Global Policy Forum

By Evelyn Leopold

United Nations - Shrouded in secrecy, the countdown has begun for the anticipated surrender this weekend of two Libyans accused of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, diplomats said Thursday. "I think we've done lots of work, and I believe there are signs that everybody is acting in good faith and that they will soon be turned over,'' Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

U.N. legal counsel Hans Corell, in charge of the handover, is expected to leave for an undisclosed destination in Europe late Thursday or Friday, before traveling to Libya, which has pledged to surrender the two men by April 6. But Corell, possibly the most secretive official in the U.N. system, is not expected to make any public statements until after the two have arrived in the Netherlands where they would stand trial before a Scottish court.

Barring any last-minute change of heart by Libyan leaders, Corell is expected to ask a Security Council sanctions committee for authorization to waive a U.N. flight ban over Libya at the last possible moment. This could take place as early as Saturday, the diplomats said.

After reaching Libya, possibly from Italy where the United Nations had once readied a plane for this purpose, Corell would fly with the two men directly to the Netherlands where Dutch police would take them into custody. They would then be "extradited'' to Scottish police, on standby in the Netherlands. The Scottish court is to sit at Camp Zeist, a former military base, near Utrecht.

U.S. and British officials say they have evidence that the two suspects -- Abdel Basset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah -- planted a bomb inside a suitcase that exploded aboard Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. A total of 270 people were killed in the air and on the ground.

"I think it is finally going to happen,'' said Susan Cohen of Cape May, New Jersey, whose daughter Theodora was one of 35 Syracuse University students killed in the crash.

If convicted, the two Libyans would serve their sentences at Barlinnie prison, near Glasgow with U.N. monitors nearby.

After years of stalemate, London and Washington last August dropped their insistence of a trial in either of their countries and agreed to one in the Netherlands before a Scottish court in accordance with Libya's oft-stated willingness to accept a trial in a "neutral'' venue.

Once the men are in the Netherlands, Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to write a letter to the Security Council that would automatically suspend sanctions imposed on Libya in 1992 and tightened in 1993. They include bans on air travel, weapons sales and certain types of oil-related equipment. In addition, Libya's financial assets abroad were frozen but this excluded proceeds of oil sales after Dec. 1, 1993. After 90 days the council can vote to lift sanctions entirely following a report from Annan that would state France is satisfied that Libya had cooperated with its investigation of the mid-flight bombing of UTA Flight 772 over Niger in 1989 in which 171 people died.

He also has to report on whether Libya has renounced all ties to alleged terrorists and made provisions to compensate the families of the crash victims if the two are convicted.

If Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi keeps his word, the handover will end seven months of intense diplomacy handled by Annan and Corell, who fielded messages between Tripoli and the United States and Britain.