The sister of an American soldier who was killed in the Lockerbie bombing said that she had met Colonel Muammar Gaddafi during his visit to New York to offer him forgiveness.
Lisa Gibson, 39, and another Lockerbie family met the Libyan leader after his rambling speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. (...)
Ms Gibson’s brother, Kenneth, a US soldier stationed in Germany, was returning home for Christmas on Pan Am Flight 103 when it was blown up on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people in the jet and on the ground. (...)
“When I met with him face-to-face I did not even feel any kind of anger. I was quite at peace.
“He was speaking through a translator. As it was conveyed to us, he said thanks for us coming and he is sorry for what happened to us.”
She said that she did not ask the leader whether he had ordered the attack on the London-New York aircraft. “I did not think it was appropriate,” she said. “They have always said they did not do it. I did not even want to go there. I wanted to focus on reconciliation.” (...)
She and Raymond Pagnucco, whose father, Robert, was killed in the bombing, spent ten minutes with Colonel Gaddafi at Libya’s UN mission.
Before leaving, Ms Gibson gave him a handwritten card telling him that she had forgiven and had been praying for him. “There is more peace with forgiveness. That would be my advice to family members,” she said. (...)
Colonel Gaddafi described the encounter as friendly. “I offered my condolences for the families who lost them. They also expressed their condolences for my daughter who was killed from the American raid in 1986,” he told CNN. He called the Lockerbie bombing a catastrophe but again denied responsibility.
[The above are excerpts from a report in today's edition of The Times.]
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