The Libyan embassy in London’s Knightsbridge area has had an
unsettling history.
Its predecessor, the Libyan People’s Bureau in nearby St James
Square, made global headlines in 1984 when an unidentified staffer opened fire
on protestors outside and killed policewoman Yvonne Fletcher.
When the mission relocated to its current premises, its
high-ceilinged rooms continued to be staffed by intelligence officials often
close to Muammar Gaddafi’s family and tribe, and tasked with protecting the
dictator’s UK interests as he and his sons snapped up prime London real estate.
Then, as the regime crumbled in August 2011, diplomats tried
unsuccessfully to channel money out of embassy bank accounts, and to sell off
the four-storey yellow brick building along with its fleet of cars before
Britain expelled them.
A newly-arrived deputy head of mission, Ahmed Gebreel, has now
taken their place. Along with the ambassador, he is waiting to be joined by a
five-member diplomatic team from Tripoli.
Gebreel, a softly-spoken foreign policy expert experienced in
talking to the media, does not represent a complete break with the past. A
career diplomat, he was previously posted at the United Nations in New York,
where he represented the Gaddafi government as second secretary before
defecting from the regime. (…)
Britain, meanwhile, has been pushing the embassy and the NTC to
take action on PC Fletcher’s killing and on the Lockerbie bombing, which killed
270 people shortly before Christmas 1988.
Gebreel said the NTC was currently going through a difficult
phase, as it prepared for an election for an assembly to draft a new
constitution, and reorganised government ministries that used to be largely run
according to Gaddafi’s personal whim.
“We will be open to discuss these issues [PC Fletcher and
Lockerbie] in the future after we pass this difficult period,” Gebreel said,
adding that the NTC takes both cases very seriously.
“They are not minor issues,” he added. “My personal feeling,
[with] the Yvonne Fletcher issue, it’s time to find out who committed that
crime,” and to hold them accountable.
On Lockerbie, he said the Libyan people had been secondary
victims to the atrocity because they lived under sanctions for a crime for
which they were not responsible.
“If Gaddafi was the one who committed that crime, then he did
not suffer. The Libyan people were the ones who paid,” he said. “I personally
wish Gaddafi was caught alive and was questioned about all the crimes and all
the secrets he had.”
Am I the only person who is somewhat amused to realise that this guy they're talking about seems to be called Ahmed Jibril?
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should be asking him about Lockerbie after all!!!