French families, Libya ink UTA compensation deal

People stand by the remains of the French airliner UTA on September 22, 1989, which was bombed over the Niger desert killing the 170 people aboard. Libya signed a compensation deal in Paris with the families of the victims of the bombing yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

The accord was signed with representatives of a private Libyan fund run by the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. France and Libya are expected later Friday to issue a statement committing themselves to boosting bilateral ties.

"This accord shows that Libya is changing, has changed," said Guillaume Denoix de Saint-Marc, who lost his father in the attack and who helped lead negotiations resulting in the deal.

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"It is very important for us now that Libya can go ahead and start rebuilding its future."

The deal, clinched late Thursday by negotiators for the relatives and Libya, falls well short of the $2.7 billion pay-out agreed by Libya last year for 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

However, Denoix de Saint-Marc defended the French deal, saying the difference between it and the Lockerbie pay-out was not as large as it seemed.

He estimated at least 50 percent of the Lockerbie compensation would disappear in legal fees and a further 10 percent in federal taxes. He estimated that the Lockerbie families would end up with at most $2 million each.

France convicted six Libyans in absentia for the attack over the west African state of Niger. But Tripoli has always denied responsibility for the bombing and insisted it would not match the amount of the Lockerbie pay-out.

The $170 million is expected to be shared among families of victims of 17 nationalities, including Africans, Americans, Britons and Italians who were on board the UTA plane when it was bombed over the west African state of Niger.

It comes on top of an original $34 million settlement which France deemed insufficient in the light of the Lockerbie deal.

"It will be a roadmap relaunching relations between France and Libya," said an aide to Christian Poncelet, the president of France's upper house of parliament who on Thursday met visiting Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abderrhmane Chalgam.

Since the Lockerbie deal, Libya has moved to improve ties with the West by pledging last month to scrap its banned arms programs. But France insisted the UTA settlement must be part of any full reconciliation.

In a New Year's speech to French diplomats, President Jacques Chirac said on Thursday a settlement of the UTA dispute would "allow Libya to reintegrate itself fully in cooperation initiatives between the two shores of the Mediterranean."

Paris threatened last year to veto the lifting of UN sanctions on Libya after Tripoli agreed to pay $2.7 billion compensation for the bombing over Lockerbie, a deal that dwarfed the initial $34 million UTA settlement.

But it relented after Libya said it would increase compensation for the French airliner bombing, for which six Libyans were convicted in absentia by a French court.

Subsequent negotiations with a private fund run by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son have proved stickier than expected, with Libyan officials unveiling conditions for the payout.