Lockerbie
deal is close, says LibyaMeanwhile, after a debate lasting two days, the Libyan General People's Congress announced it could not decide whether to hand over two men suspected of being behind the attack. The justice minister, Mohamed Belgacem Zwai, said his government wanted a new round of talks with the UN to ensure that the trial - which would be held in the Netherlands under Scottish law - would be fair and honest. He repeated his government's demand that the suspects, if found guilty, should serve their prison sentence in Libya.
"We want to be sure that the only aim of the trial is to show the truth ... and that it is held without a political or security background," Mohammed Belgasim al-Zuwiy said. "Our argument is that since this is an exceptional trial, therefore this exception should include serving the jail term in Libya, maybe under U.N. supervision," al-Zuwiy said. The Parliament meeting, expected to last five days, was being held in the northern coastal town of Sirte and was broadcast live on national television.
An Egyptian interior ministry official said the passengers had refused to disembark from the plane, although the pilot had said he could not comply with their request because of U.N. sanctions on Libya. The official said no force had been used.
Other unconfirmed sources said that the Libyan passengers rioted aboard the chartered Egyptian airliner today and demanded that the plane fly to Libya in violation of U.N. sanctions, police said. But the pilot allegedly tricked them and landed in neighboring Tunisia.
Airport officials in Cairo said the hijacking incident began with two masked passengers entering the cockpit and demanding to go to the Libyan capital Tripoli. Then, they said, a large group of other passengers joining in the demand. Cairo airport sources later said the passengers had left the plane but were staging a sit-in at Djerba airport to back their demand to be flown direct to the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Both the Egyptian police and Cairo airport officials spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
None of the passengers or crew was reported injured, and it was unclear if the men who entered the cockpit had weapons or if the Libyan passengers took over the plane by force of numbers. The pilot contacted Egyptian authorities by radio and reported a large number of Libyan passengers had rioted and were demanding that he fly to Libya's capital, Tripoli, in violation of a U.N. ban on international flights to the country, an Egyptian police official said. About 150 Libyans were aboard the aircraft, which was chartered by a private Egyptian company for a flight by Libyan businessmen, a Cairo airport official said.
Several African heads of state have breached the air embargo in the past year. In June, the Organisation of African Unity voted to authorise flights to Libya for humanitarian, religious and diplomatic missions.
Professor Anthony Busuttil had to identify the scores of victims who died on 21 December, 1988, when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown apart above Lockerbie. Yesterday, the 52-year-old head of forensic medicine at Edinburgh University spoke about his role in detail.
The Dutch chose the windswept military base of Camp Zeist, 10 km (six miles) from the central city of Utrecht, as the venue for the unique trial, which will be conducted under Scottish law on British soil. A special Anglo-Dutch treaty signed in August permits the transfer of the land. Some 2,400 km (1,500 miles) away in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, the General People's Congress, Libya's top legislative body, began meeting on Tuesday.
It is the forum, convened once or twice a year for several days, which will formally endorse any decision by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to surrender Abdel Basset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah to stand trial for the bombing. Camp Zeist's previous claim to fame was that Napoleon once stopped there for the night. German troops occupied the site during World War Two and the U.S. Air Force was stationed there for 40 years until the end of the Cold War with the then Soviet Union in 1991.
If Libya agrees to surrender the two men for trial, the suspects will be housed in a bomb-proof underground complex beneath an American-built hospital. Their transport vehicles will sweep into a covered driveway created for casualties arriving at the emergency department. A barbed-wire fence is all that now keeps unwanted visitors out of Camp Zeist.The hospital is built on a small mound behind a two-metre (six-foot) high wall.
The U.S. and Britain are believed to be stumping up between $100 million and $200 million to pay for the camp's conversion to accommodate several hundred people. Security guards, military personnel, the press and relatives of those that died are all expected to descend en masse on the 10-hectare (25-acre) base. For the present, security is thin-- a white portable cabin manned by a few police officers is the precursor to a much grander operation should the trial go ahead.
So far activity at the site has been low-key. People living nearby say construction work has been kept to a minimum and a thin line of smoke, perhaps from the kitchen, is the only hint of life behind the shuttered windows of the concrete hospital. Behind it, a blue-painted corrugated steel building that was once a sports hall will house the media, officials said.
The report contained details of what Libya said was ``the enormous damage caused to the Libyan people in terms of human and material losses in the most affected sectors,'' such as health, agriculture, animal husbandry, transport, industry, the economy and energy.
