[Sreekar]

Libya joins UN Security Council after leaving US terrorist list
Libya won a seat on the UN Security Council, just over a year after the US removed the north African nation from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and without any opposition from US President George W Bush's administration.

The US decision on Tuesday not to support a rival African country angered families of many victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, who said the United States should have done more to prevent Libya from getting a seat on the U.N.'s most powerful body. Libya was blamed for the bombing.

The UN General Assembly elected Libya to a two-year term starting January 1 on the first ballot along with Vietnam and Burkina Faso, who also had no opposition. Croatia and Costa Rica won on the third ballot after their opponents, the Czech Republic and the Dominican Republic, dropped out after two rounds of secret balloting.

Libya was demonized for years by the United States as a sponsor of various terrorist groups as far-flung as the Irish Republican Army and Palestinian factions, and for trying to undermine pro-Western governments in Africa. Libya was also blamed for a West Berlin disco bombing that killed two American soldiers in 1986.

Asked about Libya joining the council, US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff told reporters "the United States doesn't reveal how it votes on these elections."

But he said "the world changes," citing the responsible role that World War II enemies Germany and Japan now play. "We look forward to working with all new members that are elected," he repeated several times.

Libya's UN Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi stressed the 178 "yes" votes Libya received in the 192-member General Assembly and told reporters: "It means I can say we are back to the international community, that all the problems we have faced in the past are now behind us."

"I think our relations with the US nowadays are back to normal ... and I think they have not worked against our candidacy. We are sure about that," he said.

Glenn Johnson, who lost his 21-year-old daughter Beth Ann in the Lockerbie bombing and chairs the group "Victims of Pan Am 103", which represents families of about 160 of the 270 victims, said Libya still owes the families $2 million (euro1.4 million) apiece as part of a settlement that Libya made with the US. The families have already received $8 million (euro5.6 million) each.

"We really felt let down when the State Department didn't make the objections it has in the past," Johnson said. "The US allowed (Libya) off the hook even though for some reason Libya decided it didn't have to take the last step of the agreement. We can't understand it."

Dan Cohen, who lost his 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, said the vast majority of Lockerbie victims were Americans and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi "has more American blood on his hands than any other surviving dictator in the world."

"It is a disgrace that the United States would not even put up a fight and try to defeat Libya," he said. "America just hasn't stood up on this issue at all. ... And the Libyan government is working diligently to get the one person convicted in this case out of jail in Scotland."

Wolff, the US envoy, noted that some family members of the Pan Am bombing were watching the vote from the General Assembly visitors gallery.

"Their presence was felt here today. I felt it and I know other delegations felt it," he said. "The compensation issue is something we are pursuing bilaterally with the Libyan government and will continue to do so."

But Libya's Ettalhi said, "We have fulfilled completely our agreement with the Lockerbie people. ... Please just read this agreement and you realize we have really done what we have to do."

After Gadhafi came to power in a 1969 coup, Libya turned against the West. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, Libya was regarded as a pariah in Washington's view, designated a state sponsor of terrorism and made the target of US airstrikes in 1986 and of penalties barring American companies from doing business there.

In 2003, Libya reached a $2.7 billion settlement with families of the victims of the Pan Am bombing, and the next year paid $170 million compensation to the families of the 170 victims of the 1989 bombing of a French UTA passenger jet.

Relations between Washington and Tripoli have improved since Libya's surprise decision in the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to dismantle its clandestine nuclear weapons program under international inspection.

The Bush administration said in May 2006 it was resuming regular diplomatic relations with Libya for the first time in more than a quarter-century. It removed Libya from the State Department's list of terrorism sponsors on June 30, 2006.

Libya will be joining the council along with another former US enemy, Vietnam.

The US restored diplomatic ties with Vietnam in 1995 _ 20 years after the end of the Vietnam War _ and is now the country's largest trading partner.

The closest race for a council seat was between Croatia and the Czech Republic.

Some diplomats said privately that the Czech Republic lost because of President Vaclav Klaus' skeptical comments about global warming, which is a key issue for many UN members, especially small island states. In a statement last week, Klaus said he was "surprised" that former US Vice President Al Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize "because a link between his activities and the global peace is unclear and blurred."

(source:The Times of India: Breaking news, views, reviews, cricket from across India.)

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Sreekar