Lockerbie: Libya 'innocent'
2003-07-28 22:40
Washington - Libyan officials have still not met a UN security council requirement that they accept responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the State Department said on Monday.
Spokesperson Richard Boucher said the UN requirement was not met by a recent statement by Saif al-eslam, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, that Libya was prepared to accept responsibility even though the country was not implicated in the 1988 bombing.
"There are no shortcuts. Bars are not being lowered," Boucher said. Libya knows what it has to do, and that is meet the requirements of the UN resolution."
Saif al-eslam told CNN that Libya regards itself as innocent. He added that Libya would sign a statement of responsibility not because of any wrongdoing but because the Security Council asked for it.
Boucher did not address similar remarks by Gadhafi in an interview last week with Britain's Sky News television network.
"The question regarding responsibility is actually over... In point of fact we don't accept any responsibility for things that we haven't done," Gaddafi was quoted as saying. It was not clear from Gaddafi's reported remarks whether Libya would agree to sign a statement of responsibility along the lines suggested by his son.
Llife imprisonment
In 2001, a Scottish court convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi of the bombing and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Besides accepting responsibility for the bombing, Libya must comply with several other security council requirements before sanctions can be lifted. They include paying compensation for families of the victims.
Negotiations between Libyan authorities and lawyers for victims' families have been going on for some time. The lawyers said last year that Libya agreed to pay $2.7bn to the 270 families - $10m per family - provided certain conditions are met.
Daniel and Susan Cohen of New Jersey, whose daughter, Theo, was aboard Pan Am 103, told Secretary of State Colin Powell in a recent letter that the lawyers have informed them that an escrow agreement for paying compensation will be signed on August 14 in London.
They urged Powell to reject any settlement until Libya accepts full responsibility for the bombing.
Boucher had no comment on the compensation negotiations, saying that issue is entirely in the hands of the lawyers for the families.
The administration position has been that UN sanctions cannot be lifted until all security council requirements are met.
Besides compensating the families and accepting responsibility, these include disclosing all information about the bombing, renouncing terrorism and breaking all ties with terror groups. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA