TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN AT HEADQUARTERS, 5 APRIL

Press Release
SG/SM/6944

TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN AT HEADQUARTERS, 5 APRIL

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I am pleased to announce that I have just spoken to Hans Corell, who has informed me of the safe arrival in the Netherlands of the two Libyan nationals accused of destroying Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, in Scotland, in 1988. I am relieved and gratified by this news. This development marks a vital step forward in what has been a long ordeal for all involved, especially the families of the victims, who have suffered an irreparable loss.

I would like to thank all those who have worked to make this possible. I would like to express my personal appreciation to the Governments of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, and other leaders and Governments who have contributed decisively to the resolution of this case. I am particularly indebted to President Mandela of South Africa and to King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for their assistance and support. The Government of Italy provided critical help in arranging the transport of the suspects, and I am most grateful.

I am confident that the two suspects will receive a fair trial by a Scottish court in the Netherlands. I am also looking forward to the earliest possible resumption of Libya's normal relations with the rest of the international community.

QUESTION: Does this mean that our United Nations sanctions have been suspended against Libya at this point?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I will very shortly be submitting a report to the President of the Security Council, confirming that the two have arrived in the Netherlands and are in the hands of the Netherlands authorities, and the Council will act to suspend the sanctions immediately.

QUESTION: Does the Council have to formally act, formally meet, to suspend them or not?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I would suspect so. I would suspect the Council will have to act and I think, from my understanding, it would be more or less automatic. They will meet to act.

QUESTION: Could you give us some idea of the ebb and flow of negotiations, and particularly why you were unable to get the two suspects out when you went to Libya in December?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think, first of all, this is an issue that has been going on for 10 years and lots of efforts have been made. By the time I went to Libya, I was in touch with quite a lot of the leaders in the region and I had very constructive and useful discussions with one leader, Qadhafi, which I reported to you in the press. We agreed to work together and I also indicated that, after my discussions with him, it became clear that President

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Mandela and the Government of Saudi Arabia could play a role, and I asked them to work with me on this. And so they have worked in support of my efforts, and I think we have to be aware that, in these sort of protracted issues, one doesn't go in and expect a quick resolution, but you prepare it and work on it gradually. And I am happy that we are there now.

QUESTION: Was that Qadhafi's idea, that Saudi Arabia and South Africa should get involved?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: It was my idea. After I spoke to him, it became clear that they could be helpful, so two days after my visit to Libya, I met Crown Prince Abdullah and President Mandela in the United Arab Emirates and formally asked them to work with me in resolving this conflict.

QUESTION (spoke in French): In the course of the negotiations, did you give Qadhafi any assurances that the sanctions would be lifted after 90 days?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL (spoke in French): Obviously, a report will have to be submitted. If the Council is satisfied with the report, it will lift the sanctions. I need to consider certain things -— there is the question of compensation, there is the question of terrorism, many things. But if, after 90 days at the most, the report is submitted, the Council will be in a position to lift the sanctions if it is satisfied.

QUESTION (spoke in French): That means that the report must be positive?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL (spoke in French): Indeed.

QUESTION: I was simply wondering what sort of monitoring role the United Nations is going to have over the course of the trial's proceedings. Will there be officials from the Legal Office, for example, for as long as the trial is in session?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: Well, there are provisions for international observers, and this is something that we will need to work out. There have been suggestions that there could be international observers from various organizations, from the Arab League, from the OAU, from NAM and all that. But we are going to coordinate that and make sure that there is an effective international presence during the trial, to monitor, and then of course that there is also some provision for international monitoring of the prison arrangements if the accused were to be convicted.

QUESTION: To what degree is this transfer a landmark in international law?

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THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think it is an important step forward if you consider the fact that we have been struggling with this for more than 10 years. I think we have to look at it in the context of what is happening in other arenas to notice how in the past year international law is developing. Here I am not only referring to the establishment of the Rome Statute, but also to what is happening in other important cases. We are moving forward. International law is actually developing in a manner that we perhaps would not have considered possible barely a year ago.

QUESTION: Why is the Council going to wait for 90 days before lifting the sanctions? Why not lift them now?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: It is part of the resolution. It is all written in the resolution, and the resolution does require a report from the Secretary-General on certain aspects within 90 days of the arrival of the accused in the Netherlands before the sanctions are lifted. If we are able to submit that report before 90 days the Council will act. But it is a requirement under the resolution. The only thing the Council has to do now is to suspend the sanctions, and the lifting comes up later.

QUESTION: Two questions. First, the families of the victims have expressed concern that in the letter that you wrote to the Libyan Government you gave an assurance that the Libyan regime would not be implicated during the trial. They feel that this will not lead to tracing or finding the real culprits behind the bombing. I wondered if you could address that.

Secondly, the President of the sanctions Committee had said that as soon as you sent a letter the sanctions would automatically be lifted. Was that your understanding as well?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: Let me start with your first question. I do not know what letters the families have seen, but I can assure you I have not sent any such letter with the kind of contents that you refer to. So I cannot comment on that.

On the second question, as I indicated, I would expect the Council to act on the suspension of the sanctions, and I expect it to be fairly straightforward and almost automatic.

