Threatened Fench Veto re: Libya

bonkey

I must say that I was somewhat disappointed to hear the French talking about a veto against lifting Libyan sanctions last night.

Apparently, the sanctions are being lifted now that Libya has accepted responsibility (at least in part) for the Lockerbie disaster, and agreed to pay some silly amount of money to the families of the deceased.

This, everyone thought, would pave the way for lifting the sanctions. But the French are kicking up a fuss. Why? Well, it would appear to be about money.

6 Libyans were found guilty of the bombing of a French UTA plane in 1989. Libya, while never admitting responsibility for the act, agreed to pay $34 mill. in 1999 in compensation, of which (allegedly) less than 1/3 went to the families of the murdered.

Despite having accepted this settlement, the French are apparently now kicking up a fuss over the fact that the Libyans have agreed to pay $2.7 billion for Lockerbie - effectively $10 million per casualty - and as a result, the French feel hard done by.

While we will no doubt hear a lot of rhetoric about how the payment is necessary to punish Libya, or to finally allow the book to be closed on these dark events....the whole affair leaves me with a slightly unpleasant taste in my mouth.

The French accepted a final settlement. If I was related to one of the deceased, the last thing I would want is a government telling me that all was settled, and that (as they always say) I could begin to put my loss behnid me, etc. etc. etc. only to turn around a few years later and say "oh - not - wait - its not over....it looks like we can get you more money cause someone else got a bigger remuneration than you".

While $34m was never enough to be a proper "punishment", the simple fact is that the French accepted it at the time. To turn around several years later and decide "no, we want more, cause you gave them more" is - to me - only further cheapening the loss of life which occurred.

jc

SCULLY

As far as I know if the restrictions don't get lifted, there will be no payouts re lockerbie. As this money will be going to America, I wonder if the French are acting the maggot a bit , seeing as the bush administration and the american press in general have been slagging off France over the last few months. If it is purely over getting more money then they don't have a leg to stand on : -if you agree to sell your house for $200k and in a years time a similar house sells for €250k you can't go back to the original buyer looking for more money! (If you can then I've got to go and make a few phone calls!)

bonkey

Originally posted by SCULLY
If it is purely over getting more money then they don't have a leg to stand on

Sure, but they don't actually need a leg to stand on....they have their veto to prevent sanctions being lifted, and they don't need to meet any requirements in order to use this big stick.

jc

Imposter

The only reason these sanctions weren't lifted years ago is that the US were using their veto as they wanted Libya to admit responsibility for Lockerbie.

Just a case of the tables reversed which is why we're hearing about it!

mike65

Originally posted by SCULLY
As far as I know if the restrictions don't get lifted, there will be no payouts re lockerbie. As this money will be going to America, I wonder if the French are acting the maggot a bit , seeing as the bush administration and the american press in general have been slagging off France over the last few months.

It would be the worst possible reason to veto but not out of character for the French who seem to have decided thier role for this century is to be a permenant thorn in the side of the US.

France using compensation demands as a political weapon is grubby and the sort of thing that they might accuse the US of doing....

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1402955,00.html

Mike.

mike65

They've settled thier differences. Sanctions to be lifted, for what
thats worth...

Mike.