The sanctions, broadened in 1993, include a ban on international flights to and from Libya, an arms embargo, a downgrading of diplomatic ties, a freeze on some Libyan assets abroad and a ban on certain types of equipment used at oil terminals and refineries. But there is no embargo on oil exports, Libya's economic lifeline.
He said he had spoken in the last few days to U.S. President Bill Clinton and to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and planned to speak to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi once he returned home. "Things are moving in a satisfactory manner," Mandela said, adding that Britain had agreed to remove the problem created by the lack of Libyan diplomatic representation in London by permitting the establishment of a Libyan office in Scotland, where the two suspects will serve their sentences if they are convicted at a trial set to take place in the Hague of the Netherlands.
Lockerbie
deal is close, says LibyaThe comments follow Saturday's meeting between the colonel and Kofi Annan who described the talks as "positive". However, Libya's media says something different: ``The Lockerbie problem is an invented and complicated one and it is not logical and reasonable to solve it under the pressure of what is called the 10th anniversary of the Pan Am accident,'' wrote the diplomatic editor of the official news agency JANA. ``Kofi Annan did not hold talks with the brother leader of the revolution. He merely went to see him where he was in the Libyan desert, to salute him and greet him on his recovery,'' he said.
Meanwhile the world is waiting for the outcome of a 10-day debate in Libya's General People's Congress, who has the final say to whether any extradition of the two nationals will take place.
For a full update, transcripts, pictures, real sound files and review of Kofi Annan's journey and his efforts and for an update of the reactions, go to this special page.
According to the local television Compaore told Annan that Africa was behind Libya in its dispute with the United States and Britain over the Lockerby issue, in which two Libyan agents are suspected of planning the bombing of an American passenger plane over Lockerby, Scotland in 1988. Compaore is among several African leaders who have flown in their presidential jets, breaching a UN air embargoimposed on Tripoli for its refusal to handover the suspects for trial in Scotland or the US. African leaders passed a resolution during the last OAU summit in Ouagadougou to unilaterally lift the embargo with effect from September.
For a full update, transcripts, pictures, real sound files and review of Kofi Annan's journey and his efforts, go to this special page.
Niven Milligan, 47, of the town's Park Place, died from his injuries in a Glasgow hospital. Mr Milligan was taken to hospital earlier this week suffering from 40% burns. Thirty people were evacuated from their homes after the explosion.
``I will leave Saturday morning for Libya for discussions with Colonel
Muammar Gaddafi. I am going to try to settle this problem once and for
all,'' Annan told reporters after meeting Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine
Ben Ali Thursday. News of the trip brought optimism from the United States
and Britain, although what diplomats saw as Gaddafi's unpredictably tempered
this with caution. A senior U.S. official said Washington hoped the meetings
would result in the handover of the two suspects.
But Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, speaking for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said she did not know what the outcome of Annan's session with Gaddafi would be and how firm his assurances were from Tripoli. ``We would expect a meeting between the secretary-general and Libyan officials to produce a handover of the suspects,'' Soderberg said. ``We expect that to be the purpose of his travel to Libya.''
Annan is due to fly to Sirte, a coastal city 400 km (250 miles) east of the Libyan capital, where Gaddafi usually entertains his guests, after the Security Council sanctions committee approved a waiver for the trip, diplomats said. Britain welcomed Annan's announcement that he would visit Libya. But it made clear that a U.S.-British plan to try the Libyan suspects before a special court of Scottish judges in the Netherlands was non-negotiable.
``Naturally we welcome efforts to implement the U.N. Security Council resolution (on handing over the suspects). We hope the secretary-general can persuade Gaddafi to reply promptly so justice can be done,'' said a British Foreign Office spokesman. ``Kofi Annan fully recognizes that the U.S.-British plan is non-negotiable...the best we can hope for from Saturday's meeting is official notification that Gaddafi is prepared to hand over the suspects.''
Western diplomats had said Annan would not go to Libya unless he had been assured Gaddafi had agreed to surrender the suspects for trial. But in private, British officials are reluctant to express optimism about Annan's chances of success. ``It is no use trying to figure out what could happen. It is very hard to predict what Gaddafi might do,'' one said.
Asked if a deal on the surrender of the two suspects was ready, a diplomat told Reuters: ``This is what he hopes to get. He (Annan) appears optimistic.'' Diplomats said that chances had improved after weeks of talks with Libyan lawyers on the surrender of the two suspects. ``It's not a done deal yet, but it's close,'' said one diplomat who declined to be identified.
