Libya.

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 French airliner Union de Transports Aeriens (UTA) flight 772 over Niger, in which 171 people lost their lives.

On 24 August, the Secretary-General said he was "extremely" pleased by the decision of the United Kingdom and the United States to try the suspects in the Netherlands. He had been informed by the two States in a letter dated the same day of their offer to Libya to accept a trial in the Lockerbie bombing before a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. The court would follow normal Scottish law and procedures except for the replacement of the jury by a panel of three Scottish High Court judges. The Secretary-General was requested by both countries to convey the proposal to the Libyan Government. He was also asked to provide any assistance Libya might require with regard to the physical arrangements for the transfer of the two accused directly to the Netherlands.

The decision by the United Kingdom and the United States and Council resolution 1192 marked the first breakthrough in a situation that has been virtually deadlocked since sanctions were imposed in 1992.

On 5 December, the Secretary-General met Libya's leader Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi in that country. Mr. Annan described as "a step forward" his efforts to bring to closure the matter of the transfer of the Libyan suspects to a court in a third country.