Indonesia welcomes lifting of Libya sanctions
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government welcomed on Sunday the decision of the United Nations Security Council to lift sanctions against Libya, hoping that the move would put an end to the sour relations between Tripoli and the international community.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said the UN decision was in line with the demands by Indonesia, along with other members of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement, that the UN embargo be lifted.
"We have been calling for the lifting of the UN embargo on Libya," Marty told The Jakarta Post here on Sunday.
Libya is a member of the OIC.
Marty said the lifting of the UN embargo would present many opportunities for Indonesia to improve relations with Tripoli.
Separately, international affairs analyst Riza Sihbudi also hailed the UN decision to lift the embargo on Libya, saying that it would help curb radicalism in the Middle East.
"The UN decision will also ease tension in the Middle East," Riza added.
Both Marty and Riza were commenting on the UN decision on Friday to lift the sanctions that have been slapped on Libya for more than a decade.
Hundreds of Libyans danced and sang in the streets of Tripoli into the early morning hours of Saturday to celebrate the lifting of the suffocating UN sanctions, in what state media hailed as a "victory", AFP reported.
The UN Security Council voted Friday to lift the sanctions imposed on Libya for the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing. The vote is seen as a landmark step toward ending the oil-rich state's long years of international isolation.
The vote passed 13-0 with abstentions from the United States, which is keeping its own sanctions on Libya in place, and France, wary that Tripoli may default on compensation commitments over the bombing of a French airliner.
Paris had initially threatened to block the vote unless Tripoli paid more money to the relatives of those who perished when a UTA plane blew up over Africa in 1989, killing 170 people, in an attack blamed on Libya.
The Arab League on Saturday welcomed the Security Council's decision to scrap UN sanctions imposed on Libya and called on the United States to lift its own embargoes on the oil-rich state.
"The Arab League welcomes the lifting of the UN embargo, which it has constantly demanded, and calls on the United States to end bilateral sanctions imposed on Libya," said the 22-member body's chief, Amr Mussa, in a statement.
"The abolition of American sanctions would eliminate the last obstacle hindering a return to normal relations between the two countries," added Mussa, who is in Russia.
But the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, James Cunningham, has warned that Washington will maintain its own sanctions, saying that Libya was "actively pursuing" weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles, and biological and chemical weapons.
The UN sanctions, including an air and arms-sales embargo, were suspended in 1999 after Tripoli released two suspects to stand trial for the Lockerbie bombing, making Friday's vote largely symbolic.
The UN vote was passed after London, Washington and Tripoli agreed on a compensation deal for families of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing, and another with French families over the UTA tragedy.
British and American families of the Lockerbie victims can expect payments of up to US$10 million per victim, or $2.7 billion in total.
Around $4 million will be paid to each family with the lifting of UN sanctions. Another $4 million will be delivered if U.S. sanctions are lifted, and a final $2 million if Washington strikes Libya from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism.