Gaddafi regrets Reagan's death

2004-06-06 13:16

Tripoli - Muammar Gaddafi expressed regret on Sunday that former US president Ronald Reagan died without ever standing trial for 1986 air strikes he ordered that killed the Libyan leader's adopted daughter and 36 other people.

Reagan ordered the April 15, 1986, air raid in response to a discotheque bombing in Berlin allegedly ordered by Gaddafi that killed two US soldiers and a Turkish woman and injured 229 people.

"I express my deep regret because Reagan died before facing justice for his ugly crime that he committed in 1986 against the Libyan children," Libya's official Jana news agency quoted Gaddafi as saying.

Jana, in reporting Reagan's death on Saturday in California at age 93, described former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as Reagan's partner in the strikes because some of the warplanes took off from US bases in the United Kingdom.

"Ronald Reagan, Thatcher's partner in the failed American-Atlantic aggression against the house of the brother leader of the revolution, in Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986, died," Jana reported.

The United States branded Libya a "rogue" state in the 1980s, alleging state-sponsored support of terrorism and imposing trade sanctions on the country in 1986.

Only in the last year have relations warmed substantially, with Libya meeting US demands stemming from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. A Libyan agent was convicted of involvement in the bombing and Libya agreed to pay compensation to the families of the 270 victims. The UN security council then abolished its sanctions against Libya.

Gaddafi agreed in December to dismantle Libya's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programmes, and in February, Washington lifted a ban on use of American passports to travel to Libya. In April, US President George W Bush took steps toward restoring trade and investment ties with Libya, allowing the resumption of oil imports and most commercial and financial activities.

But the United States continues to list Libya as a state sponsor of terrorism, which prohibits US aid or arms sales to the country, and hundreds of millions of dollars of Libyan assets remain frozen in American banks. These restrictions are seen as an inducement for Libya to resolve its remaining differences with Washington.

- AP