BERLIN, 3 July 2004 — Talks between Germany and Libya on compensation for victims of a 1986 terrorist bombing in West Berlin are to resume on Monday amid hopes of a speedy agreement, a lawyer for the victims said yesterday.
At issue is how many millions of dollars in damages will be paid to 160 persons wounded when a bomb exploded in the La Belle nightclub, popular with US servicemen in West Berlin.
Victims’ lawyer Stephan Maigne said the Libyan delegation has offered some $25 million in compensation, which he termed “woefully inadequate”.
The blast on April 5, 1986, killed two servicemen and a woman civilian and wounded 160. In retaliation, the United States carried out air strikes against targets in Libya a few weeks later.
The current negotiations hit a snag last month when Libyan negotiators demanded compensation from Germany for Bedouins maimed and killed by German landmines left over from the North African campaign in World War II.
The new round of negotiations comes after a court in Germany last month upheld convictions and sentences of four bombers.
The prime defendant, Verena Khanaa, 45, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Lesser sentences were handed down to her Palestinian husband Ali Khanaa, 45, another Palestinian Yassir Khraidi, 44, and Libyan citizen Musbah Eter, 47.
Tripoli has already agreed to pay a total of $2.7 billion to families of people killed in the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and similar damages for the destruction of a French airliner in Africa.
