Desmond Tutu's message and a fitting way to mark Mandela Day

[Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, has released a message to the people of Scotland welcoming plans to mark Mandela Day on 18 July.  The press release issued by the Scottish Government contains the following:]

In his message, which First Minister Alex Salmond highlighted during First Minister’s Questions today, Archbishop Tutu says:

“Scotland and South Africa have a strong historic connection, which was especially evident during the anti-apartheid struggle, when, in 1981, Glasgow was the first city in the world to award Nelson Mandela the freedom of the city.

“I am thus delighted that Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, the Scottish Government and the people of Scotland are marking Mandela Day by working with Action for Southern Africa – the successor organisation of the anti-apartheid movement – and highlighting the work and enduring legacy of Nelson Mandela.

“The overarching objective of Mandela Day is to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better, and in doing so to build a global movement for good. (…)

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs, said:

“We welcome Archbishop Tutu’s warm message of support for the First Minister, the Scottish Government and ACTSA [Action for Southern Africa] Scotland’s plans for Mandela Day, and his call for as many people as possible to mark the day. (…)

“The Scottish Government will mark Mandela Day on 18th July, and I urge all to remember the great leadership of Nelson Mandela, who is an inspiration to people around the world.”

[Given that Archbishop Tutu is a Justice for Megrahi signatory, and given the role that Nelson Mandela played in facilitating a Lockerbie trial (and the interest he took in Abdelbaset Megrahi's fate thereafter) would it not be entirely appropriate and gracious for the Scottish Government to mark Mandela Day by announcing the independent inquiry into the Megrahi prosecution and conviction that the Archbishop, along with the other signatories, has called for?]

Nelson Mandela's rôle in brokering the Lockerbie trial

[In the course of a long article marking the twentieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990, on the website of Côte d'Ivoire television station Luambona TV, the following passage appears:]

Le président Mandela intervient également pour régler le procès des deux Libyens accusés par les États-Unis et le Royaume-Uni de l’attentat de Lockerbie qui avait fait 270 victimes en [1988]. Dès 1992, Mandela propose de manière informelle au président George H.W. Bush de juger les Libyens dans un pays tiers. Bush accepte la proposition, ainsi que le président français, François Mitterrand, et le roi Juan Carlos 1er d’Espagne. En novembre 1994, six mois après son élection, Mandela propose que l’Afrique du Sud soit le pays qui héberge le procès, mais le Premier ministre britannique, John Major, rejette l’idée, disant que son gouvernement n’avait pas confiance en une cour de justice étrangère. Mandela renouvelle son offre trois ans plus tard à Tony Blair, en 1997. La même année, à la conférence des responsables des chefs de gouvernement du Commonwealth à Edinburgh, Mandela avertit qu’«aucune nation ne devrait être à la fois plaignante, procureur et juge.»

Un compromis est trouvé pour un procès aux Pays-Bas et le président Mandela commence les négociations avec le colonel Kadhafi pour la remise des deux accusés Megrahi et Fhimah, en avril 1999. Le 31 janvier 2001, Fhimah est acquitté, mais Megrahi est jugé coupable et condamné à 27 ans de prison. Nelson Mandela va le visiter en juin 2002 et dénonce ses conditions d’emprisonnement en isolement total. Megrahi est ensuite transféré dans une autre prison et n’est plus soumis à une incarcération en isolement.

[I have no doubt that President Mandela's influence and his interventions at the time of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Edinburgh in October 1997 were crucial in persuading the recently-elected Labour Government to countenance a "neutral venue" solution to the Lockerbie impasse. Also of crucial importance was the press conference held by the group UK Families-Flight 103 in Edinburgh during the Meeting and the worldwide publicity that it generated.]

Mandela plans visit to Megrahi

[On this date in 2002, The Herald published a report headlined Mandela wants to visit Lockerbie bomber. (Not long afterwards The Herald wisely adopted the practice of referring to “the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing” rather than “the Lockerbie bomber”.) The report reads as follows:]

Nelson Mandela wants to visit Barlinnie next week to see the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

Zelda la Grange, spokeswoman for the former South African president, said that Mr Mandela was speaking to government officials to arrange details of a visit to see Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi. She said: ''We are in the process of planning to go there early next week.''

Mr Mandela played a crucial role in persuading Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to hand over two men suspected of involvement in the 1988 bombing. A total of 270 people were killed when PanAm flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie.

Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 20 years. The second Libyan was acquitted.

Libyan television said that Mr Mandela had telephoned Colonel Gaddafi to tell him of his plans to visit al-Megrahi and check his health and detention conditions. Ms la Grange said: ''He's had a personal involvement in this case throughout, so it would only be expected of him to go there and see the prisoner and see the conditions in the prison.''

The Scottish Prison Service said it had not received any confirmation of Mr Mandela's visit.

