The Libyan leader tells TIME his country will fess up to the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie
Del 18 agosto 2003 da Time Europe
Is Muammar Gaddafi finally ready to make amends? In an interview with TIME, the Libyan ruler said his country will accept responsibility under international law for the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. In exchange for Libya's admission and payments of $2.7 billion to the families of victims, he said, the U.N. sanctions that have blocked the world from doing business with Libya would be lifted - and eventually the U.S. would end its own sanctions and remove Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. But the ever-erratic ruler may succeed in scuttling any agreement before the fact. Asked directly if Libya was now, for the first time, accepting full blame for the Lockerbie atrocity - for which a Scottish court convicted a Libyan intelligence agent in 2001 - Gaddafi dodged: "Is it not unbelievable that a responsible country, a member of the U.N., would do such an act? Libya was a leading country to condemn such acts." Western diplomats agree that progress is being made but won't confirm Gaddafi's claim of a deal. And Washington, which has long demanded a full confession, is unlikely to be impressed. "Libya knows what it needs to do," says State Department spokesman Philip Reeker. "There are no shortcuts and no lowering of the bar." Gaddafi is desperate to end U.N. and U.S. sanctions that have cost the Libyan economy $30 billion. Libyan officials quickly arranged the interview with Time, conducted in a quilted tent pitched in the desert outside Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, 500 km east of Tripoli, to emphasize the country's desire to settle the Lockerbie matter once and for all. Speaking in a soft monotone, without emotion except for an occasional smirk, Gaddafi described a new world order in which the U.S. and Libya were natural allies in the war against Islamic extremism. He said Libya would be a much better friend than a certain oil-rich Arab monarchy - an obvious reference to Saudi Arabia - that encourages religious fanaticism. Gaddafi insisted that Libya no longer supports terrorist groups and is not producing nuclear or chemical weapons, as the U.S. has alleged. "It has become a boomerang," Gaddafi said. "Anyone who has weapons of mass destruction, it will backfire against them. The world does not accept such a thing. You would be crazy to ignore the trend of the world." Even Gaddafi's attire seemed chosen to strike a conciliatory note. He sported an African print shirt rather than his usual flowing Arab robe. But the old Gaddafi was still in evidence. A good part of the interview was taken up by anti-Semitic slurs against "the Jews" who dictate U.S. Middle East policy; he mocked former President Ronald Reagan, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, saying he was "already mad" when he launched air attacks in response to Libyan terrorism in 1986. But Gaddafi became flustered when asked if he might be next on the U.S. list of Arab leaders to topple. "There is no possibility this could happen," he said, adding later, in a frank assessment of his own relative weakness: "We have no interest in being hostile against a superpower like America. We wish to have good relations because we will benefit from that. To be at loggerheads with America, we shall lose." If Gaddafi is serious about taking responsibility for Lockerbie, then final meetings among U.S., U.K. and Libyan officials could take place soon. But for now, the world is still waiting for Gaddafi's confession.
