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Libya Should Pay Reparation

Concord Times (Freetown)
NEWS
October 8, 2004
Posted to the web October 8, 2004

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah
Freetown
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has said in its report handed to
government Tuesday that Libya should pay reparations for having trained top
rebel military commanders who played key roles in the country's brutal civil
conflict.
TRC's Chief Investigator, Howard Varney said Wednesday that "Libya has the
resources to make a substantial financial contribution and it must make it
because it was in charge of training key players in the Sierra Leone conflict."
He also says Liberia should accept responsibility for stoking Sierra Leone's
civil war. "But since Liberia is still emerging from its own crisis, enjoying
its first fragile year of peace after 14 years of civil war, the reparation
should be symbolic because it is not in a position to make a financial
contribution," he said.
This report follows a two-year investigation into atrocities committed during
the war by a seven-member commission presided over by Bishop Joseph Christian
Humper.
The Report did not state a particular sum to be paid by the Libyan government.
During the last 14 months, however, Libya agreed to pay almost US$3 billion in
compensation to victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am airliner over Lockerbie
in Scotland, the 1989 bombing of a French airliner that exploded over Niger,
and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub by Libyan militants.

   

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