QUESTION: The sanctions have now been in place for a little over seven years. Do you think it is the sanctions that are primarily responsible for the Libyans finally turning over the suspects?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: Let me say that I prefer to think it played a role. Of course they have lived with it for seven years, and I think apart from living with the sanctions for seven years, no country likes to be treated as an outcast and outside the society of nations, which, to some extent, when

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one is branded and sanctions are imposed, one is marked by that kind of thing. And I think Libya wanted to get back to the international community, Libya wanted to get on with its economic and social development. And Libya wanted to be able to deal freely with its neighbours and with the rest of the world.

So I am gratified that we are there, and that is why I said at the end of my statement that I hoped that they would now rejoin fully the community of nations and play their role in it.

QUESTION: On the 90-day report, can you give us more details of the scope of the 90-day report? I am not sure it's in the resolution, but I take your word for it. You mentioned questions like terrorism, compensation -— what is going to be in the 90-day report, and what is it that Libya has to do beyond what it has done today?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think we need to indicate that it has to comment on Libya's involvement or non-involvement with terrorism -— the fact that Libya is no longer engaged in terrorism, and that compensation requirements, were the accused to be found guilty, will be honoured, and those kinds of things. And of course, this would entail a very special effort to put the report together. And this is why I cannot tell whether it will take me 15 days, a month or the full 90 days.

QUESTION: Given the concerns that have been expressed that perhaps this trial could result in people who have been involved in certain actions being brought to justice, but not those who actually gave the orders, are you confident that this process will give the relatives justice?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: That is something I will leave to the judges; I will leave that to the court. I don't want to second guess them or do their work.

QUESTION (spoke in French): I believe that among the arrangements is the fact that the United Nations observers will, so to speak, watch, observe the accused. How much time will there be? If it takes years to find them guilty, does that mean that there will be United Nations observers there for a long time?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL (spoke in French): Unfortunately, yes. In any case, they will be there for some time. Frankly, I cannot tell you if they will be there for a long time. I believe that they must be there long enough to assure the Libyan Government that we keep our promises.

QUESTION (spoke in French): How many of them will there be?

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THE SECRETARY-GENERAL (spoke in French): It has not yet been decided. I believe that we are a long way from that point, but it has not yet been decided.

QUESTION: Can you give us some more details about the process -— meaning the next step: your sense of when these suspects may actually be arraigned and a trial begun?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I am not in a position to give you those kinds of details. Mr. Corell, who is coming back, may not even be in a position to do it. But there are certain things which have to happen. We may be better -- we had better wait until he comes back. Right now he is in the Netherlands, talking with the authorities there. The Scottish legal team is also there. And of course it will take a while to set up the trial and to prepare the trial. He may have better information for you, and I would prefer not to be drawn on that.

QUESTION: May I ask if it's true, however, that under Scottish law the trial cannot be televised?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: That I am not aware of.

QUESTION: Were there any hiccups in the last few days, or was it completely smooth sailing to the handover today? Was there any last-minute hesitation by Libya?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: No, there was no hiccup as such. The only thing I will say is that Mr. Corell and my team -— we had hoped to handle it as a very discreet operation, and as you know, and perhaps to the irritation of those of you in this room, we had held it very tightly, and very little information was coming out as to when and how we were going to get them out of Libya to the Netherlands. But of course, 48 hours or so, or 72 hours before the operation, we gathered that lots of Governments were being invited to go to Libya to monitor and observe the handover. So all our preparations and attempts at discretion and secrecy were out of the window. So of course my team was wondering what sort of reception they were going to get, what sort of a party they were going to be confronted by. But it went well; everything went very smoothly. There was no hitch, no second thoughts on the Libyan side. The only thing was, we found a crowd when we thought it was going to be very discreet.

QUESTION: Could you just clarify something you said in relation to the 90-day report -— excuse me if it's my ignorance: what is the agreement vis-à- vis compensation? Has the Libyan Government -—

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: There is no agreement vis-à-vis compensation. What one would want to know is that if there is a guilty verdict, that the

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Government and the Libyan authorities will commit to honour -— to pay the compensation. And of course, we don't know what the compensation would be until after the trial.

QUESTION: But you are still looking for that commitment at the moment?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think it is more or less there. But we will firm it up, yes.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary-General, at a time when the United Nations is, certainly politically, on the sidelines in Kosovo, this is a real plus for the United Nations and your own efforts. How important would you say that your own efforts and the United Nations have been in achieving what has happened today?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: I think it was critical and obviously it is a small victory. But in the scheme of things, and given what is happening in Kosovo and around the world, I do not think there is much to laugh about today.

QUESTION: I was just wondering; what was the first day that you were actually informed of the date of the handover? How long ago did you know that it was going to happen this morning?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: About two weeks ago.

QUESTION: Can you give us some details? Mr. Corell obviously went to Italy when, Friday? And then landed in Libya today, yesterday? I mean now that it is over.

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: He managed to keep things private and reasonably discreet from you. If you ask him this question now, yes, he did leave on Friday for Italy and then flew down yesterday and left and brought the people into the Netherlands at 9:45 our time, 3:35 their time.

QUESTION: Did the Italian Government provide the plane or was it a United Nations plane?

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: The Italian Government assisted us. We put United Nations markings on it and so it was a United Nations flight. But the plane was put at our disposal by the Italian Government and we are very grateful for that.

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