Libyan victims seek halt to Lockerbie compensation deal

FAMILIES of Libyans killed in the 1986 US bombing raid on the North African country are appealing to their government to halt the Lockerbie deal until Washington offers them similar compensation.

“In this period when the compensation of the victims of Lockerbie was agreed, we decided we had to make a move forward to demand compensation for our victims,” said spokesman Munir Mohammed Shermit.

“They are innocent and should not have been bombed.”

Shermit, secretary-general of the Families of the American Aggression Victims Society, said the US payments “will not be less than the compensation that is given to the relatives of the Lockerbie victims”.

A Libyan diplomat accompanying the group during a news conference at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva said he was unable to comment on what the government’s reaction would be to the request for a suspension in compensation.

Libya has been regaining its international standing since Moammar Gaddafi’s government took responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie and agreed to pay €2.4 billion to the families of the 270 victims.

Two weeks ago the UN Security Council lifted 11-year-old sanctions on Libya. Shermit, an architect, said he and about 40 other members of the group had come to Geneva to appeal to UN human rights bodies to intervene on their behalf.

“We have sacrificed a lot to be here in order to draw again the attention of the world to the crime which was committed by the United States during the night of April 15, 1986, when civilian zones in Tripoli and Benghazi were bombed,” said a statement by the association. Shermit said 27 people were killed in the raid and that more than 170 were injured.

Shermit said he lost an eight-year-old daughter and four other family members.

Accompanying Shermit was his 18-year-old daughter, Farah, who as a 10-month-old survived.

Shermit said she and other members of his family were in a house that took a direct hit.

The French Embassy next door also was shattered.

The families began trying for compensation soon after the attacks, but a United States District Court judge dismissed their suit, ruling that American officials were immune from such claims. The attacks were ordered by US President Ronald Reagan to retaliate for the bombing of a German disco in which two US servicemen died 10 days earlier.