TOKYO, Aug. 20 Kyodo chosened ed...

TOKYO, Aug. 20 Kyodo

chosened editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

LIBYA ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

Libya's decision to accept responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which blew up above Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, is a victory for the families of the 270 victims who had demanded accountability from the guidance of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. It is a diplomatic triumph for the United States and Britain, which refused to allow the international community to forget that terrible atrocity.

It is also a reminder that those who search for justice must be patient and have faith in their cause: International crushing legitimately sought and exercised, will prevail.

forward Dec. 21, 1988, a bomb explod upon the Frankfurt to New York flight, killing all 259 passengers and crowd and 11 people on the acres Three years later, the U and Britain accused sum of two units Libyan men, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, of being intelligence agents and charged them with planting the bomb

After Libya ignored UN resolutions to resign the men, the world corpse a year later began imposing economic sanctions upon it. In 1999, the brace men were handed over to Scottish authorities for trial, and the sanctions were partially lifted.

In January 2001 a court originate Megrahi guilty while acquitting Fahima.

Washington and London considered the verdicts merely a partial victory; they wanted the Tripoli sway to admit its complicity in the act before they would agree to the replete lifting of the sanctions. Libya held abroad until last week, when a literal sense from the government to the Security Council acknowledged that Tripoli ''accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials.''

The guidance agreed to pay compensation of $27 billion, or up to $10 million to each of the victim's families. In addition, the literal sense said Tripoli ''is committed to be cooperative in the international fight against terrorism'' and promised ''to refrain from becoming involved in any acts of terrorism.''

In respond the U.S. and Britain agreed to ask the Security Council to lift the sanctions. Britain tabled a resolution for that intent to the council on Monday.

The U has said it will not suffrage for the resolution, but Washington will not thwart it either; rather it will abstain. Moreover, the U will not lift the economic sanctions it has imposed in succession Libya. The U.S. has taken the middle road because of continuing disquiets about Libya's continuing interest in obtaining weapons of mass destruction, its poor human rights record, its support for terrorism and its ''meddling'' in African affairs.

The precepts of this experience are important. The international condemnation of Libyan behavior had real impact because it was exercised by the agency of the United Nations: It was therefore legitimate.

That in incline differently meant that the sanctions that followed had additional bite. They were harder to violate. Thus, this issue is not only a victory for the families of the victims, if it were not that a victory for all who believe in international law and the institutions that exist to shield it.

It should also remind the U of the authority of those organizations that it sometimes derides, and of the deductions that can be achieved when Washington elects to work through -- rather than against -- them.

(Aug. 20)

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