The Libyan People Accept no Responsibility for the Lockerbie Tragedy

Mr Kofi Anan, UN Secretary General,
The President, UN Security Council,
Permanent Members of the UN Security Council
Members of the UN Security Council

We, the undersigned, hereby register, in the strongest possible terms, our denunciation of the admission by the Libyan regime, after almost 15 years, of responsibility for the Lockerbie tragedy of December 1988. We further condemn and utterly reject Colonel Gaddafi’s and the Libyan regime’s acquiescence to pay, out of Libyan public funds, $2.7bn in compensation to the victims’ families.

Inspired by our strong sense of obligation towards our country and its Libyan people; willing to affirm our deep commitment to our people’s fundamental interests; and striving to save our country and our people further suffering and humiliation, we would state the following:

· We totally condemn the horrific crime perpetrated against passengers of PanAm flight 103 and the inhabitants of Lockerbie, Scotland, on the night of 22 December 1988, and express our sympathy towards the families of those innocent victims.

· We assert the Libyan people’s complete innocence of this crime, the responsibility for which fully rests with the Libyan regime and its leader, Colonel Mouammar Gaddafi. Furthermore, we hold the Libyan regime fully responsible for all the international condemnation, human, moral and material hardship, and the tragic consequences suffered by the people of Libya as a direct result of the regime’s dubious handling of the Lockerbie atrocity since 1988.

· The Libyan regime’s consent to pay compensation to the victims’ families is an implicit admission of liability, regardless of the form in which it is expressed. It is, therefore vital that the true perpetrators, those who aided and abetted in the planning, financing and execution, of this crime should be justly punished.

· The world community must recognise the right of the people of Libya, through fair and due legal process, to make accountable all those individuals within the Libyan regime involved in the perpetration of the Lockerbie tragedy. They shall also have the right to bring to justice any individuals who may have conspired in the elaborate cover-up which the Libyan regime has pursued over the last 14 years to deny responsibility for the crime.

· We totally denounce the Libyan regime’s denigration of Libyan citizens and its squandering of the Libyan national wealth by paying huge sums of money to deny its complicity in the Lockerbie crime and defend its guilty agents. In 1992 a Libyan airlines plane was shot down near Tripoli airport, with nearly 150 people killed. In June 1996, a premeditated assault by Libyan security forces on Abu Saleem prison near Tripoli resulted in the death of several hundred Libyan political prisoners. The regime is yet to fully admit responsibility for these crimes or even pretend to investigate them. As Amnesty International and other human rights bodies have confirmed, hundreds of others have disappeared in Libyan prisons since the early 1970s.

· The modern Libya came into existence as a result of UN Resolution on 21 November 1949, as an independent and sovereign state. It was an achievement of which the United Nations is rightly proud. The military coup of September 1969, led by Colonel Mouammar Gaddafi violated the legitimacy of that model state, frustrated its development, defiled its reputation, and diverted the course of its peaceful progress. From then on, Libya has become a pariah state, heading the list of states that sponsor terrorism and adopt it as state policy.

Any partial or unjust settlement of the Lockerbie issue can only prolong the life of Gaddafi’s totalitarian and repressive dictatorship. It would further accentuate the suffering of the innocent people of Libya. It would indeed be very ironic that while the world community is calling for governments and regimes to adopt more democratic methods, and guarantee and protect the rights and freedom of their citizens, Gaddafi’s rogue regime is allowed to win international respectability and world rehabilitation. The Lockerbie atrocity is an act of premeditated murder for which the Gaddafi regime has admitted responsibility, and must be punished for its crime, rather than be rewarded and appeased.

Date: 15 August ‏2003


Signatories:

Signatories:

1. Ibrahim al-Sharaa
2. Ibrahim A Sahad (former Ambassador)
3. Ibrahim Grada
4. Ibrahim Mohamed
5. Ahmed al-Rahhal
6. Ashraf A Thulthi
7. Senoussi Balalah
8. El-Sharif El-Gheriani
9. Dr Lamin Belhajj
10. Dr Hadi Shallouf (Lawyer)
11. Briek Swiessi
12. Bashier Rabti (former Speaker of Arab Federation Assembly)
13. Dr Jaballah M Hassan
14. Jamal al-Mansouri
15. Gumaa al-Omami
16. Gumaa el-Gamaty
17. Hassan Lamin
18. Hassan Mahmoud Mohamed
19. Khalid I al-Misrati
20. Khalid M Abuzied
21. Khairi al-Talib
22. Zakaria S Abdulaziz
23. Salem Seaiti (former Diplomat)
24. Salem Salem
25. Saleem al-Ragaee
26. Sulaiman K Dougha
27. Sulaiman Dougha
28. Dr Sulaiman Abdallah
29. Sulaiman Abdelgadir
30. Saeed K al-Khattali
31. Sameer Y Benali
32. Shaaban A Emaow
33. Salih Jaaoda
34. Salah H Sherif
35. salah Boughaziel
36. Dr Tariq al-Baghdadi
37. Adel Mekraz
38. Ashur Shamis
39. Dr Abdulhakeem al-Fitouri
40. Dr Abdelrahim Saleh
41. Dr Abdulkareem Khalil
42. Dr Abdulmajeed S Biuk
43. Dr Abdulmonsif al-Bouri
44. Abdulwahhab al-Hilali
45. Othman B Ageel
46. Izzudim al-Gheriani
47. Aziza S Dougha (Mrs)
48. Dr Ali Tarhouni
49. Dr Ali el-Ferjani
50. Ali R Abuzaakouk
51. Ali Zeidan Sherif (former Diplomat)
52. Ali Ziou
53. Ali O Remais
54. Omar Rafea
55. Omar S al-Khattali
56. Issa Abdulqayum
57. Fatima Mahmoud (Mrs)
58. Dr Fathi el-Akkari
59. Fathi H Mosa
60. Dr Faraj al-Fakhri
61. Faraj Boulesha
62. Fadheel Fowad
63. Fawzi al-Fortia
64. Fawzi Abdulhameed (Lawyer)
65. Dr Fawzia Mohamed (Mrs)
66. Mohamed Elkhouja
67. Mohamed al-Sharif
68. Dr Mohamed Shwiehdi
69. Dr Mohamed Bougaigis
70. Mohamed Buesier
71. Mohamed Abdulmalik
72. Mohamed A Abdallah
73. Dr Mohamed Y al-Magariaf (former Ambassador)
74. Mahmoud al-Nakoua
75. Mahmoud Shammam
76. Moheddin Abdallah
77. Mustafa Ben Halim (former Prime Minister)
78. Mustafa A Mustafa
79. Mustafa M al-Mansouri
80. Miftah A Abdallah
81. Miftah R al-Tayyar
82. Miftah Lamlum
83. Dr Mansour O Kekhia
84. Nasser al-Wirfalli
85. Nizar Seraiti
86. Nouam Benotman
87. Dr Naeem Abdulrahman
88. Huda A Abuzied (Miss)
89. Wanees A al-Fussay
90. Yousef al-Azzabi