LIBYA/FILE: United States and Libya sign a deal to compensate U.S. and Libyan bombing victims and their relatives

Record ID: 359034

  • Title: LIBYA/FILE: United States and Libya sign a deal to compensate U.S. and Libyan bombing victims and their relatives
  • Date: 15th August 2008
  • Summary: (W4) CAMP ZEIST, NETHERLANDS (FILE - JANUARY 2001) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR SCOTTISH COURT IN THE NETHERLANDS / MEMBERS OF MEDIA GATHERED OUTSIDE POLICE STANDING OUTSIDE COURT
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA9Y8180PD00Q5I45YEBC7J6PGP
  • Story Text: Libya and the United States signed a comprehensive deal on Thursday (August 14) to compensate all U.S. and Libyan victims of bombings or their relatives, Libyan officials said.
    The U.S. victims include those who died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people and the 1986 attack on a Berlin disco that killed three people and wounded 229.
    Libyans who were killed in 1986 when U.S. warplanes bombed Tripoli and Benghazi are also covered by the payout.
    Libya, a major oil producer, said at least 40 people were killed, including Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's adopted daughter, in the U.S.
    strikes.
    U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, the U.S. senior diplomat for the Middle East who was in Tripoli for the signing with Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Fituri, said the deal paved the way for improved relations between the two countries.
    "This is a very important day in U.S.-Libyan relations. With the signature of this agreement, we open the possibility of completely new normalised relations. We expect it to be implemented quickly. It will result in a much better future for U.S.-Libyan relations on every issue," Welch told Reuters.
    The U.S. diplomat said the deal settles the last major issue, that of compensation, between Libya and the United States.
    "You know it's been very difficult to come to this point because there's been a difficult past between our countries, but now I'm very optimistic about the future." Welch said.
    "I'm confident that we will get it implemented quickly and then we have a lot of work to do together, the United States and Libya, on many issues."
    After more than a decade of international isolation, Libya has been slowly coming in from the cold since 2003, when it accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and announced it would stop pursuing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
    The United Nations lifted multilateral sanctions in 2003.
    Libyan officials declined to give financial details on the compensation, including who would pay the Libyan victims.
    U.S. President George W. Bush this month signed into law legislation that paved the way for Libya to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate U.S. victims of the bombing attacks that Washington blames on Tripoli.
    The United States has dramatically improved relations with Libya since 2003, dropping many U.S. sanctions, removing it from a U.S. terrorism blacklist and restoring diplomatic links after decades of enmity.
    But the bombing compensation cases had still hampered better relations.
    U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held back from visiting Libya because of the issue and other human rights concerns but she said in recent months she hoped to visit Tripoli before the end of the Bush administration's term in January 2009.
    Ties between the two countries reached a low in the late 1970s and 1980s when Washington designated Libya a state sponsor of terrorism and then U.S. President Ronald Reagan referred to Gaddafi as the "mad dog of the Middle East
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