Lockerbie families.

Sources close to the talks previously indicated a sum between US$500,000 and US$1 million per family was discussed.

Libya has never officially accepted blame for the UTA bombing, but paid about US$34 million in 1999 after a French court found six Libyans guilty in absentia for the attack.

The UN sanctions, including an air and arms embargo and a ban on some oil equipment and financial assets, were imposed in 1992 and 1994 to pressure Libya to cooperate in the probe into the Pan Am attack.

The UN suspended the sanctions in 1999 after Libya turned over two bombing suspects for trial, so the new resolution will have more symbolic than practical effect.

Washington was expected to abstain in yesterday's vote for domestic political reasons, and has vowed to maintain its own separate sanctions, including a ban of Libyan oil sales to the US.

Lifting of the UN sanctions will clear the way for an initial US$4 million to be paid to each Lockerbie family.

The first payment would be followed by another US$4 million if the US eventually lifted its sanctions, and by US$2 million more if Washington dropped Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
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