FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AG
MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1997                            (202) 514-2008
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

             STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Attorney General Janet Reno today issued
the following statement to USA Today:

     "On July 10, 1997, the UN Security Council renewed the
sanctions imposed on Libya in 1992 for its failure to surrender
for trial in the United States or Scotland the defendants charged
with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.  On July 31, I issued a
statement condemning a letter sent to the victims' families by
the Libyan Permanent Representative at the UN, which repeated the
same disingenuous Libyan alternatives to surrendering the
defendants for trial in the United States or Scotland which had
been previously rejected.

     "On August 21, I received a letter from the Libyan
Representative to the UN, copies of which were also sent to the
family members.  In addition to transmitting the arguments
against sanction renewal that were rejected by the Security
Council, the letter attempts, once again, to promote the notion
of a trial of the defendants outside the United States or
Scotland.

     "Astonishingly, this letter attempts to shift the blame for
the delay in resolving this matter to the United States for
Libya's own refusal to comply with the Security Council
Resolutions.

     "So that there will be no misunderstanding, let me
reemphasize what I said.

     "The American Government is committed to the criminal
prosecution of those responsible for the murders of the 270
victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.

     "This commitment has not, and will not, lessen with the
passage of time.  The Libyan Government apparently hasn't
comprehended 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 cease all
forms of terrorist actions and all assistance to terrorist
groups.

     "This latest Libyan letter is another callous gambit to prey
on the emotions of the families in an unsuccessful attempt to
undercut our will to see justice served.  Neither the Department
of Justice nor I believe the victims' families, will be so
manipulated."
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97-349