[This is the headline over an article on the website of the Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm. It reads as follows:]
Patrick Haseldine, a former diplomat under John Major's Westminster administration, has pressed Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill to take active steps to initiate an international inquiry into the Lockerbie debacle, pointing out that MacAskill pledged to support such an inquiry should it convene.
Haseldine is among the signatories of an open letter addressed to the President of the UN General Assembly asking the United Nations to 'institute a full public inquiry.
"I'm very pleased to note from your statement that you have committed the Scottish Government to 'fully co-operate in such an inquiry'. However, a UN member state must first table a resolution at the General Assembly, and get a majority of votes in favour, before a Lockerbie inquiry can be instituted," he said.
"On 3 October 2009, another signatory, Professor Robert Black QC, wrote to Malta's Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Tonio Borg, requesting Malta to table the necessary UNGA resolution. I think it would be helpful at this stage if you were to take an early opportunity to contact the Maltese Government, and reiterate your pledge that the Scottish Government will co-operate fully in a [Malta-sponsored] United Nations inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster."
Signatories to the UN letter include Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, campaigner Noam Chomsky, Tam Dalyell and members of both UK Families Flight 103 and the Justice for Megrahi campaign.
This is the e-mail I sent to Mr MacAskill on 6 November 2009:
ReplyDeleteDear Mr MacAskill,
"Prior to the abandonment of Megrahi's second appeal against conviction and while new evidence could be still tested in court, there had been few calls for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing. Demands for such an inquiry have increased since, and become more insistent.
"On 2 September 2009, former MEP Michael McGowan demanded that the British Government call for an urgent, independent inquiry led by the United Nations to find out the truth about Pan Am flight 103. 'We owe it to the families of the victims of Lockerbie and the international community to identify those responsible,' McGowan said (see http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/opinion/Michael-McGowan-The-best-tribute.5612963.jp ). Two online petitions were started: one calling for a UK public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing ( http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/09/petition-to-set-up-public-inquiry-into.html ); the other a United Nations inquiry into the murder of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing ( http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BerntCarlsson/ ). In September 2009, a third petition which was addressed to the President of the United Nations General Assembly demanded that the UN should 'institute a full public inquiry' into the Lockerbie disaster. On 3 October 2009, Malta was asked to table a UN resolution supporting the petition, which was signed by 20 people including the families of the Lockerbie victims, authors, journalists, professors, politicians and parliamentarians, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The signatories considered that a UN inquiry could help remove 'many of the deep misgivings which persist in lingering over this tragedy' and could also eliminate Malta from this terrorist act. Malta was brought into the case because the prosecution argued that the two accused Libyans, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, had placed the bomb on an Air Malta aircraft before it was transferred at Frankfurt airport to a feeder flight destined for London's Heathrow airport, from which Pan Am Flight 103 departed. The Maltese government responded saying that the demand for a UN inquiry was 'an interesting development that would be deeply considered, although there were complex issues surrounding the event'."
I am one of the 20 signatories of September's open letter addressed to the President of the UN General Assembly (see attachment 1*) asking the United Nations to 'institute a full public inquiry'. I'm very pleased to note from your statement that you have committed the Scottish Government to 'fully co-operate in such an inquiry'. However, a UN member state must first table a resolution at the General Assembly, and get a majority of votes in favour, before a Lockerbie inquiry can be instituted.
On 3 October 2009, another signatory, Professor Robert Black QC, wrote to Malta's Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Tonio Borg, requesting Malta to table the necessary UNGA resolution (see attachment 2*). We are hoping for a favourable response to this request from the Maltese Government.
This week, Malta's Prime Minister, Lawrence Gonzi refused to have Tony Gauci, the chief prosecution witness, interrogated: "Our position was always that Malta had nothing to do with the terrorist attack and it has never changed. Over the years we cooperated with every investigation and we think there is nothing to justify a change" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Gonzi#Lockerbie_disaster ).
I think it would be helpful at this stage if you were to take an early opportunity to contact the Maltese Government, and reiterate your pledge that the Scottish Government will co-operate fully in a [Malta-sponsored] United Nations inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster.
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Haseldine
HM Diplomatic Service (Ret'd)
These are the signatories of September's open letter to UNGA president, Dr Ali Treki:
ReplyDeleteSigned:
Mr John Ashton
(Co-author of ‘Cover-up of Convenience: The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie’).
Mrs Jean Berkley
(Co-ordinator UK Families Flight 103 and mother of Alistair Berkley: PA103 victim).
Professor Robert Black QC
(Commonly referred to as the Architect of the Camp van Zeist Trial).
Professor Noam Chomsky
(Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Mr Tam Dalyell
(Member of Parliament: 1962 – 2005, Father of the House: 2001 – 2005).
Mr Ian Ferguson
(Co-author of ‘Cover-up of Convenience: The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie’).
Mr Robert Forrester
(Justice for Megrahi campaign committee member).
Ms Christine Grahame
(Member of the Scottish Parliament and justice campaigner).
Mr Patrick Haseldine
(Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service – Retired).
Mr Ian Hislop
(Editor of Private Eye: one of the UK’s most highly regarded journals of political comment).
Father Pat Keegans
(Lockerbie Parish Priest at the time of the bombing of Pan Am 103).
Mr Iain McKie
(Retired Police Superintendent and justice campaigner).
Ms Heather Mills
(Reporter for Private Eye specialising in matters relating to Pan Am flight 103).
Mr Denis Phipps
(Aviation security expert).
Mr Steven Raeburn
(Editor of The Firm, one of Scotland’s foremost legal journals).
