Libya's $1m offer not enough

2003-09-19 18:43

Paris - Libya has offered to pay $1m to each family who lost a loved one in a 1989 French airline bombing, but that sum is too low, the head of an association of terrorism victims involved in the settlement effort said on Friday.

Francoise Rudetzki, of SOS-Attentat, said the sum was not sufficient to settle the UTA bombing that killed 170 people.

"We have no intention of selling off the memory of our dead," Rudetzki said at a ceremony honouring French victims of terrorism, held exactly 14 years after the UTA bombing.

"The Gadhafi Foundation has proposed an indemnity of $1m per family," Rudetzki said. "But we consider that insufficient."

She did not say what amount was being sought by a collective representing the families. Libya's negotiations are being handled by a charitable foundation run by one of Gadhafi's sons.

Six Libyans, including a son-in-law of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, were convicted in absentia by a French court and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the UTA passenger plane over Niger.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, present at the ceremony, said France would not close its eyes to terrorism - past or present.

"Not a terrorist will find peace of mind in France," Sarkozy told the gathering at the Hotel des Invalides. "No reasons of state can be higher than the dignity of the Republic."

A collective representing families of victims of the UTA attack is negotiating an increased compensation with Libya, which paid $33m in a 1999 accord, or $194 000 per family.

The families sought more money after Libya agreed to pay a far higher sum - $2.7bn - to relatives of the 270 victims of the 1988 downing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, up to $10m per family.

A week ago, the UN Security Council lifted 11-year-old sanctions against Libya, long seen as a rogue state sponsoring terrorism, after a framework accord was signed September 10 calling for a definitive compensation agreement in a month.

France had threatened to block the resolution to formally lift sanctions without an agreement. The framework accord was considered adequate.

Sarkozy stressed the need for international co-operation in fighting terrorism and extreme vigilance.

In France, 71 terrorists have been arrested in a year, he said without clarifying whether they had been brought to trial.

- SAPA