Arab Perspective: Not all is fine with the Lockerbie affair

Writing in Ashraq Al-Awsat (UK-based), Ahmed Al Rab'ei says the recent Libyan recognition of its responsibility for the 1988 bombing of the Pan-Am jetliner over Lockerbie in Scotland should be hailed. He adds sarcastically that the only condition Arabs have been able to impose on the international community is that of tribal conciliation.

Al Rab'ei notes Libya has agreed to pay $2.7 billion in blood money through UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

However, he points out France is not pleased with such an agreement. It, too, called on Tripoli to upgrade the blood money it paid for another plane crash which France blames Libya for.

The writer points out this shows there are no principles in international politics. Anyone can now carry out any stupid act and then offer compensation. If this has become the new rule, who is to prevent any Jewish organisation from establishing an international fund with billions of dollars so Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon can offer compensation to Palestinian victims while annexing the whole of Palestine.

Al Rab'ei asks what was the purpose of these stupid acts followed by the paying of huge sums to the victims of families.

Rashid Ghashana in Al Hayat (UK-based) says what happened to Saddam Hussain may have helped quicken the pace of Libyan-American rapprochement. Libya felt it, too, might be targeted.

He points out that the Libyan stand – except for a few cases – with regard to America was never correct in its reading of the balance of forces. Libya failed to embarrass the U.S., not having the analysis, vision and tactical plans to deal with that country, adds Ghashana. By contrast, Ghashana says, former president Habeeb Bourguiba of Tunisia understood the rules of the game and wanted to achieve self-reliance for his country rather than indulge in emotional outcries.

Bourguiba befriended America in the 1940s and used her against France but did not allow U.S. military bases to be stationed there nor the use of Tunisian ports.

The writer says it took Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi 30 years to put the policy of confrontation aside in exchange for a modicum of understanding with America, but it came at a hefty political and financial price and with the least sensitive of U.S. administrations to Arab causes.

If such a scandal as the Lockerbie disaster and the consequent compensation had happened in a democratic society it would have meant the downfall of the government, says Ghashana. The Lockerbie case cost Libya seven years of economic development and resulted in losses of $30 billion, an amount that could have easily made every Libyan enjoy the living standards of those in Switzerland!

But who will be accountable in the end? What is needed now in Libya is a new policy that will open the door to those living in exile and the creation of new political institutions allowing the people to have their say in the internal and external policies of the country.

Ahmed Omrabi writing in Al Bayan (UAE) asks whether the principle of compensation should only apply to victims from Western countries and why this shouldn't be the case when it comes to those from Muslim nations.

Doesn't the bombing of the pharmaceutical factory in Sudan by the U.S. during the Clinton administration deserve mention, he questions.

Until today American authorities have refused any international investigation into the case saying the factory made chemical weapons although this was proved wrong.

As in the Lockerbie case, the people and government as well as the owners of the factory in Sudan must call for compensation from a great power that flouts international law. Two years before the attacks, there was the Qana massacre in southern Lebanon where Israel attacked a UN facility in Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians, both young and old.

There was no call for compensation then. But how could there be when the U.S. is ready to use its veto at the sign of any criticism of Israel.

Further back, what about when Israel railroaded its army into Lebanon and Beirut in 1982, annihilating many thousands of lives and infrastructure.

Don't they deserve compensation or is the spilling of Arab blood less precious than Western or Jewish blood, asks Omrabi.