Libya still denies guilt
2003-09-01 13:20
Tripoli - Families of those killed in a 1989 terror attack on a French airliner will get more compensation from a charity closely linked to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, but Libya denies responsibility.
In a statement on Monday, the Gaddafi International Association for Charitable Organizations said a privately financed "fund for the victims of terrorism" it had established, not the Libyan government, would pay unspecified compensation to the families of the 170 people who died when the French UTA airliner exploded over the Niger Desert.
Gaddafi had announced the agreement in a speech a day earlier, but offered no details.
The foundation, which is headed by one of Gaddafi's sons and has played a major role in his efforts to clean up his image, portrayed the agreement as a humanitarian gesture.
The Gaddafi foundation added without elaboration that the compensation agreement also would "resolve" the cases of six Libyans convicted by a French court in absentia in 1999 of bombing the plane and sentenced to life in prison.
Foundation of an agreement
Libya never extradited the six - including a brother-in-law of Gaddafi who was then an intelligence agent - and the foundation maintained on Monday the six were innocent.
French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, speaking in a radio interview in France on Monday, said "the foundations of an agreement have been found" and he hoped the accord would be quickly wrapped up later on Monday.
De Villepin said nothing about the agreement addressing the six convicted Libyans.
After the 1999 verdict, Libya agreed to transfer $33m to France to compensate the victims, but Gaddafi said at the time that rhis was not an admission of guilt.
Families of the victims have campaigned unsuccessfully for Gadhafi, long accused of sponsoring anti-Western terrorism around the world, to be tried in the bombing.
French families began lobbying for a new compensation agreement after Libya recently agreed to pay families of the 270 victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland up to US$2.7bn, or up to US$10m each.
Families of the 170 victims of the French flight each received about US$194 000 (about R1.4m).
Libya also accepted responsibility for Lockerbie and, after intense international negotiations, had handed over for trial in the West two of its citizens accused in that attack.
In 2001, a Scottish court convicted a Libyan intelligence agent of the Lockerbie bombing and sentenced him to life imprisonment. A second Libyan was acquitted.
De Villepin indicated that France might now be ready to see the sanctions lifted.
Gaddafi had spoken on Sunday to French President Jacques Chirac.
In his speech on Sunday, Gaddafi said France was "embarrassed" by the Lockerbie deal and asked directly and through African and other Arab intermediaries for reconsideration of the UTA settlement.
'Reached a new era with the West'
"And therefore there was a solution by the foundation for this humanitarian issue," Gadhafi said. "By this we have reached a new era with the West."
On Lockerbie, Gadhafi said Sunday that Libya was compelled to pay compensation so sanctions could be lifted and Libya's name removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Gaddafi has been trying to bury his image as a rogue who sponsors terrorism and meddles in the affairs of nations from Africa to the Philippines.
In recent years, he has tried to bring his country into the global economy and be accepted as a statesman ready to solve regional and international crises.
- AP