Families of US Lockerbie victims receive compensation

The families of 180 US passengers of Pan Am flight 103 who died when the plane was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland, have reported receiving full compensation from the Libyan government.

In Washington, D.C., a spokesperson for family members said that justice had finally been achieved.

In October, the government of Libya paid $1.8 billion into a fund that would compensate families of the victims of the bombing in 1988, and other terrorist acts.

The payment has removed the final barrier to the restoration of full diplomatic relations between Libya and the US.

“Today is historic because Libya has finally fulfilled 100% justice to the Pan Am 103 families,” said Kara Weipz, the sister of a passenger killed when the aircraft was bombed. “We are now free to close this chapter in our nightmare.”

Earlier in the week, President Bush noted that a “painful chapter” in the relationship between the two countries was finally being closed. His remarks were made after speaking with Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, on the telephone.

From the compensation fund, $1.5 billion will be paid out in claims for the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am flight, as well as the bombing of a disco in Germany in 1986.

In the Lockerbie bombing, all 259 people on the Pan Am flight were killed, as were 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.

Thanks to news.bbc.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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