OWN CORRESPONDENT | Friday 2.45pm.
THE United Nations Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution to suspend sanctions against Libya pending the arrival of the two Lockerbie bombing suspects in the Netherlands for trial.
The resolution, designed to pressure Libya into sending the suspects to the Netherlands as soon as possible, also threatens additional measures if the suspects fail to show up for trial before a panel of three Scottish judges under Scottish law.
In what has been described as “nothing more than a very polite statement”, Libyan ambassador Abuzed Dorda before the resolution told the council that Libya “accepts that the two suspects be tried in a Scottish court in the Netherlands by Scottish judges according to Scottish law.” He then listed a series of procedural difficulties which need “ironing out”. Responding to the Libyan statement, US charge d’affaires Peter Burleigh said: “We deeply regret the hostile and negative content and tone of the Libyan representative tonight. What we need now from the Libyans is not aggressive, equivocal or conditional statements, but simple straightforward acceptance.”
Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi on Thursday confirmed the amorphous nature of Libya’s response by saying he is skeptical of US and British intentions, and that a number of details are agreed upon.
“I expect mines to be put in the way of this solution. I expect mines, tricks to make the trial impossible,” he said on a television interview in Libyan capital Tripoli.
One point he wants clarified, Gadaffi said, is what the appeal process will be in the event the two suspects are found guilty of the crime. “[The suspects] are not tins of fruit, they are people,” he said.