PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF UNITED STATES

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF UNITED STATES

The United States welcomed the opportunity to "set the record straight" and publicly lay out the facts concerning the case of Pan Am flight 103 and the United Nations sanctions against Libya, the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

Participants in the Security Council meetings today would hear Libya and its supporters argue that United Nations sanctions were causing widespread humanitarian suffering among the Libyan people, he said. They would claim that the mechanisms to deal with humanitarian issues that were established by the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolution 748 (1992) were inadequate and should be changed. They would argue that the recent ruling by the International Court of Justice required that the sanctions be lifted. "Every one of these accusations is flatly wrong", and nothing more than "a smokescreen put up by the Libyan Government to draw attention away from the victims of the real facts of this case".

He said that six years ago, following intensive criminal investigation, compelling evidence emerged which indicated that Libyan intelligence operatives were responsible for the bombing not just of Pan Am 103, but also of UTA flight 772. In response, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Libya so that those men would be brought to justice. But, there was little hope of ending their suffering until the Libyan Government finally complied with the will of the international community and turned over the two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing. "Only then will sanctions be lifted; only then will Libya be given a chance to rejoin the family of nations; and only then will the victims' families receive the justice they so richly deserve", he said. Their suffering and their long wait for justice was the real issue of today.

Mr. Richardson next introduced George Williams, President of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, and Daniel Cohen, a member of Justice for Pan Am Flight 103.

Mr. Williams said that the two organizations represented more than 180 of the 189 American victims and some of the victims from the more than 20 other countries who died on that flight. They were here today to express their "non-negotiable demand" to have the two Libyan intelligence operatives, Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, tried for mass murder in either the United States or Scotland. It was incomprehensible how nations which said they opposed terrorism could support the agendas of nations which practised it. While politics, commerce and regional interests often forged alliances in United Nations votes, the families were eager to witness how the nations that defended Libya would justify their positions.

Continuing, he said that Libya's defiance of the law was "blatant and insulting", and the characterization of the legal systems of the United States and the United Kingdom by Libya's President, Muammar Al-Qadhafi, reflected his ignorance of the fairness and facts about those legal systems. The families wish to tell the world about their terrible losses in the hopes of stimulating an international movement against terrorism. "We are the victims, not the Libyan people", and the Libyan Government had victimized them and the Libyan people. Mr. Qadhafi "shot himself in the foot" by condoning, if not ordering, the attack on the United States by attacking one of its airliners.

Continuing, he said that his loved ones were torn from his midst by that "cowardly assault on innocent people". However, he did not harbour any ill feelings towards the Libyan people. They did not kill his only child, Geordie; the two indicted Libyans killed him. The families would be around for a long time to continue their fight against injustice "for as long as it takes". The Libyan Government's feeble attempts to harass them by sending propaganda letters every few months would not intimidate them, for Americans did not intimidate easily. The initial reaction of horror and anxiety had turned to anger and a resolve to see the case through, however long it took.

He said that sculptor Suse Lowenstein, who lost her son Alexander, had created statues of some of the wives and mothers, asking them to pose for her and recreate the anguish they experienced upon hearing the news on 21 December, 1988. She had offered the statues to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for permanent display at the United Nations, and hoped they would be accepted. They served as reminders to the rogue nations of the world that their support of terrorists would not be tolerated. The sanctions against Libya were incomparable to the families' suffering. As the "real victims" of the massacre, the families insisted that the two Libyans be tried in the United States or Scotland.

Mr. Cohen began by explaining that he was not a diplomat, but a father, who was here to remind the world "that this is what it is all about", as he held up a picture of his daughter, Theodora. She had gone to London in 1988 to study music and drama. She was coming home for the holidays when she boarded a Pan American flight at London's Heathrow Airport. Within two hours, that flight was blown up at 31,000 feet. Her body landed in a sheep meadow outside Lockerbie, Scotland. "I cannot even bear to think about what her last few moments of life were like", he said, adding that "this is a victim". Muammar Al-Qadhafi was not a victim. George Williams son was a victim; Kathleen Flynn's son was a victim; Rosemary Wolfe's stepdaughter was a victim.

Continuing, he said that it was a little more than a casual terrorist act, if there was such a thing. Fhimah and Al-Megrahi in the indictments, were named as agents of the Libyan Government. Libya itself was the murderer. Anyone who did not believe that was ignoring the mountain of evidence that had accumulated. He could not understand how the international community could tolerate the terrorist act of blowing up innocent people. The Libyan "dog- and-pony show" coming up in the Security Council today would promote the view that the trial should not be held in the United States or Scotland. His daughter was an American citizen, along with 189 of the victims. The rest were killed because they were on an American plane. As the United States President had said, the bombing was an attack on America.

He asked what country allowed an indicted suspect to choose not only the location of his trial, but the conditions under which he would be tried? The Libyans were not actually worried about not getting a fair trial; they were worried about getting a fair trial because of what that trial would reveal. The attitude of the American public towards the United Nations was ambivalent, at best. If the United Nations turned its back on justice, for whatever

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reasons -- regional, religious, monetary -- the American people would turn their backs on the United Nations. Pan Am flight 103 was not a difficult international problem, but one which involved an attack on American citizens.

Asked if the ruling by the Court had any real impact on the case and whether the United States was obligated to adhere to the Court's decisions, Ambassador Richardson said that the operative jurisdiction of that issue was held by the United Nations Security Council. Naturally, the United States respected the Court's decision. It had not decided in Libya's favour, but had basically made some legal arguments about the nature of the case. In the United States view, it was a matter that involved sanctions and actions by the Security Council. The Secretary-General, in his report, had stated that the Scottish and American legal systems would conduct a fair trial.

The Minister Counsellor for Legal Affairs of the United States Mission, Robert Rosenstock, added that the Court's decision was not the one he had sought, because he had wanted to get rid of it as a distraction. The ruling was merely preliminary in nature and very clearly did not touch on the merits of the case. So, while the opinion was not one that he would have liked, it was not one that ought to provide comfort or strength to the other side.

Replying to a question about whether the United States recognized the International Court in The Hague, Mr. Richardson said that it was eminently clear that the trial should be in a court of the United States or Scotland. Any other venue was inappropriate. That was the position held by the United States and the United Nations Security Council. Sanctions would be lifted only if the indicted parties were turned over to those two courts, and that was the firm position of the Council, despite many discussions being held today.

Referring to charts supplied by the United States Mission, he said that arguments would emerge today about Libyan oil production. Indeed, Libya was pumping $10 billion of oil each year, and was the richest nation in Africa, per capita. While participants would also hear about the absence of medevac flights, they would learn that the Sanctions Committee had approved, without delay, many of those flights -- not only for the Haj pilgrims, but for

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humanitarian purposes. They would hear that sanctions had affected food and medicine, but they had not. They would largely hear a propaganda effort that contradicted many of the new statistics culled from United Nations and industry sources.

Asked to comment on the repeated suggestion by Libya that Iran was to blame for the accident, Mr. Richardson said that the notion was unacceptable. Overwhelming and compelling evidence had pointed to the two Libyans, whose fate should be determined by a British or American Court. Claiming that the Libyans were not involved was more propaganda. "Let the truth come out in the trial", he added.

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