Weighing $4 million against a human life is something no family wants to consider.

That is the grim proposal families of Pan Am Flight 103 victims have been facing since last summer. And now that their collective lawsuit against Libya for compensation has been settled and the money is on its way to their bank accounts, it is the closest tangible approximation of justice family members have seen in 15 years.

But as exciting as $4 million sounds to the average Syracuse University student who hasn’t spent the last decade struggling for justice, it is like a drop in the bucket for many families who lost loved ones in the 1988 crash.

‘Most people are just unhappy with it,’ said Bob Monetti, a former president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Inc., who lost his son Richard in the crash which killed 270 people, including 35 SU students. ‘The purpose of the lawsuit wasn’t money – it was to find out more stuff, to show the world that Libya is guilty.’

After more than a decade of complex litigation between family members and the Libyan government, much of which was handled by lawyers with little experience in international law, Libya agreed in August to a similarly complex $2.7 billion compensation settlement. Each family would receive $4 million upon lifting of the United Nations sanctions on Libya, which officially occurred Sept. 12. Another $4 million would come after the United States lifts its own sanctions on the country and the final $2 million is contingent upon the removal of Libya from the State Department’s list of terrorist-sponsoring countries. Unless the United States complies with those requirements by April 2004, families will receive an additional $1 million if and when the United States lifts sanctions in the coming years. The first $4 million is currently sitting in Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City, awaiting an order from a judge to be distributed.

Due to the wide range of lawyers used to negotiate the deal for more than a decade, the actual amount of money each family receives will vary, Monetti said. Lawyer fees range from 17 to 35 percent, he said, but some have been applied over longer periods than others. This means that some families will receive as little as $3 million out of the total $4 million from the first phase of the settlement, depending on the circumstances of their litigation.

‘The fact of the matter is that it’s a $5 million deal, which is probably less money than we could have gotten if we went to [criminal] court,’ Monetti said. ‘Ten million dollars is sort of a joke, because it gives Libya the advantage. Most people weren’t willing to fight anymore and just said ‘screw it.” He added that most families would take the money because their health and jobs aren’t what they used to be and because they’re ready to move on to something else.

Still, though the lawsuit is over, many families are upset that the settlement is mired in international politics. Libya has admitted liability for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and turned over two suspects, one of whom was convicted of participating in the act – but the motivation of Libya’s cooperation is the subject of dispute.

Since sanctions were imposed on Libya shortly after its involvement in the bombing was discovered, the country has suffered an immense economic drought. As a result of multilateral sanctions, a lack of foreign investment, especially from the United States, has contributed to the country’s apologetic and reformist stance and its long-awaited compensation agreement for the victims its agents killed in 1988.

‘Obviously, by trying to put this whole Lockerbie thing behind them, the hope is that they can attract foreign investment,’ said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an SU political science professor and author who has visited the Scottish town in his capacity as a professor for SU’s London program. ‘They are an oil bonanza … In the post-9/11 environment, it makes sense for Libya to try to get out of the pariah state list and carve a new image for itself.’

But for some family members, Libya’s desire for a new international image comes at a direct cost to themselves.

‘We’re being used to get the money,’ said Tom Dater, whose daughter Gretchen was killed on the flight. ‘If they really wanted to give us the money, they would have said, ‘Here’s $10 million, no conditions.’ But they didn’t do it that way, so we feel we’re being used by the Libyan government.’

Most families seem to revile their unwitting roles as political pawns in Libya’s attempt to gain economic stability and success in the international economic community. But in terms of getting the rest of the settlement beyond the first $4 million, there seems to be little hope. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said to a meeting of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 Inc. in August that the U.S. government would not stand in the way of lifting U.N. sanctions, but that it ‘in no way changed our government’s position toward Libya.’

Libya’s decision to place an eight-month statute of limitations on the settlement deal means the U.S. government has little time to react – but the government has consistently placed the onus on Libya to change the way it functions before lifting sanctions will even be entertained. Family members describe Libya’s use of sanctions as a political tool as reprehensible, doing little to prompt the U.S. government to lift them.

Boroujerdi, on the other hand, noted that many countries have used this kind of political maneuvering historically. He pointed out that when Iraq supposedly mistakenly killed 37 U.S. soldiers during the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. government received $1 million per sailor in compensation. However, when the United States shot down an Iranian plane, also apparently by mistake, it paid only $100,000 to $200,000 to each of the victims’ families.

‘Libya is not really a totally different case, except the fact that this was a premeditated act of terrorism,’ Boroujerdi said.

Libya’s usefulness to the United States in the Middle East should not be overlooked, Boroujerdi said. He added that demonizing the country could have potentially disastrous effects for the Bush administration because of ‘open wounds’ in Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘In the hard calculus of world politics, we have to entertain these issues,’ he said. ‘It seems to me we have our hands full as it is.’

Monetti doesn’t hold out much hope for the U.S. government to lift sanctions within the Libyan time frame.

‘Eventually, I think these things will probably happen,’ Monetti said. ‘Our government has consistently said that it’s not going to and I can’t imagine it happens in eight months.’

For most families in the victims’ organization, money and politics are secondary to preserving the memories of their loved ones. They will continue to fight outside of court for more information, more shattered pieces of justice. Many say they can no longer find the strength to keep fighting, but their eyes give them away.

For Monetti, this Dec. 23 will mark only the first 15 years of the fight.

‘It’s probably not going to be over for a lot of us,’ he said, ‘until they pour dirt on our heads.’

Published on October 15, 2003 at 12:00 pm