| UN Security Council Resolution 731 | |
|---|---|
 A Pan Am Boeing 747 similar to the one involved in the Flight 103 crash (1985) | |
| Date | 21 January 1992 |
| Meeting no. | 3,033 |
| Code | S/RES/731 (Document) |
| Subject | Libyan Arab Jamahiriya |
Voting summary | 15 voted for None voted against None abstained |
| Result | Adopted |
| Security Council composition | |
Permanent members | |
Non-permanent members | |
UN Security Council Resolution 731, adopted unanimously on 21 January 1992, after recalling resolutions 286 (1970) and 635 (1989) which condemned acts of terrorism, the Council expressed its concern over the results of investigations into the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and UTA Flight 772 over Chad and Niger which implicated officials from the Government of Libya.
A United Nations Security Council resolution is a UN resolution adopted by the fifteen members of the Security Council; the UN body charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security".
United Nations Security Council Resolution 286, adopted on September 9, 1970, gravely concerned at the threat to innocent civilians from the hijacking of aircraft and other international travel, the Council appealed to all parties concerned for the immediate release of all passengers and crews without exception, held as a result of hijackings and other interference in international travel and called on state to take all possible legal measures to prevent further hijackings and interferences in international civil air travel.
United Nations Security Council resolution 635, adopted unanimously on 14 June 1989, after taking note of an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) resolution on 16 February 1989, and expressing its concern regarding incidents of terrorism on international air travel, the Council condemned all acts of "unlawful interference" against the security of civil aviation, calling on all Member States to co-operate in devising and implementing ways to combat terrorism.
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The Council condemned the fact that Libya had not accepted responsibility for the incidents, and urged it to provide a full and effective response to the requests from the investigations with regards to the two aircraft so as to contribute to the elimination of international terrorism. It also urged Member States to encourage the Libyan government to respond. Therefore, the resolution implied that Libya extradite its two accused nationals, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah. [1]
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. The sovereign state is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa, and is the 16th largest country in the world. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over one million of Libya's six million people. The second-largest city is Benghazi, which is located in eastern Libya.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Libya, and an alleged Libyan intelligence officer. On 31 January 2001, Megrahi was convicted, by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, of 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was found not guilty and was acquitted.
Lamin Khalifa Fhimah is a former station manager for Libyan Arab Airlines at Luqa Airport, Malta. On 31 January 2001, he was found not guilty and acquitted of 270 counts of murder in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist, Netherlands, in light of evidence that he was in Sweden at the time of the bombing and therefore could not have been a participant. His co-accused, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was found guilty by unanimous decision of the court and sentenced to life imprisonment, but later released on compassionate grounds, having always maintained his innocence.
Resolution 731 was not legally binding, as it was passed under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter and makes no reference to Chapter VII, however this would be enforced in Resolution 748. [2]
Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter deals with peaceful settlement of disputes. It requires countries with disputes that could lead to war to first of all try to seek solutions through peaceful methods such as "negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice." If these methods of alternative dispute resolution fail, then they must refer it to the UN Security Council. Under Article 35, any country is allowed to bring a dispute to the attention of the UN Security Council or the General Assembly. This chapter authorizes the Security Council to issue recommendations but does not give it power to make binding resolutions; those provisions are contained Chapter VII. Chapter VI is analogous to Articles 13-15 of the Covenant of the League of Nations which provide for arbitration and for submission of matters to the Council that are not submitted to arbitration. United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 are two examples of Chapter VI resolutions which remain unimplemented.
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".
UN Security Council Resolution 748, adopted unanimously on 31 March 1992, after reaffirming Resolution 731 (1992), the UN Security Council decided, under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, that the Government of Libya must now comply with requests from investigations relating to the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie and UTA Flight 772 over Chad and Niger, calling on Libya to cease all forms of terrorist action and assistance to terrorist groups. To this end, the Council imposed sanctions on Libya until Libya complied.
