In the little town where children should have been settling down to a deep and dreamless sleep, the townsfolk, doctors, farmers and emergency services were out combing the fields and hills for survivors and finding 270 dead bodies. It was a vision of hell and the flashbacks and sickening memories would torment many of them for years. Yet through the grim aftermath their response was practical, caring and dignified. They offered hospitality to bereaved relatives, many from the US; police and army personnel meticulously combed hundreds of square miles for scraps of evidence; the women of the town washed and ironed clothes to return to grieving families, quietly shedding a tear over the baby garments. Some relived the harrowing details as they gave careful evidence to the fatal accident inquiry or the court case.
Professor Robert Black, who was involved in setting up the legal mechanism which allowed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and his co-accused to be tried under Scots law on neutral ground in the Netherlands, is also a son of Lockerbie and says that after the initial shock, the people of the area simply got on with their lives. That is the Scottish way. In recent years, it has been increasingly disparaged as repressed and unhelpful, but is a legacy from generations of our forebears who stubbornly met disaster with fortitude and it has been matched by generosity from Syracuse University in setting up a scholarship for Lockerbie students. In remembering Lockerbie on Sunday, we should salute the determination of all those who continue to counter terrorism by building something positive from death and destruction.
[From today's edition of The Herald. The full editorial can be read here.]
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