U.N. Lifts Sanctions On Libya

The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to lift 11-year-old sanctions against Libya, with the United States and France abstaining.

A partial agreement between Libya and relatives of the victims of a 1989 French airliner bombing on Thursday cleared the way for the vote eagerly sought by Moammar Gadhafi's government.

The vote to lift an arms embargo and ban on flights to Libya was more symbolic than substantive because the sanctions have been indefinitely suspended for over four years. The vote was 13-0 with two abstentions.

The council imposed the sanctions in 1992 to force Libya to hand over two men indicted for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.

Once they were turned over in April 1999, the council suspended the sanctions indefinitely, but Libya pressed for the embargoes to be lifted to restore its standing in the international community.

The U.N. action clears the way for the families of the 270 Lockerbie victims to be paid $4 million each. A number of family members were in the Security Council gallery watching the vote.

For more than three weeks, France threatened to veto the resolution unless relatives of the 170 people killed on the UTA airliner flight got more money from Libya, so the Security Council kept delaying a vote.

Families of the UTA victims on Thursday announced a framework agreement with Libya calling for a definitive settlement on increased compensation in a month, clearing the way to lift sanctions.

In 1999, France settled with Libya for $33 million to be shared by families of the victims of the UTA flight, which exploded over the Niger desert in 1989. That deal amounted to about $194,000 for each victim.

But France sought a better deal after Libya agreed Aug. 15 to a $2.7 billion compensation deal for the 270 Lockerbie victims. That deal will give each victim's family $5 million to $10 million.

Under the accord signed Wednesday night in Tripoli by representatives of the UTA victims and a Libyan charity, a French foundation will be set up to pay out indemnities. However, no figure on increased compensation has been put forth by either side.

Britain and the United States said in an Aug. 15 letter to the council that Libya met all the requirements to lift sanctions -- agreeing to a compensation deal, accepting responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, renouncing terrorism and offering to cooperate in any future investigations.

A Scottish court convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi of the bombing in 2001 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. A second Libyan was acquitted.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte had said the United States would not block the lifting of U.N. sanctions.

But U.S. sanctions against Libya will remain in place because of Libya's human rights violations, its role in perpetuating regional conflicts in Africa and its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, U.S. officials have said.

The U.S. sanctions ban American oil companies from doing business in Libya, which is among the top 10 countries in the world in oil reserves. The sanctions also prohibit weapons contracts, economic ties and investment by U.S. firms, and bar most U.S. travel to Libya.

If the United States lifts its sanctions against Libya, families of the Lockerbie victims will receive another $4 million. If Libya is removed from the State Department's list of countries sponsoring terrorism, they get another $2 million.

If U.S. sanctions are not lifted, each Lockerbie family will get an additional $1 million after October, according to the Aug. 15 agreement.