FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AG
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1997                            (202) 616-2777
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

            ATTORNEY GENERAL'S STATEMENT ON PAN AM 103

     Attorney General Reno made the following statement today:

     "This June, the Libyan Permanent Mission to the United
Nations sent unsigned letters to family members of Americans who
were murdered in 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed over
Lockerbie, Scotland.  The letters were addressed to families
represented in a civil suit filed in federal court in Brooklyn
against the State of Libya, Libyan Arab Airlines, the Libyan
intelligence service, and the two Libyan operatives who were
indicted in 1991 for carrying out the bombing.

     "The anonymous Libyan author of the letter asserts that the
"government of the United States is neither interested in the
incident nor does it care about the victims."  Not only is this
statement not true, but it is patently offensive.  Let me take
this opportunity to say again that the American government is
committed to the criminal prosecution of those responsible for
the murders of 270 victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.

     "This commitment has not, and it will not, lessen with the
passage of time.  The Libyan Government needs to finally
comprehend that the criminal charges, and the attendant
consequences for Libya in the international community as a state
sponsor of terrorism, are not going to simply go away.  In
addition to surrendering the defendants, Libya must disclose all
it knows of this crime, pay appropriate compensation, and commit
to concretely and definitively ceasing all forms of terrorist
action and all assistance to terrorist groups.

     "The Libyan letter is a callous effort, by exploiting its
position as a defendant in civil litigation, to prey on the
emotions of the families in an attempt to undercut our will to
see that justice served.  We will not be manipulated like that."

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