Libya Accuses France Of ‘Blackmail’

“France is using pressure and blackmail and we do not accept this,” Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Raman Shalgham said, adding that his government made its position clear to French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Libya has agreed to pay out 2.7 billion dollars (2.4 billion euros) to the families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in exchange for a gradual lifting of international sanctions.

But France has made clear it wants similar compensation for the families of the 170 people who died when an airliner operated by the UTA company was blown out of the sky by a bomb over the Sahara Desert less than a year later, on September 19, 1989.

‘Outrageous’

Meanwhile, U.S. officials in Washington expressed outrage at the French reservations, and said Paris had threatened to use its veto at the U.N. Security Council to block a resolution lifting sanctions against Libya.

“The threat has been made and it is still there,” one official said. “They’re trying to get a better deal for their own people by punishing the Pan Am 103 families and it’s absolutely outrageous.”

Pan Am flight 103 was the U.S. airliner which exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground.

Due to the veto power it holds as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, France could potentially block a move to lift the sanctions on Libya.

“Blackmail is an ugly word, but that’s what the French are doing,” a U.S. official said. “They are holding the Lockerbie deal hostage.”

Officials said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin had conveyed Paris’ position to U..S Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during separate telephone calls late on Wednesday.

Anger among some U.S. officials over the dispute appeared to be sharpened by the bitterness left by recent divisions with France over Iraq, leading to some less than diplomatic language.

“This is nothing but sour grapes,” said one U.S. official of the latest row.

“We’re getting a better deal and they’re upset. It’s not our fault that the French let their people get screwed.”

‘Serious Disservice’

Joining the club of outraged, British families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing also condemned France’s stance .

“If they (France) exercise their veto and further delay compensation to the relatives who live in 21 different nations, I think they will have done a serious disservice to the name of France,” said British families’ spokesman David Ben Aryeah.

“The mere fact that they failed to obtain what would be perceived as a similar deal from Libya as the Lockerbie relatives obtained is a matter of deep regret,” Aryeah said.

She added that the first compensation payment would bring a degree of comfort to many of the relatives in the US and Britain but described the second and third payments as “highly unlikely”.