STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR NEWS BRIEFING

AUGUST 23, 1999

SPEAKERS:  JAMES FOLEY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN

 *** Elapsed Time 00:00, Eastern Time 13:06 ***

                    QUESTION:  Good afternoon.

                    FOLEY:  I don't have any statements, so, Barry, I'll go right to
               your first question.

                    QUESTION:  Change the subject, please?

                    FOLEY:  Sure.

                    QUESTION:  On Lockerbie ...

                    FOLEY:  Yes.

                    QUESTION:  ... the victims' families are in town.  Are they being
               briefed by the Justice Department (inaudible) meetings?  But many of the
               victims have complained to members of the press outside the hotel that
               -- about the process of being kept informed and also that the suspects
               being offered couldn't have planned the incident over Lockerbie alone;
               and that they want some significantly broader number of suspects or higher
               level suspects; and think that -- and have actually accused in some cases
               the U.S. government of accepting these suspects as, if you will, throwaways
               in order to move towards a quick resolution of the situation and possibly
               even normalizing relations with Libya.  How do you respond?

                    FOLEY:  That's a lot of questions and premises rolled into one
               question, so I'll do my best at addressing all of them.  First, I can't
               speak to the views of every family member of the victims of the Pan Am
               103 bombing, but as a general rule though, the State Department has maintained
               very close contact and regular -- remained in regular contact with the
               families for all these many years, including in the last year as we worked
               very hard to try to put pressure on Qadhafi to render the suspects in the
               case to justice -- to face justice in The Netherlands.

                    And there were many skeptics who believed that Qadhafi would
               never take that step -- that he would never risk allowing a trial, a free
               trial outside of Libyan control, to do forward.  And I have to say, in
               all modesty, that we are proud, as is the government of the United Kingdom,
               of our dogged efforts over the years to keep up the pressure and to produce
               this result where we're going to have a real trial.

                    FOLEY:  Second point I'd make is that the views of the family
               members who all experienced this horrible, unspeakable tragedy, are varied.
                I think you'll find a range of opinion among them.  And I think everyone
               among them agrees that this is a -- a -- has been a difficult case, but
               I think that many of the family members recognize that we have made progress
               in this area.

                    And our view, to answer the fundamental question about who's on
               trial in the Netherlands, those indicted in Western courts are on trial
               there at the moment.  And our view is that that trial must go forward and
               it must -- it must produce whatever evidence is relevant to the case, to
               finding out what happened and how it happened and who was involved.

                    And so, we trust that this trial will be a free trial, a fair
               trial, and that we cannot predict what's going to come out of that trial.
                And so, our view at the moment is to let the trial go forward -- I believe
               it starts in February -- before drawing any kind of judgments -- categorical
               judgments of the kind you're reporting.

                    QUESTION:  And so, you would say to the victims that, say, that
               essentially the U.S. government hasn't -- even though you're proud of your
               work as you say -- hasn't worked hard enough and hasn't kept the victims
               informed enough, you would say what?

                    FOLEY:  Well, I would say I would respectfully disagree on -- on
               both points.  On the question of keeping family members informed enough,
               I think that's -- you might find family members who think we haven't.

                    You probably would find family members who think we've been in
               very close and regular contact.  I know there are department officials
               who are specifically charged with maintaining that contact.

                    We have regular meetings with them as well, but that's a subject
               assessment.  In terms of fighting hard enough to reach justice in the case
               of Pan Am 103, this is not just this administration that's worked hard
               at this.  It goes back to the Reagan and then Bush administrations.

                    This is a national priority.  An unspeakable act of terrorism
               occurred and hundreds of people were killed, and we have not rested. We
               worked very hard to get -- and this is not easy as all of you in this room
               know -- to get international consensus, to get the Security Council to
               agree to impose sanctions on a member state.
                    And this was achieved with great difficultly, but it was achieved
               and then we held out and the sanctions were maintained.  And at the end
               of the day, the Libyan regime decided to cooperate and to provide the suspects
               for trial, a free trial in a neutral setting.

                    FOLEY:  And so -- but under a Scottish court.  And so we are
               satisfied with those results to date, but I would fully agree that this
               story is not over.

                    QUESTION:  One last follow-up.  What about, even though the views
               are varied, that some of the victims' families are saying that these --
               that the trial, even though it must go forward as you're saying, are being
               offered up to -- for a resolution towards the issue of normalization with
               Libya?  What about that?

                    FOLEY:  Well, it's interesting you mention that, because that
               rumor has been coming up a bit in this room over the last few weeks, some
               of your colleagues have been asking about rumors that we're thinking about
               or prepared to normalize relations with Libya.  And I've and Mr. Rubin
               have been very categorical that that's not true.

                    QUESTION:  Could I ask about East Timor?

                    QUESTION:  Could we stay on this for a minute?

                    QUESTION:  Yes.

                    QUESTION:  Thanks.  Will the U.S. do anything to push for a
               family role, the role -- in the trial?  And on that, could you give us
               any specifics of what promises they might get this afternoon from the U.S.
               government?

                    FOLEY:  Well, they're meeting at the Department of Justice.
               They're -- the Justice Department is hosting a briefing for Pan Am 103
               family members today and tomorrow in which the Scottish prosecutors are
               present, and they're going to be describing the evidence.  And the Department
               of Justice is, I'm told, making a presentation on the assistance it's going
               to provide to the families in the course of the trial.

                    The State Department will be present and participating at that
               meeting, but it's a Department of Justice event.  I'd have to refer you
               to them on those details if they can provide them.
/end