Annan Plans Libya Trip to Close Deal for Bomb Suspects

With Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi apparently close to surrendering two suspects to stand trial in the Netherlands for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was making arrangements Wednesday to fly to Libya this weekend to try to close the deal.

Annan’s mission to Libya--within days of the 10-year anniversary of the explosion of the jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people--could mark the end in the long quest by the United States and Britain to bring the alleged perpetrators to justice.

By cooperating with the United Nations, Kadafi would also obtain a long-sought goal: the suspension of the U.N. sanctions that have barred air travel to and from Libya since 1992.

Annan’s trip was not being officially confirmed by aides accompanying him this week on a trip in northern Africa out of fear that there could be a last-minute snag. However, planning for a one-day trip Saturday to meet Kadafi in Surt, 230 miles southeast of Tripoli, was in the advanced stages.

The tentative plans were for Annan, who arrived in Tunis from Algiers late Wednesday, to fly to Libya on Saturday morning under an exemption granted by the U.N. sanctions committee.

If Kadafi gives the go-ahead to surrender the two suspects, they conceivably could be flown with a U.N. escort to the Netherlands in a matter of days.

A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, cautioned that not all issues regarding the transfer have been resolved.

The chief stumbling block has been Kadafi’s demand that if the Libyans are convicted they serve their prison sentences either in Libya or the Netherlands.

The U.S. and Britain have said that is unacceptable and that, because they are being tried under Scottish law, they must be imprisoned in Scotland if found guilty.

The United States and Britain agreed in August, after long resisting the idea, to allow the Libyans to be tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law and before Scottish judges.

At the time, U.S. officials said privately that they did not expect Kadafi to comply and that the initiative was to call his bluff in the face of crumbling support for the sanctions, especially among African and Arab countries.

A U.N. Security Council resolution passed in August promised that the sanctions against Libya would be suspended as soon as the suspects were handed over.

At a news conference Wednesday in Algiers, Annan stopped short of confirming that Libya had been added to his itinerary.

He said only that he has been in contact with Tripoli about the Lockerbie matter and, “being in the area . . . I may pop over there.”

The suspects, Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, are accused by the United States and Britain of being Libyan intelligence agents who put a bomb in luggage aboard the Pan Am flight Dec. 21, 1988.

Of the 270 people killed in the bombing--259 on the plane, 11 on the ground--189 were Americans.

Ever since the U.S.-British offer, the Libyans have been demanding various “clarifications.”

Kadafi has wanted guarantees that the two not be spirited away to the United States or Britain once they are out of Libyan control.

In the view of at least one Western diplomat in Cairo, Kadafi is afraid that the two could be interrogated to get evidence that would implicate the entire Libyan regime in the Lockerbie crime.