Libya offers new deal to Pan Am 103 families By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY WASHINGTON =97 Libya has promised to pay families of victims at least $5=20 million each and admit responsibility for a terrorist bombing in 1988 that= =20 brought down Pan Am Flight 103. The offer represents a new effort by Libyan= =20 leader Moammar Gadhafi to put the Pan Am case behind him and remove the=20 tinge of terrorism from Libya in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.=20 Gadhafi also is eager to see the return of U.S. oil companies. In 1986,=20 Washington barred U.S. oil companies from Libya, which has an economy that= =20 is heavily dependent on oil. Gadhafi's initiative could ease his country's= =20 pariah status but may not quickly restore U.S. relations. A copy of the=20 agreement, reached in Paris last week by a Libyan delegation and lawyers=20 for the victims, was obtained by USA TODAY on Tuesday. Under the offer,=20 families of the 270 victims would receive $5 million each =97 for a total=20 settlement of $1.35 billion =97 if United Nations sanctions against Libya= are=20 lifted. That amount would be doubled if the Bush administration allows=20 economic ties to be resumed with the North African country within eight= months. It will take several days to see how many families will accept the offer.=20 But relatives of the victims, whose plane blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland,= =20 on Dec. 21, 1988, said the new proposal was more palatable than a previous= =20 offer. "It's a somewhat more realistic deal," said Dan Cohen of Cape May=20 Court House, N.J. His daughter, Theodora, 20, was one of 189 Americans=20 killed in one of the worst acts of foreign terrorism against U.S. citizens. The provisions of the offer: Libya would "provide a formal statement of responsibility to the U.N.=20 Security Council." That would satisfy conditions for an end to U.N.=20 sanctions on air travel and investment that were suspended in 1999 after=20 the Libyan regime surrendered two suspects for trial. One was convicted=20 last year. Within 30 days after accepting responsibility, Libya would deposit $10=20 million per victim into an escrow account in a European bank. Half that=20 amount will be taken back unless the United States ends its commercial=20 sanctions. Cohen said that he and his wife, who rejected the previous offer, would=20 accept money tied to the U.N. sanctions but no more. "We will accept=20 nothing that has anything to do with these other conditions," he said. State Department officials expressed skepticism that Gadhafi would publicly= =20 accept responsibility for the Pan Am bombing. Even if he does, a State=20 Department official said, that would not automatically lead to an end to=20 U.S. sanctions or Libya's removal from a list of countries the United=20 States accuses of sponsoring terrorism. Under pressure from some in the=20 Bush administration, the State Department is also demanding that Libya give= =20 up a chemical weapons program that U.S. intelligence reports say has given= =20 the nation tons of chemical agents. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (I95.5FM) http://www.i955fm.com (Radio Station I95.5FM) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************