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JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: At this hour, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is headed to Libya to resolve once and for all the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Annan is scheduled to hold talks with Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi in Tripoli on Saturday. The meeting will focus on the U.N.'s attempt to bring to trial two Libyan suspects in the bombing, which killed 270 people.
We have two reports, beginning with CNN's Richard Roth, who is traveling Annan.
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RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.N. Secretary-General isn't exactly sure what he will hear inside Libya, but Kofi Annan, traveling already in North Africa, believes the opportunity to make diplomatic headway in the stalemate over the Lockerbie bombing suspects is too good to pass up. Kofi Annan has received no Libyan guarantees of a deal, and a U.N. aide here said, "We're going with no conviction, we're going to succeed."
MANUEL DE ALMEIDA E SILVA, U.N. SPOKESMAN: The secretary-general is not negotiating. He is going there to help solve this long- standing impasse on the arrangements for the safe transfer of the two accused from Libya to the Netherlands.
ROTH: Libya is considering whether to comply with a U.S.-British offer: hand over the two men wanted in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 nearly 10 years ago, and thus get an immediate suspension of U.N. air and arms embargoes. Libya had long demanded that the men be tried in a third country, and this summer, the U.S. and Britain called Libya's hand, agreeing to a trial in the Netherlands, but before Scottish judges. Diplomats are cautious about Kofi Annan's chances.
SIR. JEREMY GREENSTOCK, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: We hope that it will lead to the right answer, which is transferring the two accused to the Hague for a third-country trial, but we'll want and see how it comes out.
ROTH: In the years after the Lockerbie bombing, painstaking forensic evidence led investigators to charge Abdel Basset Ali Mohammed Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah with direct involvement in the bombing plot, suspects described by U.S. Secretary of State Albright as working for the Libyan government. Since the new offer was made for a trial in the Netherlands, Libya has sought more legal assurances. It wants the men if convicted, to serve time in the Netherlands, and not Scotland.
JAMES FOLEY, STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN: The Libyans have raised questions, indeed opposition to the idea that the suspects would be if found guilty would be incarcerated in the United Kingdom and we have make crystal clear as has the U.K. from the beginning that's not a negotiable point.
ROTH: Nevertheless, some diplomats feel the Annan's trip offers perfect cover to Libya if it truly wants to escape current international isolation. Diplomats and family members of the victims of Pan Am 103 want to see if the U.N. Secretary-General Annan's visit to Libya, as he says, settles it once and for all.
Richard Roth, CNN, Djerba (ph), Tunisia.
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JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bombing shocked the world, underscoring, once again, just how difficult it is to stop a determined terrorist. For the families of the victims, it was much more than that. One mother whose 20-year-old daughter died in the explosion wrote about her ordeal in "TIME" magazine two years ago, calling it, "the nightmare world that would now be mine forever." Grief, she said, "... is constant and permanent." For many relatives of Lockerbie victims, justice will not be served until those responsible are punished. Some welcome the latest United Nations attempt to work out a deal with Libya to bring the two suspects to trial.
JIM SWIRE, U.K. FAMILIES SPOKESMAN: I think this is a very encouraging development because the secretary-general was delegated by the security council to conduct the discussions between Libya and the U.N. to decide remaining issues before the two could be handed over.
MESERVE: But for at least one mother, regardless of the outcome, the grief will always be there -- the grief and the pain.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN reporting.
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WOODRUFF: George Williams lost his 24-year-old son, Jordie (ph) in the Lockerbie bombing. Mr. Williams is head of a group called Victims of Pan Am Flight 103. He join us now.
Mr. Williams, now it sounds as if maybe Moammar Gadhafi may not come through with an earlier pledge to let these suspects go.
GEORGE WILLIAMS, BOMBING VICTIMS FATHER: This is not surprising coming from a dictator like Gadhafi. He has been doing tap dancing and everything else. This is his proposal and we agreed to it. And now he has lied to his own people, his own -- the Muslims, the Arabs, the Arab countries, the African countries. This is not surprising.
WOODRUFF: Do you believe these suspects will ever come to trial?
WILLIAMS: Yes, I do because as Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger told us at our last meeting with them, if he doesn't turn these two over very, very soon, they will be pushing for further sanctions and other actions necessary.
WOODRUFF: Has the United Nations -- has the U.S. government kept you and other family members apprised along the way of what they have been doing?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely because they know -- to do something without us and without our acquiescent would not be wise. They contact us; they ask for our input and then they go ahead.
WOODRUFF: Do you agree with the course that the U.N. is following with what Mr. Annan is doing and what has been done leading up to this?
WILLIAMS: I agree and we agree that this is the proper procedure to allow things to go along and take a natural, legal course. We are not looking to get innocent civilians killed by bombing or anything like that. We feel this is a proper -- up to this point -- beyond this point -- it has been 10 years and my organization and all the families of the victims of Pan Am 103 are getting fed up to here, and we will be pushing our Congress and our Congress listens to us. They have done everything we have asked them to do.
WOODRUFF: What could they do for you at this point?
WILLIAMS: They can force the United Nations in some fashion, to go along with us, otherwise we can act unilaterally. We have the legal means to act...
WOODRUFF: You mean the United States can act unilaterally.
WILLIAMS: That's right. We dealt with pirates in the old days with letter of Marque, perhaps that is what we have to do now.
WOODRUFF: How are the families holding up under this terrible strain?
WILLIAMS: Quite well because we -- early on we decided we weren't going to be a bunch of woes -- me -- people wringing our hands. We decided to be a proactive organization and under the tutelage and experience of a fellow by the name of Bert Ammerman (ph) early on, we accomplished a bit. We lobbied Congress. We saw all 535 members of Congress in two days to lobby and nobody has ever done that.
WOODRUFF: Just finally, Mr. Williams you said a moment ago you had a brief message for the Arab leaders. What is that message?
WILLIAMS: Yes, Gadhafi has been lying to you and all the terrorists. You worry about us when we say -- when we use Arab terrorists in the same sentence. You must absolutely -- you must absolutely understand that when these fellas say they are doing it for -- the terrorists are doing it in the name of Allah, they are insulting your God. They are not religious people. They are insulting your God and you ought to treat them like you treat -- like you treated that author that wrote the book that insulted the Koran.
WOODRUFF: Mr. Williams who lost a son on Pan Am 103, we thank you very much for joining us.
WILLIAMS: I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.
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