Gaddafi fears kidnapping of Libyan Lockerbie suspects, US threatens new sanctions

Libyan President Col. Moammar Gaddafi has refused to hand over the two Libyan suspected in the Lockerbie case to be tried in a military base in the Netherlands. He stressed that he fears the two men will be kidnapped.

The Libyan news agency, JANA, quoted the Libyan president as saying that the US and Britain want to hold the trial in a former US military base in the Netherlands. This means they will be kidnapped, he said.

Gaddafi also refused the agreement between the governments of Britain and the Netherlands concerning preconditions for the trial, Gaddafi said on Wednesday night, following a mini-African summit in Sert on the Libyan coast. The September 18 agreement provides for trying the two Libyans in Zest camp near Soesterberg air base in the central part of Holland.

Meanwhile, Diplomats said that Libya has dispatched a team to New York on Wednesday to hold talks with UN officials concerning the proposal submitted by the US and Britain to try the two Libyans suspected in the Lockerbie case.

Spokesman for the UN Fred Eckhard was quoted as saying that the Libyan team will meet with the UN's assistant secretary general for legal affairs, Hans Korel.

US Assistant Secretary of State Ronald Neumann, who concluded a visit to Tunisia this week, said that new sanctions will be imposed against Libya unless it extradites the Libyans accused in the Lockerbie explosion.

Commenting on the African breach of the sanctions imposed on Libya, Neumann said the sanctions were put in place by the United Nations Security Council after many other methods failed to convince Libya to extradite the two suspects.

Neumann said that resolution 1192, which the Security Council has ratified for trying the suspects by Scottish judges in Holland, has to be applied, adding that friendly countries have to convince Libya to apply it and not penetrate the air embargo.