Qathafi: Blair notified me of closing Lockerbie file shortly
Libya-UK, Politics, 7/26/2003

Libya's Leader of the Revolution Colonel Muammar al Qathafi said yesterday that the British prime minister Tony Blair sent him a message in which he stressed that the file of Lockerbie issue "will be closed shortly," denying that Tripoli had agreed to shoulder civilian responsibility for the incident; which was a basic conditions to solve the problem.

The British Sky News quoted Qathafi as saying that he had received a message from Blair in the few last weeks. He added "this file ( the Lockerbie issue ) will be closed shortly."

The interview was recorded with Qathafi on Wednesday, during which he was talking in Arabic, translated into English. The report gave no details on the content of Blair's message.

In April, the Libyan The secretary of the Libyan people's general committee for foreign contacts and international cooperation Abdul Rahman Shalqam said that Tripoli agreed to claim "civilian responsibility for the acts of its citizens" in the explosion incident of the American Pan-Am plane" over Lockerbie town in Scotland on December 21st, 988 and that it is ready to pay a sum of 2.7 billion dollars as a compensation for the families of the victims.

The Libyan minister added that families of all the 270 victims and the majority of them are Americans will get 10 million dollars to be payed in three installments, for lifting the sanctions imposed by the UN and the US and to remove Libya's name from the list of the terrorism sponsoring states.

However, Qathafi had denied that Libya had approved to shoulder the civil responsibility for the incident. He said "actually we do not accept to shoulder any responsibility for an action we did not make." He added "the responsibility takes different forms and the issue links to the responsibility has ended."

On the other hand, a spokeswoman for Blair said that the British prime minister Tony Blair indicated to the Lockerbie issue in a reply message addressed to him by the Libyan leader. She added that the "prime minister hoped to reach a solution very soon." The UN resolutions had asked Libya to admit responsibility for the incident and to pay a just compensation for the victims and to give up "terrorism" and to disclose all information it has about the incident.

In 1992, the UN Security Council approved a resolution banning selling arms and air flights to Libya in an attempt to force it to hand over two of its citizens who were convicted of being involved in the explosion.

After handing over the two men in 1999, the sanctions were suspended but not lifted. In 2001, the Scotland court in Holland sentenced a Libyan intelligence agent to life imprisonment. The second convicted persons was found not guilty.

Lawyers of the families of the victims indicated they do not expect solving technical issues to open an account dedicated to the compensation fund, during their meeting with representatives for the Libyan government this week.

Previous Stories:
  Libya, Britain for boosting bilateral relations   (6/2/2003)
  The Observer: British intelligence tried al-Qathafi assassination   (11/11/2002)
  Libya summons the British ambassador   (8/19/2002)

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