Closure was in the offing for families of victims of a 1989 French passenger jet bombing who were planning to sign a compensation accord with Libya yesterday. The deal would also open the way to a new era of ties between Tripoli and Paris.
An agreement was to be signed yesterday with a foundation headed by the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and the families of victims, said a spokesman for the families.
The Sept. 19, 1989, bombing of an UTA airlines jet flight over the Niger desert killed all 170 people aboard. The victims' families came from 17 countries, but France, with 54 dead, had the heaviest casualties.
An accord in principle was signed in September that cleared the path for the international community to lift 11-year-old sanctions against Libya. However, a deadline for a final accord passed without progress.
The arrival in Paris on Thursday of Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam made a deal look certain.
The minister was to meet separately later yesterday with President Jacques Chirac and his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin.
Under the agreement, each family will get a maximum of US$1 million, sources at the Qaddafi organization in Tripoli said on Thursday. The figure could not be immediately confirmed.
The agreement is a follow-up to the US$33 million Libya paid in the case in a 1999 deal.
Also taking part in the signing were SOS-Attentats, a French group that works for the rights of victims of terrorist attacks, and the French state bank charged with handling the funds, the Caisse de Depot et Consignations, said Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, spokesman for the families.
Denoix de Saint Marc lost his father in the bombing for which six Libyans -- including a brother-in-law of Qaddafi -- were convicted in absentia by a French court. They remain at large.
Grieving families sought increased compensation once Libya agreed to pay a far higher sum -- US$2.7 billion -- to relatives of the 270 victims of the 1988 downing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland.
While neither France nor Libya is officially involved in the compensation deal, French authorities have made clear that an agreement would help open the way to a new era in ties.
The pact would be the latest overture by Libya to throw off its image as a rogue state and return to the good graces of Europe and the US. Qaddafi last month abruptly renounced efforts to build weapons of mass destruction and opened his country's arms production facilities to international inspection.
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