UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council Friday ended 11 years of sanctions imposed on Libya following the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
It represents only the end of a chapter, not the book.
France and the United States abstained from the vote, saying they were wary of whether Libya would live up to commitments to compensate families and end support of terrorism. U.S. sanctions against Libya will remain in effect.
Lifting sanctions now is largely symbolic since they were suspended in 1999 when Libya turned over two suspects for trial by a Scottish court, one of whom was sentenced to serve a life term.
A number of family members of the Pan Am 103 victims watched from the council's gallery.
The vote was delayed, painfully for those families, from Tuesday while France continued negotiating with Tripoli to increase compensation to families of the 170 victims of a 1989 UTA flight over Niger.
An accord was reached Thursday night between the families and the Libyan charitable Gadhafi Foundation. The French initially settled on the basis of a 1999 court decision for $30-35 million, but sought greater compensation when they learned the Americans were receiving $2.7 billion. Details of the latest French accord were not released.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham explained to the council, after the vote, what led to Washington allowing the U.N. sanctions to be lifted.
"Libya has now addressed the remaining U.N. requirements related to the Pan Am 103 bombing," he said. "Among other steps, it has formally stated that it accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials and made arrangements to pay compensation to the families of the victims in accordance with an agreement worked out directly between them."
He said that in recognition of those steps, and to allow the families' settlement to go forward, the United States has not opposed the formal lifting of the U.N. sanctions.
"We expect Libya to adhere scrupulously to the commitments it has now made to the Council to cooperate in the international fight against terrorism and to cooperate with any further requests for information in connection with the Pan Am 103 investigation," Washington's envoy said.
"Our decision, however, must not be misconstrued by Libya or by the world community as tacit U.S. acceptance that the government of Libya has rehabilitated itself," he aid. "The United States continues to have serious concerns about other aspects of Libyan behavior, including its poor human rights record, its rejection of democratic norms and standards, its irresponsible behavior in Africa, its history of involvement in terrorism, and -- most importantly -- its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.
"Libya is actively pursuing a broad range of WMD, and is seeking ballistic missiles," Cunningham continued. "In those efforts, it is receiving foreign assistance -- including from countries that sponsor terrorism. Libya's continued nuclear infrastructure upgrades raise concerns. Tripoli is actively developing biological and chemical weapons. The United States will intensify its efforts to end Libya's threatening actions. This includes keeping U.S. bilateral sanctions on Libya in full force."
He also explained that Libya has tied compensations payment of some of the available funds to changes in U.S. bilateral measures to Libya.
Cunningham said that was "clearly outside the scope of U.N. requirements."
He also said Libya has imposed an eight-month time limit during which the steps must be taken, unless it agrees otherwise.
"We hope that by doing this, Libya is signaling that it intends to move quickly to address the concerns that underlie the U.S. measures," said the ambassador. "We also urge that Libya do so in order for the families to receive the balance of the available funds. Nonetheless, the U.S. cannot guarantee that Libya will take the required steps and we would not want our vote on the resolution lifting sanctions to be misconstrued as a decision now to modify U.S. bilateral measures regardless of future Libyan behavior."
After all was said in the august Security Council chamber, it was the voice of a still-grieving mother that brought home what all the diplomatic wrangling had been about. She was one of those people in the gallery, after quietly, patiently watching the proceedings.
"Today is just another day for us, a day of the pain and suffering that we have endured for 15 years, thanks to Libya," said Kathleen Flynn, of Montville, N.J., whose 20-year-old son J.P. was aboard Pan Am 103. "However, what did happen today is that we have brought a Libyan dictator to his knees. (Libyan leader) Moammar Gadhafi has had to admit to the entire world that he -- and the Libyan regime that he represents -- was responsible for the bombing of Pan AM Flight 103 and for the death of our son.
"What else has happened today is that Moammar Gadhafi hasn't really come to his knees with a mea culpa. He has not said I am sorry that I have killed all those people, but what has happened is that in the international pressure of the United Nations he has had to address the issue of paying reparations to the families for this horrific crime," she continued extemporaneously.
"He's had to renounce terrorism and he's had to realize that because of his actions his country has been held responsible," Flynn told reporters. "Do I feel that today is a day of victory? I think not. It's just another day that we've had to endure without our son."
