PARIS, 10 January 2004 — In the latest of a series of actions to bring itself closer to the West, Libya yesterday signed a $170 million compensation accord with families of victims of a French passenger jet bombing 15 years ago.
The deal, following years of painstaking negotiations, was signed in Paris by the director of a foundation run by the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and a negotiator for the families. Hours later, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin hailed the agreement and said it opened a new diplomatic chapter between France and Libya.
“A new stage has begun,” de Villepin said at a press conference with his Libyan counterpart, Abdel-Rahman Shalqam. “We will have a deeper political dialogue in favor of peace and notably for the development of the African continent.”
The Sept. 19, 1989, bombing of a UTA airlines flight over Niger’s Tenere desert killed all 170 people aboard. Victims came from 17 countries, but France, with 54 dead, had the heaviest toll.
Applause broke out after the signing of papers to seal the private deal between the group of victims’ families and the Qaddafi International Association for Charitable Organizations, headed by Qaddafi’s son, Seif El-Islam.
“I’m certain this will open a new page in Libya’s foreign relations,” Saleh Abdul Salam, the Qaddafi foundation’s director, said through a translator. Libya’s promise to pay represents another move by Qaddafi to shed his nation’s image as a rogue state. Last month Libya renounced weapons of mass destruction.