A Libyan statement denied any about-turn by Gaddafi. ``Libya has already announced its acceptance of putting its two nationals on trial at a court in the Netherlands. It has expressed its willingness to enter into negotiations with the concerned parties either directly or through the U.N. secretary -general over arrangements for this trial,'' said the statement carried by the official JANA news agency on Thursday. It said Libya would seek ``the necessary guarantees for the Libyan suspects and reserved its right to ask for any clarification.''
In Holland, the Dutch foreign ministry confirmed last night that the facility for thetrial, at the Camp Zeist air base near Utrecht, was ready to receive the Libyans and the massive security operation and media circus that will follow them.
Hans Corell, the UN's chief legal adviser, has been in close contact with the Dutch authorities to make final preparations for a handover. Dutch officials said the men could be in Scottish custody 48 hours after landing in the Netherlands. Technical arrangements are understood to have been completed. Mr Correll is due in The Hague this weekend.
Some survivors of the victims expressed optimism.But Daniel Cohen of Cape May, N.J., who lost his 20-year-old daughter Theodora, said Libya's leader can still pull out the rug from under Annan. "My feeling is that if Kofi Annan doesn't come out of Libya with these guys, his trip has been a failure," he said. "All it will have done is hand Khadafy a propaganda victory."
Aphrodite Tsairis, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., whose daughter, Alexia, died in the Lockerbie crash, said she was "cautiously optimistic" about the meeting. But "it's very hard to know what Gadhafi is thinking."
The London-based Arabic Al Hayat newspaper said on Wednesday said that the League supports a proposal that the two Libyans be tried in a U.S. military base in a foreign country.The league sides with Libya over its request for guarantees that its two citizens get a fair trial in a neutral country and not be handed over to the U.S.
Stay updated for detailed news and a statement from NOI later today.
Britain said today it was prepared to make special arrangements for the prisoners, and that there would be an international observer regime to ensure that they were treated properly. The move is the latest in a prolonged diplomatic dispute over the bombing of an American airliner over Scotland, which killed two-hundred-and-seventy people.
The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan has said that he may travel to Tripoli in the next few days to discuss the Lockerbie issue.
Annan will fly to Egypt from where he will travel to the Libyan-Egyptian border to meet the Libyans, they said, without specifying a travel timetable. "I'm in contact with the authorities of Tripoli and it may happen that I go there on a visit after visiting Tunis," Annan told a news conference in Algiers at the end of a trip to try to break a deadlock on a U.N- sponsored peace process in the Western Sahara.
Experts are now investigating the incident, which happened in the town's Park Place. It is thought a build up of gas could have been behind the blast. The area was classed as one of the Lockerbie disaster zones after the crash in which a terrorist bomb brought down Pan Am flight 103. The town is preparing to mark the 10th anniversary of the airline disaster on 21 December.
The town centre will be strung with lights bought with the help of a grant from a trust which was set up in the wake of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and the deaths of 270 people in December 1988. A public collection by the Let's Light up Lockerbie campaign also contributed towards the GBP 19,000 cost. Since the Jumbo jet fell out of the sky four days before Christmas, killing 11 people in their homes as well as everyone on board, the festive season has been marked only by a small Christmas tree.
``Since launching the UK, U.S. initiative on Lockerbie on 24 August, we have done everything possible to move this issue forward, including the necessary changes to Scots law to allow a Scottish court to sit in the Netherlands,'' Cook said. ``The Libyans have asked a number of clarifications on our proposal, and we have provided comprehensive answers. These answers show that we have no hidden agenda and that what we have proposed is fair and workable,'' he said in an interview with al-Ittihad newspaper of the United Arab Emirates. ``The onus is now on Libya to respond positively,'' he said.
Cook said Britain and the United States expected Libya to ``comply promptly'' with the offer. ``We have made clear that when they do so, sanctions can be suspended. It is therefore in Libya's interests to meet its obligations, but I cannot prejudge their response,'' he said.
Dr Jim Swire, from UK Families Flight 103, is also disturbed by the way he claims the media are now jumping on the bandwagon of the 10th anniversary. He has pleaded with the Lord Advocate, Lord Hardie, to take action under the Official Secrets Act and limit the damage the book -Chinook by David McMullon -may cause to relatives still struggling to come to terms with their tragic loss as the anniversary of the disaster approaches next month.
Swire has lodged a formal complaint with the Press Complaints Commission over an article published in last Monday's Mirror which drew extensively from the book.
