POLITICS: Annan Admits Rising Demand for Lifting Libyan Sanctions

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 3 2001 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Friday acknowledged the growing international demand for the lifting of UN sanctions on Libya – a demand that is being shot down by the United States.

“You have noticed that there are many calls for the lifting of sanctions, including one this morning from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU),” Annan told reporters Friday.

The call by the 54-member OAU was preceded by a similar demand by the 22-member League of Arab States, two influential regional organisations representing Africa and the Arab world respectively.

“Libya has showed enough flexibility towards the international community when it accepted to hand over two of its nationals for trial before a Scottish court and under Scottish law,” Abdel Meguid, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States said Thursday.

With the court making its final verdict, he said, the sanctions imposed on Libya should be lifted. Meguid said he plans to meet with Annan soon to explain the Arab viewpoint and explore the possibility of having the sanctions lifted.

On Wednesday, a Scottish Court meeting in the Netherlands found a Libyan intelligence agent guilty of murder in the 1988 bombing of Pam Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people died.

A second Libyan, also accused of similar charges, was acquitted by the three-judge court in a widely-publicised trial which began last year.

As to the lifting of UN sanctions, Annan said, it will be left to the Security Council to determine if Libya has met all the requirements warranting the removal of the nine-year-old embargo.

But he pointed out that one has to “accept the fact that Libya, in the end, did co-operate by delivering the two people – and that was a big step”.

“Without that, there wouldn’t have been a trial, and we wouldn’t be where we are today. Some governments maintain that Libya has a lot more to do, and to account for,” he added.

Annan also said that the issue of compensation has been raised by certain countries. But once again it was up to the Security Council to decide whether that has to be settled before the Council lifts sanctions or the Council can act before that. “This is an issue for the Council. I cannot really judge what the Council will do.”

Originally imposed in March 1992, the sanctions include an arms and air embargo and a reduction of Libyan diplomatic personnel serving abroad. A subsequent Security Council resolution approved the freezing of Libyan funds and financial resources in other countries and banned the provision to Libya of equipment for oil refining and transportation.

Under the embargo, UN member states have also been asked to deny permission to any Libyan aircraft to take off from, land in or fly over their territory unless that flight has been approved by the Security Council “on humanitarian grounds”. Since then Libya has violated the ban on air travel by despatching hundreds of Libyans on the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

The UN sanctions were suspended in May last year following Libya’s decision to hand over the two suspects for trial. On Wednesday, the United States declared that the verdict against one of the Libyans was not sufficient to justify lifting the suspended UN sanctions.

President George W. Bush said Libya has to first pay compensation to families of the victims of the Pam Am bombing before any further action is contemplated at the United Nations.

The US Treasury Department has also frozen more than one billion dollars in Libyan assets in the United States. Along with Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Cuba and North Korea, Libya is on a US State Department list of “terrorist states”.

The United States, which imposed its own unilateral sanctions on Libya, has said that none of its sanctions will be removed until Libya not only pays compensation, but also accepts responsibility for the bombing.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook Wednesday told the House of Commons that Britain had expressed its strong support for the US stance.

In mid-1999, however, Britain broke ranks with the United States when it eased some of its own sanctions when Libya handed over the two suspects for trial. Britain not only re-established diplomatic relations with Tripoli, but also permitted its oil companies to do business with Libya.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Annan also said that his “only responsibility” under the Security Council resolution “is to ensure that observers are appointed to monitor the prison once the Libyan prisoner is sent to Scotland, to ensure that his conditions are good, and that he is well looked after, in accordance with international law. The rest is up to the Security Council”.