By Farhan Haq
July 7, 1999
United Nations - African diplomats are leading an effort at the UN Security Council to lift sanctions on Libya, but are facing resistance from the United States, three months after the sanctions were suspended.
Several UN restrictions on travel to or from Libya and trade in oil-related machinery with Tripoli were automatically suspended on Apr. 5, after the Libyan government handed over two bombing suspects to the Netherlands. But US officials believe it is still too soon to end the sanctions regime entirely. ''As far as the United States is concerned, Libya has not met all the requirements'' for lifting the sanctions, which were first imposed in 1992, said US Ambassador Peter Burleigh.
''There have been positive developments,'' Burleigh acknowledged on Wednesday. Among them, he noted the April handover of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, both Libyan nationals suspected of involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan American flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to stand trial in the Netherlands. Yet he added that ''it is premature to ask for the lifting of sanctions.'' Some of the requirements for Libyan compliance with the UN sanctions resolutions, he said, involve Libya's cooperation with the Netherlands trial - which is not scheduled to begin until next February.
The beginning of the trial, to be held in Camp Zeist, was delayed by six months upon request of the suspects' defense attorneys - a step which Burleigh called ''very understandable.'' Yet the US ambassador told IPS that any effort to lift UN sanctions outright should wait until the trial begins. That likely means that the travel ban and other measures will remains on the books - but not in force - at least until next year.
Several non-aligned members of the 15-nation Security Council, led by the Council's three African states - Namibia, Gabon and Gambia - are pushing for a resolution that would acknowledge Libya's recent cooperation with UN demands and would end the sanctions regime. Namibian Ambassador Martin Andjaba formally submitted a resolution to lift the sanctions to the Council on Wednesday. But the United States - which has veto power in the Council - is not ready to accept any such resolution, although Burleigh said it would back a legally non-binding Council statement recognising Libya's recent progress.
Despite its difficulty in winning the formal end to the sanctions regime, however, Libya has been able to take comfort in a dramatic easing of its diplomatic isolation since it handed over the bombing suspects.
In a report submitted to the Council this week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan cited Tripoli's compliance with both the Netherlands trial so far and with France's trial in absentia last March of six Libyans for the 1989 bombing of UTA flight 772. Annan noted that Britain said it was ''satisfied'' with Libya's recent disclosures about its past links with the Provisional Irish Republican Army and believed that the data ''largely met their expectations.'' France told Annan that ''it considered recent acts by the Libyan authorities to be indicative of the Libyan government's renunciation of terrorism.''
Several other countries - led by African and Arab states -have been pushing for an end to Libya's seven-year isolation here for several years. African leaders, including former South African President Nelson Mandela, were instrumental in winning agreement on holding the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands, after nearly a decade of resistance by the US and British governments to having the trial in any country other than their own.
But the US government remains doubtful that it can trust Libya, even over its promises of cooperation with the Lockerbie trial. Burleigh last week said that ''there are outstanding requests from the Scottish prosecutors (in the Lockerbie case) ... that have not been replied to,'' and contended that Tripoli still needs to prove it has cut ties with alleged terrorist groups. Also, the UN demands for lifting sanctions include Libya's cooperation with paying compensation to the families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie bombing - something Tripoli cannot do until the Netherlands trial has reached a verdict.
Annan noted in his report that the trial must be completed before Libya can be expected to pay compensation. But he added that Libya in the past has assured the United Nations that it ''will guarantee the payment of compensation awarded'' if Libyan responsibility for the bombing is established. Proof of such responsibility, more than a decade after the bombing, could be hard to obtain. Despite US assertions that it has a strong case against al-Megrahi and Fhimah - both of whom it contends worked for the Libyan government -other analysts of the Lockerbie case have pinned the blame on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a Palestinian group based in Syria.