"Bayane Al-youm" daily, which reported Friday the news, said a coordination meeting was held Thursday by the parties to prepare for the travel. The daily of the Party of Progress and Socialism said further that the travelling delegation will be accompanied by several journalists from various press bodies.
In a speech broadcast on Libyan television, Colonel Gaddafi accused the
United States and Britain of imposing preconditions. He did not specify
his objections, but said the conditions had to be lifted before any trial
of the two Libyans - Abdel Baset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah.
The Libyan leader has agreed in principle to a plan to put the suspects on trial in the Netherlands under Scottish law. But he opposes a proposal to make them serve their jail sentences in Scotland if they are convicted - something the US and Britain insist on. In his speech in Tripoli on Sunday, he described the American-British proposal as sterile.
``We challenge America and Britain not to set conditions which are bound to be firmly rejected, for holding that (Lockerbie) trial and if they wanted it be held and solve this issue,'' the agency, monitored in Tunis, quoted Gaddafi as saying. Gaddafi, who was talking at a banquet in the Libyan coastal town of Sirte, some 280 miles east of Tripoli, in honor of visiting Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, did not say to which U.S. and British conditions he was referring to. ``Libya has offered all possible flexibility for resolving this problem, while the other party does not want to make any concession,'' Gaddafi said.
His remarks come at a time when United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is considering going to Libya to try to bring about agreement on the handover of the two Libyans.Mr Annan is currently visiting north Africa. The British Government declined to comment on Colonel Gaddafi's latest remarks.
BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Barnaby Mason says Colonel Gaddafi's comments appear deeply discouraging, but western officials are reserving judgement on whether they signal a definite refusal to hand the men over. Libyan and UN lawyers have spent weeks discussing the legal details of any trial. The Libyans have been concerned about precisely where in the Netherlands the trial would take place as well as where the two would serve any sentences.
Diplomatic sources in New York have said legal issues are less important than the fundamental political decisions that ultimately rest with Colonel Gaddafi. They say he must decide whether the domestic political risks of handing the two men over outweigh the obvious international benefits.
Monday November 30, 1998 The United Nations secretary-general, is hoping to travel to Libya this weekend to complete the handover of the two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing. It is understood from diplomatic sources that Mr Annan is optimistic that the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, is finally prepared to surrender the pair for trial in the Netherlands.
Scottish Office sources indicated that the technical details of a handover are in place, though they insist that the final decision is one which will be taken by Col Gaddafi himself. They suggested that Col Gaddafi's own unpredictability was now the sole obstacle to a handover. Mr Annan will not decide whether or not to travel to Libya until later this week and will go only if he gets an indication from Tripoli that the two accused, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, will he handed over. The UN Security Council has agreed to lift the sanctions when the men are handed over for trial. Although Mr Annan is optimistic, his UN team cannot predict how Col Gaddafi will respond.
In August, Britain and the United States offered a compromise to break the ten-year deadlock. They agreed to allow the suspects to be tried in the Netherlands rather than in Scotland, but under Scots law and with a panel of Scottish judges instead of a jury. Washington and London have hinted that they will push for a strengthening of sanctions if Col Gaddafi does not accept this "non-negotiable" deal, though they are unlikely to be able to command enough support for a full oil embargo. In September, the lawyers used by the accused were dismissed and a new team, including a former Libyan foreign minister, was appointed.
The former legal team, including the Edinburgh lawyer Alistair Duff, refused to guarantee that the suspected bombers would surrender for trial. Their dismissal was interpreted as a sign that Col Gaddafi wanted a legal team that would recommend that the accused accept the new offer from Britain and the US. The new legal team has had long discussions at the UN headquarters in New York with the UN legal counsel, Hans Corell, to seek assurances about their treatment.
It is understood that the only sticking point is the Libyans' demand that the suspects serve their sentences in the Netherlands or Tripoli if convicted. Britain and the US are adamant that they would serve their sentences in Scotland. Libya has said it accepts in principle a trial in the Netherlands. Col Gaddafi is under intense pressure from allies in the Arab League and the Organisation of African Unity to accept the offer. It is understood that President Mandela of South Africa and the Egyptian government have been pressing him to accept.
Mr Annan said last week:
"I think we have offered most of the clarifications and I had hoped we
would be able to bring the issue to closure by the end of November. We
are still pressing for that." This was interpreted by diplomats as meaning
that Mr Annan is optimistic about securing a trial. He is in North Africa
this week and will be in Tunis on Friday. He has scheduled rest time in
Djerba, Tunisia.
