This page has nome of the more important news concerning the Lockerbie-incident. Here is a short summary of just what has happened lately in the criminal, technical or political investigations and the concern for UN-sanctions against Libya.
December the 21st 1996 - April, the 14th 1997
April 14, 1997 4.29 a.m. EST (0929 GMT)
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Libya has again defied U.N. sanctions banning air travel, flying Sudan's visiting president back home.
Libyan television late Sunday showed Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir boarding the flight in the Libyan coastal town of Sirte for the trip to Sudan. The broadcast was monitored by the BBC in London.
El-Bashir was in Libya to hold talks with Ugandan officials.
The sanctions limit diplomatic contacts, prohibit arms sales and ban flights to and from the country.
El-Bashir also held private talks with Gadhafi, the BBC said, quoting Libyan television.
Interview with Libyan secretary for Union, Juma'a el-Fazzani regarding the Lockerbie-crisis
6 April 1997: Foreign ministers from more than 70 developing nations will press to be treated as equals in the global economy and demand more power in the United Nations when they meet in New Delhi, India, this week. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference, starting on Monday, will also urge the UN Security Council to review an air embargo imposed on Libya, according to a draft resolution obtained by Reuters.
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, March 29 (AFP) - Libya said Saturday it has violated the UN air traffic embargo again to fly its pilgrims to Islam's holiest sites in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on board a Libyan Arab Airways plane.A Libyan diplomat in Saudi Arabia said the plane arrived Friday night in Jeddah, on the Red Sea coast near Mecca, in defiance of the embargo. It carried 105 pilgrims, including members of an official delegation.
More Libyan Moslems are to be flown to Mecca, where this year's hajj is to take place April 10-17, Libya's official news agency JANA said. It did not specify if the national carrier would be used to ferry the pilgrims.
See also news from 14/2/1997:
14 February 1997: A United Nations approved plan for Egypt to fly thousands of Libyan pilgrims to the Muslim
holy cities in Saudi Arabia is unacceptable, the Libyan news agency JANA said Thursday. Muslims are obliged to make the pilgrimage, or hajj, at least once in a
lifetime if they can afford it. Both years, Egypt stepped in and flew the rest of the pilgrims as a compromise.
4 March 1997: African foreign ministers urged the U.N. Security Council to accept a
compromise with Libya in the Lockerbie affair and said the African Summit to be held next
June would look at ways to bypass sanctions imposed on Tripoli in 1992. "The Council (of
African ministers) strongly recommend that the Security Council consider the ways and
means for a rapid resolution of the crisis," they said in a declaration adopted at the end of a
three-day annual conference in Tripoli on Friday night. 28 February 1997: Libyan leader Mu'ammar alGadhafi said a meeting of African ministers in Tripoli was a
defeat for the United States and Britain who were intent on isolating Libya. "Who is isolated now? America was
telling the world that Libya was isolated." A jubilant Gadhafi told some 40 ministers from Africa at a banquet in
Bab al-Aziziyah battacks in Tripoli. Ministers and officials from 52 African countries travelled this week to Libya
by road for an Organisation of African Unity council meeting in Tripoli because of an air embargo imposed since
1992 by the United Nations over the Lockerbie bombing. The OAU said the meeting in Tripoli was a show of
solidarity with the people of Libya. "Our meeting here, in Tripoli, is of particular significance. It is an expression of
our solidarity with the people of Libya at a time when they're confronted with adversity as a result of the imposition
of sanctions," OAU Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim said at the opening session of the three-day council on
Wednesday. (Reuters) 17 February 1997: In her meeting with Italian leaders in Rome Sunday, the United States Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright failed to convince the Italians that they must stop trading with Libya. Italy is Libya's largest
trading partner and buys about 42 percent of its oil from Libya and Iran.
14 February 1997: A United Nations approved plan for Egypt to fly thousands of Libyan pilgrims to the Muslim
holy cities in Saudi Arabia is unacceptable, the Libyan news agency JANA said Thursday.
The Organization for African Unity asked the United Nations to end the sanctions imposed on
Libya.
4 February 1997: Libyan Arab Airlines will start its flights from Libya to
Arab airports very soon. The first flight
will be to Cairo, Egypt. Libya decided to let its jets fly from and to Libya
in 18 Jan 1997 despite warnings from the
UN and the United States government not to do so. (Al-Ittihad) 4 February 1997: Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Gadhafi calls President Clinton a ''decent,
peace-loving guy" and says he wants to meet the American leader. In an interview
Sunday
night with a Lebanese television station, Gadhafi also denied Libya's involvement in
the 1988
bombing of a Pan American jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270
people. 24 January 1997: The Libyan Foreign Minister Omar al-Muntasser said that Libya would ignore the UN
sanctions after it granted permission to American balloonist Steve Fosset to cross its air space.
25 March 1997: Libyan news agency JANA reported that an official source at the General People's Committee
for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation commented on the statement of the American delegate to the
UN Security Council on the unjust measures imposed on Libya.
16 March 1997: Libya slammed the United States on Saturday for the extension of UN sanctions, saying the
move was the result of pressure by Washington. "America has once again clearly shown its defiance of the
international community, as represented by regional and global organizations which have announced their support
for Libya," the official Libyan JANA news agency said.
7 March 1997: Nigerian TV reported that the Nigerian minister of foreign affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, has
commended the resilience of the Libyan people in braving the challenges of unjust sanctions imposed on them by
the United Nations Security Council.
OAU calls for civil disobedience to UN-sanctions!
OAU-meeting calls for abolishing sanctions against Libya
Italy will never break economic ties with Libya, says Italian prime-minister...
Dispute over haj-pilgrims using aircrafts from Tripoli to Mekka
10 February 1997:
IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS !!!
23 January 1997: After allowing American ballonist to fly over Libya, Libya told the UN that it will allow its
planes to resume flights from and to Libya. Yesterday, a Libyan jet carrying some Libyan officials left Libya and
landed in Ghana airport where it was received by some Ghanian officials.
LIBYAN SUSPECTS INNOCENT - SALINGER
(9 November, JANA, London) - Unequivocal evidence and facts which confirm the innocence of the so-called Lockerbie suspects continue to emerge. The latest revelation comes in reports quoting Pierre Salinger, the former White House Chief of Staff who stressed the innocence of the two Libyans in the case which he described as "a big lie." Salinger added that the Western parties know who was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing but deliberately levelled false accusations against Libya.
8 January 1997: Libya on Wednesday accused the United States of "state terrorism'' and said sanctions against Libya were part of U.S. bullying tactics. The remarks on Libya's official JANA news agency were in response to U.S. President Clinton's decision on 2nd January to renew U.S. economic sanctions imposed against Libya in 1986.
US New Year's gift to Libyan People...from Bill Clinton 10-01-1997