Mandela flays UK, US for not lifting sanctions against Libya

Mandela flays UK, US for not lifting sanctions against Libya
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

CAPE TOWN, FEB 2: Former South African President Nelson Mandela today criticised the United States and Britain for not lifting sanctions against Libya, saying they had broken a promise to do so once the Lockerbie suspects were extradited.

``Unfortunately that was not done... that is moving the goalposts,'' Mandela said in his first reaction since a Libyan official was convicted for the 1988 aircraft bombing yesterday.

Mandela played a mediating role in negotiating the agreement under which Libya agreed, in 1998, to hand over two of its nationals for trial in front of a Scottish court.

The court, sitting in the Netherlands, yesterday sentenced one of the two for murder in the case, in which 270 people died when a Pan Am airliner blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland.

``We expect the West to lead in moral responsibility and not shift the goalposts. Once agreements are not honoured, you are introducing chaos in international affairs,'' Mandela said.

Both the US and Britain have said that the lifting of sanctions would not follow quickly on the conviction of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrah more than two years after Mandela secured his extradition.

They have indicated that this would hinge on Libya accepting responsibility for the bombing that killed 270 people and paying compensation to the victims' relatives.