Clark Filing Libyan Raid Victim Claims

Former Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark said today that he is filing claims with the White House and Pentagon seeking compensation for the victims of the U.S. bombing raid on Libya.

Citing “terroristic, random bombing of residential areas of Libya” one year ago today, Clark told a news conference that several lawsuits will be filed in six months if the government does not answer the claims.

“The claims seek justice for the persons killed and injured by the U.S. raid. They also seek justice for the American people, who are victims of their own government’s violence, falsehoods and hypocrisy,” said Clark, the attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson and the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark.

In a 12-minute raid last April 15, American warplanes dispatched from England and from two aircraft carriers dropped about 100 tons of bombs on five targets near Tripoli and Benghazi.

65 Individual Claims

The U.S. government said the targets were used to support Libya’s terror network. Some of the bombs missed their marks and landed on civilians.

Clark said he was filing 65 individual claims on behalf of those killed and injured in the raid but estimated that more than 100 people were killed. The claims, for Libyans, Greeks, Egyptians, Yugoslavs and Lebanese--all, according to Clark, civilians--range up to $5 million per wrongful death.

Among the victims for whom claims are being filed, Clark said, are a 3-month-old infant killed in her mother’s arms, a 9-year-old schoolgirl and a 75-year-old husband and his 63-year-old wife.

Nine days before the raid, a bomb ripped through a West Berlin disco frequented by American servicemen. Two soldiers and a Turkish woman died and President Reagan cited what he called clear and persuasive evidence that Libya had been responsible for that attack.

‘No Legal Right to Bomb’

However, Clark said the disco attack could not justify the bombing.

“Whatever (Libyan leader Moammar) Kadafi and his government may have done, there was no legal right to bomb Libya. . . . You don’t kill 3-month-old children because you label someone a terrorist, rightly or wrongly,” Clark said.

Clark said the claims have no connection with the Libyan government. Some are based on information he gathered from wounded people in hospitals in Vienna, to which they had been evacuated, and relatives he spoke to during a trip to Libya last June. The rest have been gathered by private Libyan attorneys, he said.

Clark said he has received no compensation, but anticipates receiving reimbursement for expenses and a contingency fee of 10% if any claims are successful.