Doctor Jim Swire
(Justice campaigner. Dr Swire’s daughter, Flora, was killed in the Pan Am 103 incident).
Mr Abdullah Swissi
(Former President of the Libyan Students’ Union in Scotland and Libyan Student Affairs of the Libyan Students’ Union, UK Branch).
Sir Teddy Taylor
(Former Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Member of Parliament from 1964 to 2005).
His Grace, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu
(Defender of human rights worldwide, Nobel Peace Prize winner, headed South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is Chairman of the Global Elders).
Mr Bob Watts
(Businessman and Justice for Megrahi campaign committee member).
And this is the text of Professor Robert Black's letter of 3 October 2009 to Dr Tonio Borg, Foreign Affairs Minister of Malta:
The Hon Tonio Borg LLD MP
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Palazzo Parisio,
Merchants Street,
Valletta VLT 1171
03 October 2009
Dear Mr Borg,
I write to you in order to inform you of an initiative that has recently been launched with regard to the tragic loss of Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 and the subsequent trial of Mr Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Mr Lamin Fhimah at Kamp van Zeist. I include in this text box a letter which has been submitted to the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation, and a brief background note on its development. Furthermore, both of these texts are contained in this mail as attachments for your convenience. I will not trouble you here by repeating what will be clear upon reading both the letter to the UN and the background details. Suffice it to say that the signatories to this initiative are of the belief that both the good reputation of Malta and Luqa Airport have been quite unjustly stained by association with this affair. We are informed that the General Assembly simply requires one member state to table a motion putting forward this submission and thereafter a two-thirds majority vote will be necessary in order to open such an enquiry. We, therefore, hope that the Government of Malta will use its best offices to advance this cause.
Thank you most kindly for your time and attention.
Yours sincerely
Robert Black
Professor Robert Black QC FRSE
Terrific!
ReplyDeleteI'm baffled. I thought Colonel Gaddafi had already instructed Mr Treki to conduct an investigation into the death of Berndt Carlson!
ReplyDeleteI didn't hear him say this but apparently "retired diplomat" Patrick Haseldine did!
Like many others, I fully expected Colonel Gaddafi to focus on the Lockerbie issue in his 96-minute address to the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2009.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, as baz/porkylinda pointed out on this blog, Gaddafi did call for a UN investigation into the assassination of Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba and of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961 (not 1952 baz!), but did not even mention Lockerbie in his speech (see http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2009/09/gaddafis-un-general-assembly-speech.html ). Gaddafi thus omitted to call for a UN Inquiry into the murder of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson ( http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BerntCarlsson/ ).
That omission does not preclude Libya, or indeed any other UN member state, from calling for such an inquiry at the 64th session of the General Assembly.
Patrick Haseldine wrote "like many others I fully expected Colonel Gaddafi to focus on the lockerbie issue." I don't know who these many others are but I wasn't one of them being perhaps a little more politically astute. I do recall Patrick Haseldine confidently and repeatedly predicting the Colonel would call for an enquiry into the death of Berndt Carlsson and even claiming that he had!
ReplyDeleteSo why would the Colonel call for an enquiry into the 1961 murder of Dag Hammarskjold, Patrick Lumumba,President Kennedy, Uncle Tom Cobley and all as well as several wars and leave Lockerbie alone? it kind of makes these petitions look a bit stupid!
Incidentally I thought the Colonel had a great deal to say on the Lockerbie issue in his speech without actually mentioning the "L" word.
Ouch! Call on MacAskill just before the three-months-alive mark. Maybe the right horse to bet on, but not the right time!
ReplyDeleteWith just six weeks to go before Libya has to give up its seat on the UN Security Council, I've written today to the Libyan Ambassador at the UN, as follows:
ReplyDeleteDear Ambassador,
Libya, Lockerbie and the UN 'Terror Council'
Thank you for acknowledging receipt of my e-mails below.
As you know, non-permanent members participate at UN Security Council meetings for a period of two years, and therefore Libya must relinquish its seat on 31 December 2009. Thus, there are exactly six weeks remaining for Libya to persuade the UNSC to take urgent action and uncover the truth about the 21-year-old Lockerbie disaster.
At one stroke, Libya now has the opportunity to redeem its reputation and to expose the sort of behaviour by several permanent Security Council members that led Colonel Gaddafi recently to describe the UNSC as the 'Terror Council' (see http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Libyan-Leader-Colonel-Moammar-Gaddafi-Attacks-UN-Security-Council-Calling-It-Terror-Council/Article/200909415387853?f=rss ).
I remember the Summer of 1988 chiefly for two events:
1. In June, US presidential candidate Michael Dukakis secured the Democratic Party nomination and, pressed by his Democrat opponent Jesse Jackson, Dukakis agreed that, if elected US President in November 1988, he would put apartheid South Africa on the list of "terrorist states" alongside Iran and Libya (see http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/13/us/dukakis-backers-agree-platform-will-call-south-africa-terrorist.html ); and,
2. In July, Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by USS Vincennes with the loss of 290 passengers and crew (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 ). The conventional theory on the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 is that it was in retaliation for the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655.
Unconventionally, I believe that apartheid South Africa was primarily responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, which took place in the interregnum between Presidents Reagan and Bush senior, and that two permanent UNSC members - Britain and America - may have connived in it (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PatrickHaseldine3.jpg and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PatrickHaseldine3B.jpg ).
Therefore, repeating what I said below, Mr Ambassador, I recommend that without further delay you ask the UN Security Council to institute a United Nations Inquiry, conducted by Dr Hans Koechler, into the murder of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing (see http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BerntCarlsson/ ).
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Haseldine
HM Diplomatic Service (Ret'd)