Libya has reached an agreement with France on compensation for the 1989 bombing of a French airliner, Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi said last night, adding that the deal should allow the Lockerbie case to be closed, and that it marked a fresh start in relations with the West.
”The problem over the UTA case is over and the Lockerbie case is now behind us. We are opening a new page in our relations with the west,” he said in a televised speech on the 34th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power.
For the past 10 days, the families of the 170 victims of the French UTA DC-10, which exploded over the Niger desert on September 19 1989, have been negotiating for more money with a charitable fund headed by Gadaffi’s son Saif al-Islam.
The need for a deal became urgent when Britain proposed ending the United Nations (UN) sanctions imposed on Libya for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after Tripoli agreed earlier this month to pay $2,7-billion to the families of the Lockerbie victims.
Lifting the sanctions will clear the way for ending Libya’s international isolation. France, a permanent member of the UN security council, threatened to use its veto to block the resolution unless Tripoli increased its compensation to the relatives of those who died on UTA flight 772.
Wary of a repeat of the bitter security council row with France on the Iraq war, London has twice delayed introducing its motion. But it said it would table it this week, because it could not hold off indefinitely and risk jeopardising its own hard-fought deal for the 270 victims of the 1988 PanAm bombing over Lockerbie.
In 1999 a French court convicted six Libyans, including Gadaffi’s brother-in-law, in absentia for the UTA bombing, and although Libya has never admitted responsibility, it paid $33-million in compensation that year, giving the relatives of each victim about $194 000.
France pressed for more after Libya agreed to pay the Lockerbie families more than 25 times as much.
”We want the sanctions against Libya lifted, but we want fair treatment for the UTA victims,” its deputy UN ambassador, Michel Duclos, said last week.
He added: ”This principle of non-discrimination between the victims of terrorism is … something very important for us. We are not prepared to make concessions.”
In fact, the difference is largely due to the far lower compensation payments awarded by French courts.
Last night’s deal apparently followed the personal intervention of the French president Jacques Chirac, who called Gadaffi yesterday morning for the second time in eight days.
The amount of the increase was not known last night. But earlier, Tripoli was said to have offered each family an extra $300 000. — Guardian Unlimited Â