Lockerbie: still many questions

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, FEB. 1. Families of the British victims of the Lockerbie crash today demanded an independent inquiry into the tragedy saying that many questions had remained unanswered, even as the British Government stepped up pressure on Libya to pay compensation and accept responsibility as set down in the 1992 U.N. Security Council resolution through which sanctions were imposed against Tripoli.

``Libyan leaders need to take every opportunity to prove to the international community that they have definitely renounced terrorism and they will abide by international law,'' said the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Robin Cook, amid reports that Britain was inclined to favour lifting of sanctions as part of its policy of `engagement' with the so-called `rogue' states. This was said to be in contrast with the hard stand taken by the Bush administration.

Relatives of the victims who have formed a group `UK Families Flight 103', named after the number of the ill-fated Pan Am flight, said that so far the British Government had resisted calls for an independent inquiry on the plea that it could prejudice the criminal trial but now that it was over they would expect the Government to accept their demand.

Mr. Cook was non-committal but did not rule it out completely. He expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the trial saying that ``nothing can repair the loss of those who were murdered that night or remove the grief of their relatives but today at last those relatives know that in a fair trial justice has been done''.

The families however were not less certain; and clearly Mr. Jim Swire, the most public face of the families' campaign, was the least convinced that justice had been done. Mr. Swire who lost his young daughter Flora in the crash was so stressed up yesterday that he collapsed in the courtroom when

the verdict was announced. He said he would continue to press the demand for a public inquiry and `hold' the Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, to the promise he apparently gave him when he met him. ``I have done everything in my power to ensure that she (Flora) and the other victims are not forgotten,'' he said.

Meanwhile, even as there is unanimity that the trial has not answered all the questions satisfactorily - the most important being: who ordered the Lockerbie operation and whether there were other links in the chain - opinion on the need for another inquiry is divided. The Guardian supported the demand saying: ``A public inquiry held in Scotland with a wide

mandate and unrestricted access to records......would shed some much-needed light into the dark, pragmatical alleyways of international geo-politics that provide both Lockerbie's and its key.''

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Section  : International
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