Message to President: Support Freedom for the Libyan People and Justice for Gaddafi

PRESS RELEASE BY FAMILIES OF PAN AM 103/LOCKERBIE RE LIBYAN REVOLT

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Libyan dictator Gaddafi and his henchmen have acknowledged responsibility for the murder hundreds of Americans (including 270 in the bombing of Pan Am 103 and 170 in the bombing of the French UTA airliner as well as other Westerners in terrorist attacks), plus thousands of Libyans in his 40+ years in power.  Gaddafi has declared he will now use genocide against his own people to stay in power.  Currently, Libya's diplomats have resigned en mass and called on the U.N. Security Council to act against Gaddafi.  

U.N. resolutions require action to stop genocide by national leaders against their own people.  

In 2004, Libya formally promised the U.N. it would fully cooperate in the criminal investigation of its terrorist acts as a condition of the lifting of U.N. sanctions for its longstanding support of terrorism.  Instead, the Gaddafi regime ignored this commitment with the consent of the U.S. and U.K. governments. Subsequently Gaddafi was rewarded with billions of dollars of commercial oil contracts.  

In 2009, these oil companies successfully lobbied the U.K. government for the release of Libyan security agent Megrahi, convicted of the murder of 270 in the Pan Am 103 bombing and a key potential witness against Gaddafi regime leaders, based on bogus claims of imminent death.    Megrahi was greeted as a hero by the Gaddafi regime and now resides in a villa near Tripoli courtesy of the regime.

So far the President of the United States has been mum.  "It is time for President Obama to declare unequivocally that the United States stands with the people of Libya, NOT with the murderous Gaddafi regime. This is a pivotal moment in Middle East and human rights history."

"The regime has admitted that it has lost control of the eastern part of the country, its diplomats, parts of the military and major tribes; it has clearly lost legitimacy.  The U.S. should suspend its recognition of the Gaddafi regime until a new government emerges," said Paul Hudson and Victoria Cummock, co-presidents of the Families of Pan Am 103/Lockerbie and a long time advocates for airline passenger and terrorist victim rights.

The U.N. Security Council must to live up the principles in its Charter and resolutions that require collective security to stop genocide. It should impose a no fly zone over Libya to prevent massacre of protestors and air lifting of mercenaries being employed by Gaddafi to kill demonstrators.  The U.N. should also remind Gaddafi and his loyalists that war crimes will be prosecuted and punished in the International Criminal Court.  This type of international action was helpful in quelling genocide by Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Milosevic in Bosnia.   U.N. 1993 mandatory sanctions against the Gaddafi regime were successful, causing termination of his WMD programs and support for most terrorism.

Gaddafi has long impoverished his people by appropriating most of Libya's billions oil revenue.  U.S. national security and economic interests now favor supporting the people of Libya.   Any new regime will not look kindly on the U.S. and U.K. if they support of Gaddafi with inaction while he commits mass murder of his own people.  

SOURCE Families of Pan AM 103/ Lockerbie