Libya.

• Position: Peacewatch - UN Security Council's request to surrender suspects on bombing Pan Am Flight 103

Reviewing sanctions against Libya, Security Council members on 29 October called on Tripoli to hand over the two persons suspected of involvement in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The suspects - Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah - are accused of planting a bomb aboard the flight, which exploded on 21 December 1988, killing 270 people on board and on the ground.

Council President Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom also said that members had welcomed the fact that clarifications concerning the procedures for the trial in the Netherlands under Scottish law and with Scottish judges were being provided to the Libyan authorities through Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office. "Council members were encouraged by the relatively positive trend of those developments", he said, following dosed consultations on the matter. Members also noted that the tenth anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy was approaching and agreed that this underlined the need to resolve the issue in line with resolution 1192 (1998) as soon as possible, and that sanctions would be suspended when aU the necessary conditions spelled out in the resolution were met, according to Ambassador Greenstock.

By resolution 1192 (1998), adopted on 27 August under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Council unanimously decided to suspend the sanctions against Libya once the Secretary-General reports that Tripoli has handed over two suspects for the trial, and that the Government has "satisfied the French judicial authorities" with regard to the 19 September 1989 bombing of the...