With the verdict handed down on January 31 by the judges presiding over the trial of the two Libyans accused of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the conditions imposed by the United Nations Security Council for the lifting of sanctions on Libya have been met. The sanctions should be lifted immediately.
The sanctions, which have cost Libya more than US$33 billion, were imposed in 1992 after Libya refused to extradite its citizens to Scotland to stand trial for the disaster that took 270 lives. Libya did not believe that the men were guilty and doubted that they would get a fair trial in Britain or the US. Libya denied involvement in the disaster.
In April 1999, the Security Council voted to suspend sanctions after Libya — following assurances made by former South African President Nelson Mandela to Libyan leader Muammer Qadhafi — handed the accused to the UN to stand trial in the Netherlands in a court presided over by a Scottish judges and conducted under Scottish law.
UN sanctions were supposed to be lifted 90 days after the hand-over of the accused, if the UN secretary-general was assured that Libya had "renounced terrorism" and would pay any compensation awarded to the victims' families. Those assurances were given but the US and Britain continued to block the lifting of sanctions.
At the same time, Washington has maintained its unilateral sanctions against Libya. In November, the US extended its restrictions on US citizens travelling to Libya, citing concern at increased "Middle East violence" in the wake of Israel's war against the Palestinians.
After judges handed down their
verdict — one of the accused was found guilty on the extremely flimsy "evidence" (even most mainstream press reporters expressed surprise at the finding since most agreed that the prosecution's three "star" witnesses fared badly under cross-examination) and the other was acquitted — Libyan officials again stated that Libya does not support terrorism and will pay compensation awarded to the Lockerbie victim's families' by Scotland's civil courts. The Libyan government again denied that it ordered the bombing.
This did not satisfy the new US administration. US President George Bush junior said Washington would continue to prevent the lifting of UN sanctions until Qadhafi agrees "to accept responsibility for this act and to compensate the families".
However, US Secretary of State Colin Powell on January 30 let it slip that Washington's hostility to Libya would not have been lessened by an acquittal of both the accused. Powell said US sanctions would stay in place no matter what the court's decision, the February 1 New York Times reported. State department spokesperson Richard Boucher said after the verdict that US sanctions "will remain in effect even if UN sanctions are lifted and/or reviewed".
Washington's hatred of Libya has nothing to do with the Lockerbie air disaster. Qadhafi came to power in a military coup in September 1969 which tossed out a corrupt US ally. The new government nationalised the country's US, French and British oil interests. Libya's oil wealth was used to establish an impressive range of welfare provisions for Libyan citizens.
Such policies, combined with a foreign policy that has been — at times — anti-imperialist, incurred the wrath of US imperialism, including a series of CIA-orchestrated assassination attempts on Qadhafi and the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi by US warplanes in April 1986. In that act of US state-sponsored terrorism, the Libyan leader's 18-month-old daughter was murdered.
Only in 1991 did US investigators, based on the examination of tiny fragments recovered in a search of 1200 square kilometres of Scotland, suddenly conclude that Libya was responsible for the downing of the Pan Am 747. Until then, Syria was the prime suspect. During the trial, the Libyans' defence team provided ample evidence that Syrian-backed groups may have planted the bomb.
What changed between 1988 and 1991? Syrian dictator Hafiz Assad was an enthusiastic participant in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, whereas Qadhafi opposed the war and campaigned for a peaceful settlement. Assad was owed a favour by Washington and Libya could be set up to be the patsy.
The US remains determined to crush Libya because it has set a "bad" example for the Third World — that it is possible for a country to control its resources for the benefit of its people and there are economic and political alternatives to following the dictates of the US and its servants in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.