Lagos — Libya has paid $1.5bn into a United States compensation fund for relatives of victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli, the US state department said yesterday.
The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US.
The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200.
Under the deal, Libya did not accept responsibility for the attacks, but agreed to compensate victims.
The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington says it is the final step in a long diplomatic process, which has seen Libya come back into the international fold.
For its part of the deal, the US agreed to pay $300m into the fund for Libyan victims of US air strikes ordered in retaliation for the Berlin bombing.
The first $300m Libyan payment into the fund was made on 9 October, shortly after an historic visit to Tripoli by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Its second payment of $600m was received on Thursday and a final instalment of $600m was made on Friday, said David Welch, the US diplomat who negotiated the settlement.
In exchange, President Bush has signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases in the US, the White House said.
She adds that there may have been contributions by American companies lured by business opportunities in Tripoli and keen to expedite the process of normalising ties.
The US State Department, however, has insisted that no money from the American taxpayer will be used for the US portion of the fund.
Libya has already paid the families of Lockerbie victims $8m (£4m) each, but it owes them $2m more.
The fund will also be used to compensate relatives of seven Americans who died in the bombing of a French UTA airliner over Chad in 1989.
In 2004, Libya agreed to pay $35m in compensation to non-US victims of the 1986 Berlin bombing.
In the same year, relatives of non-US victims of the UTA bombing accepted a payment of $1m each from the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations.
Relations between Libya and the US improved in 2003 when Tripoli stopped working on weapons of mass destruction.
The decision led to the restoration of US diplomatic ties with Libya in 2006.
In turn, it was removed from America's list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
Comments 1 to 1 of 1 Post a comment
It an outstanding healthy step towards normalizing and strengthening the bilateral cooperation, cultural, educational and economic exchanges and business partnerships between the pioneer Libyans and their colleagues, the pioneer Americans.
It is an excellent healthy step towards furthering their joint partnerships and understanding to develop and to create business and employment opportunities for both people. It is a healthy leap to improve the skills, the expertise and the experiences of both the Libyans and the Americans. It is a far-sighted step towards building branches and outlets for the factories of The United States to manufacture and tomarket in Libya, in Europe, in Africa and in the middle east.
Given moderanizing the system of management and developing the Libyans leadership and people to match and become compatible with the United States Democratic system and modern business, corporate and banking approaches, Libya could become a centre of development, innovation, technology, modern management approaches and ultimately Democracy, rule of law, wealth and prosperity for both the Libyans, the Americans, their surrounding neighbours, Africa, the middle east, Europe and the rest of the world.
Definitely, these requires far-sighted visions, responsibility and positive attitues on all sides regardless of who is in power.
These continuous positive and constructive negotiations, dialogues understanding, mutual respect and developments must be continuously well managed, enhanced, encouraged, supported, protected and safeguarded to guarantee its success on the field.
Otherwise, there are many opportune, jealous and racists who will always do their best to distract, to spoil and to ultimately damage the Libyans-Americans bilateral exchanges, cooperaions and partnerships.
Both, the Libyans and The Americans must understand that the world is very complex and intertwined. Each side must manage well its multi-nationals and bilateral dealings with other nations, to safe-guard and to enhance their bilateral exchanges, cooperation and partnerships.
Further, they must learn from their past chaos, mis-management and weaknesses to turn them into fruitful cooperation and strengths for the benefits of both sides. They must learn, exchange and benefit from each others' experiences, expertise and ethics. They should work together closely and not be distracted by others regardless of their religions, races, colors, political affiliations, creeds and genders.
And very importantly, both sides must understand that we are dealing with very complex and greedy primitive and bigot cultures. Many cultures and nations regardless of their religions, races and colors have been taking advantage of our conflicts, chaos and mis-management for many generations due to the plight of the Israelis-Palestianian, the British-Irish, etc... conflicts. It is the wickedness of the human hypocricy, dynamics, racism and greed.
Consequently, it is always wise to be aware of the human opportune wickedness to work tirelessly towards resolving these conflits and what ever other conflits that may arise in the future peacefully and wisely through negotiation, dialogue and the rule of the national and the international laws, treaties and guidelines.
It is very important to acknowledge that each nation has its own challenges and crimes. Each nation has its own scams, corruption, mis-management, greed, jealousy, racism, tribal gangs and hypocricy, pending on its cultures, value systems, rule of law and level of development.
To sum up, to both the Libyans and The Americans and as a matter of fact to both the Libyans and our western world, it is extremely healthy to further strengthen, enhance and support your cooperations, exchanges and partnerships to improve innovations, business environments, rule of law, peace and ultimately people's standards and qualities of livings on both sides under the rule of law.