The nose section of the Pan Am Boeing 747 in a field at Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 after it was blown apart while flying from London to New York. Two hundred and seventy lives were lost
Families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have expressed shock and outrage that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, is to visit New York, the destination of the doomed Pan Am Flight 103.
The UN has disclosed that Colonel Gaddafi, who is blamed for the bombing of the aircraft in 1988 and loss of 270 lives, will address the 192-nation General Assembly in New York.
The newly released UN schedule calls for Colonel Gaddafi to speak directly after President Obama on the opening day of the annual session on September 23, raising the prospect of a second encounter between the two.
The trip will be Colonel Gaddafi’s first visit to the US after decades of conflict between Washington and Tripoli and 11 years of UN sanctions on Libya. It follows his recent rehabilitation on the international scene, which culminated in a 40-minute meeting with Gordon Brown and a handshake with Mr Obama at the G8 summit in Italy this month.
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Libya holds a two-year seat on the UN Security Council and its three-time Ambassador to the UN, Ali Treki, was recently elected this session’s General Assembly president.
Colonel Gaddafi was elected this year to a one-year term as chairman of the African Union, which helped him to secure the coveted speaking slot after President Obama.
Relatives of victims of the bombing of the London-New York flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, were horrified to learn of the Libyan leader’s visit.
“As far as I’m concerned he’s still the enemy,” Joan Dater, who lost her daughter Gretchen in the attack, said. “I am not sure what he is going to say. If he gives a lot of propaganda we will be up in arms.”
Kara Weipz, who lost her brother Richard Monetti, said that the prospect of the visit “turns my stomach”.
“I know who the man is. If they are allowing him to set foot in this country I hope they are doing it with their eyes open, because he is not a different man than he was 20-and-a-half years ago when he ordered the bombing,” she said.
Frank Duggan, president of the family group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, said: “I think it’s outrageous. I know our Government is trying to get Libya back into the family of nations. I do not think that translates into welcoming a murderer. This man murdered 270 people, including 189 Americans. I do not think the welcome mat ought to be out for him.
“He will be dressed in some silly outfit and bring a bunch of women guards and he will live in a tent somewhere. He is just very, very strange.”
Lockerbie families received $10 million in compensation from Libya for each victim as part of Colonel Gaddafi’s settlement with the West in 2003.
But many remain angry at British and US efforts to improve relations with the Libyan strongman. They are particularly outraged at Colonel Gaddafi’s recent calls for Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the bombing, to be transferred from a Scottish jail to Libya because he suffers from terminal prostate cancer.
Since his rehabilitation Colonel Gaddafi has visited Paris and Rome, staying in his Beduin tent in both cities. UN officials are joking about where he will pitch his tent in New York, noting that the UN garden is a building site because of the renovation of the organisation’s headquarters.
Libyan diplomats say that they are studying the problem but have already concluded that there are no hotels with large gardens near the UN. Colonel Gaddafi almost visited the UN’s 40th-anniversary celebrations in 1985 and was going to pitch his tent on the roof of Libya’s diplomatic mission. He cancelled at the last moment.
The Lockerbie families concede that they have little power to stop him from attending the UN session, which he is entitled to do as a world leader. Babette Hollister, who lost her daughter Katherine, said, however: “I’ll make sure I’m not in New York that week.”
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