Lockerbie Relatives Seek Inquiry
Relatives of Britons killed when a Pan Am jet exploded over Scotland in 1988 renewed calls for an independent inquiry into the bombing on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the attack.
U.K. Families Flight 103, a group representing families of British victims, said "big and important questions" still needed to be asked about the motive and planning behind the attack, and the failure to prevent it.
Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.
"In recent suspicious deaths of individuals, independent inquiries have rightly been instigated," the group said in a statement. "Yet the government use the passage of time to erase the need to hold such an inquiry into the unresolved murders of 270 people — the biggest mass murder of the 20th century on British soil."
Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, was found guilty of the bombing in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison. Another Libyan was acquitted.
The families' group said Prime Minister Tony Blair had told them before the trial that "he understood that the end of the criminal trial would leave unanswered many of our questions. He was right."
The group welcomed Libya's announcement that it would scrap programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The agreement, worked out with the United States and Britain, marks a major step toward ending Libya's international isolation.
It follows an agreement by Moammar Gadhafi's government earlier this year to take responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and pay US$2.7 billion to the victims' families.
"We welcome Libya's stated intention to abandon the creation of weapons of mass destruction and are pleased at the British government's attempts to find a peaceful solution to this issue," the group said.
"Throughout the 1990s and beyond we have encouraged dialogue between our countries, even when there was no political will for such negotiations."