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LONDON: Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi could be nearing the end of his country’s long isolation over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after groundbreaking talks with Britain this week, analysts said on Friday.
Outside a drab bedouin tent on a Mediterranean beach on Wednesday, Qadhafi’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Abderrahmane Chalgam sent a message the West has been waiting to hear.
He said Libya was “in principle” ready to pay compensation for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and address UN demands that it accept responsibility for the act — the two outstanding obligations before UN sanctions on Libya are finally lifted.
The affair dates back to December 1988 when the Pan Am jumbo jet was blown out of the sky by a bomb in its hold over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 259 passengers and crew — most of them Americans — and 11 people on the ground were killed.
Chalgam’s remarks, after hours of talks between Qadhafi and a British government minister, were hailed by British officials as Libya’s clearest public commitment yet to meet the United Nations demands.
Junior Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien also cautioned that words must be translated into action before further progress could be made towards ending years of hostility with Britain and the United States.
Washington — which has been holding three-way talks with Britain and Libya on Lockerbie — still doubts Qadhafi has abandoned his fiery brand of Arab radicalism, support for militants and alleged quest for weapons of mass destruction.
It accused him in May of still seeking to acquire chemical weapons — a charge dismissed by Chalgam, who said Libya had no time for such “silly” projects.
Jim Swire, a spokesman for families of British Lockerbie victims, said Chalgam’s remarks on Lockerbie were “the first time a visible and active member of the Libyan government has made such a comment.”
“As such it’s a step forward,” he said. “But it’s only one step down what has already been a tortuous path.”
Three years ago the United Nations suspended, but did not formally lift, sanctions imposed on Libya over Lockerbie when Qadhafi handed over two Libyan suspects wanted for trial. One was convicted last year and the other was acquitted.
LIBYAN FEARS: Lawyers acting for Libya were reported in May to have agreed to pay $10 million each to the families of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing. Libya immediately denied any state involvement in the deal.
British officials say that Libya fears that accepting responsibility and offering compensation for Lockerbie would open it up to unlimited financial demands, as well as legal suits against its officials similar to the case brought against Chile’s former leader Augusto Pinochet.
Chalgam also said any agreement on compensation would have to look at international precedents, pointedly referring to the accidental 1988 shooting down of an Iranian passenger airliner over the Gulf by the United States navy.
“What’s the amount that America offered for the victims of the Iranian aircraft?” he asked. The United States offered to pay $131.8 million.
Analysts say the likely way through the legal and diplomatic minefield is for Libya to take responsibility for the acts of its officials but say they were not government sanctioned.
“Libya will accept responsibility, but insist on its innocence,” said Saad Djebbar, a lawyer and associate fellow at the Royal International Institute of International Affairs.
Although distrust is likely to run deep after many years of hostility, Britain says Libya should now be given the chance to show it has changed tack.
Swire said he knew of no evidence that Qadhafi had been involved in terrorism in the last decade and most families of British victims were ready to see his country rehabilitated if it could show it had turned its back on the past.
“He did provide help by supplying information about weapons to the IRA,” he said, referring to Qadhafi’s earlier efforts to arm Irish guerrillas fighting British rule in Northern Ireland.
“So already he has a track record of turning around.”
Djebbar said he believed a formula could be reached on Lockerbie which would satisfy all sides.
“I’m confident a form of words can be found,” he said. “The conditions are right now for this matter to be resolved...As far as Lockerbie is concerned, we are nearing an end”.—Reuters
