Libya has agreed to compensate the families of the victims of the bombing of a French UTA airliner in 1989, which killed 170 people.
The deal was announced by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in his televised address to mark the anniversary of his coming to power.
UTA flight 772 was blown up over the Sahara dessert in 1989; but the tragedy was overshadowed by the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which was destroyed over the Scottish town of Lockerbie the previous year.
In 1999, France accepted $33 million in compensation from Libya. However, no deal had been negotiated with Libya and the country did not accept responsibility for the tragedy, but it paid the monies anyway.
Today’s deal is believed to have been struck in a phone conversation between President Chirac and Colonel Gaddafi.
It removes the final hurdle to the lifting of sanctions on Libya. France had been blocking moves to have the sanctions removed because it wanted a deal that matched the compensation about to be paid to the families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing.
The UK had put a draft resolution forward to lift the diplomatic and economic sanctions to the Security Council following last month’s agreement to make around $2.7 billion available to the Lockerbie families.
The extent of the package for the French families has not been announced yet as the final details are still to be agreed.
Colonel Gaddafi told Libya in his address, ‘The problem over the UTA case is over and the Lockerbie case is now behind us. We are opening a new page in our relations with the West.’