Government officials from Britain, the US, and Libya are to meet in London tomorrow to discuss the £1.86 billion compensation offer to relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims. It is part of tripartite discussions which have taken place since the Libyan intelligence agent was convicted.

Kriendler and Kriendler, the New York law firm which has been negotiating on behalf of some of the families last week said Libya was prepared to pay compensation. It said Libya had offered to pay £1.86 billion - or almost £7m per family - as compensation for the 270 people killed in the bombing, with payments linked to the lifting of sanctions.

The Foreign Office yesterday confirmed a meeting with US and Libyan officials would take place tomorrow. A spokesman said: ''It is about Libya's response to the requirements of the UN resolutions, which cover not just compensation.''

Later, Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP, said:''Nelson Mandela and I, separately, were as responsible as anybody for persuading the two Libyans to have a trial in a third country and to persuade them as well to submit themselves to trial. ''I feel an obligation to make sure, in any way I can, that justice has been done. I believe there has been a catastrophic miscarriage of justice.''

Mr Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow, went on: ''I went a fortnight ago to see Mr Megrahi for more than two hours in Barlinnie. ''He explained to me in detail that he was for 10 years a sanctions buster for Libyan-Arab Airlines. This is very different from being a mass murderer.''

[RB: Nelson Mandela’s visit took place a few days later, on 10 June 2002.]

Mandela supports MacAskill decision

[This is the headline over the lead story by Campbell Gunn in today's edition of The Sunday Post, Scotland's largest-circulation Sunday newspaper. It reads as follows:]

Nelson Mandela has backed Kenny MacAskill’s decision to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

The former South African president has retired from public life and no longer wishes to be involved in public issues.

But on Friday he sent a letter via his Nelson Mandela Foundation to the Scottish Government supporting the decision made on compassionate grounds by the Justice Secretary.

The move will be welcomed by the Scottish Government, which has consistently claimed, while there has been heavy criticism from the United States over the release, the majority of world opinion is supportive.

It will also ease the pressure that has been building on Mr MacAskill.

Professor Jakes Gerwel, chairman of the Mandela Foundation, said in the letter, “Mr Mandela appreciates the decision to release Mr al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.

“Mr Mandela played a central role in facilitating the handover of Mr al-Megrahi and his fellow accused to the United Nations in order for them to stand trial under Scottish Law in the Netherlands.”

“His interest and involvement continued after the trial,” said the professor.

“The decision to release him now, and allow him to return to Libya, is one which is in line with his wishes.”

Mr Mandela visited al-Megrahi while he was in Barlinnie Prison, in June 2002, spending an hour with him and calling for him to be moved to a Muslim country.

He also played a key role in persuading Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi to hand over al-Megrahi and his co-accused Khalifa Fhima for trial in a neutral country for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 270 people.

President Mandela helped resolve the dispute between Libya, the US and the UK over bringing to trial the two Libyans indicted for the Lockerbie bombing.

In 1992, Mandela approached president George Bush with a proposal to have the two indicted Libyans tried in a third country and suggested South Africa. Bush was in favour but the plan was rejected by British prime minister John Major.

However, when the idea was suggested to Tony Blair, after he became PM, it was accepted and Holland was chosen as the neutral venue for the trial.

Yesterday, al-Megrahi said he was determined to clear his name and claimed a full inquiry into the events surrounding Lockerbie would help families of the victims discover the truth behind the bombing.

First Minister Alex Salmond has welcomed Mr Mandela’s support.

“The overall international reaction shows strong support for the decision to show compassion to a dying man, according to the due process of Scots Law,” he said.

“And that is clearly the view of the person who has demonstrated that quality above all others over the last generation.”

[The same newspaper carries a report on the statement by Eddie MacKechnie, Abdelbaset Megrahi's former solicitor, noted on 24 August on this blog. As far as I can see, it is the only newspaper to have picked it up.

Other newspapers -- for example The Sunday Herald, whose story can be read here -- are still harping on about the medical evidence underpinning Kenny MacAskill's decision. As I wrote on 28 August:

'The position is quite simply this. Specialist oncologists simply are not prepared to tell a patient, or anyone else who may want to know, how long that person has to live. They regard their function as being to provide or advise on the best care and treatment for the patient for however long or short a period he may have left to him. This means that if a patient, or anyone else with a need to know, insists on being provided with a time scale, this must be provided, not by the cancer specialists, but by the ordinary general practitioner attending the patient who must do his best, with his overall knowledge of the patient and the progess of the disease, to translate the specialists’ views into weeks or months.

'That is precisely what has happened in Abdelbaset Megrahi’s case. The newspapers and politicians who have sought to read something sinister and underhand into the medical aspects of Kenny MacAskill’s decision should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, particularly that vocal Labour MSP who is himself a medical practitioner.']

Mandela meets UK Lockerbie families

[What follows is excerpted from a report published on the website of The Independent on this date in 2002:]

Both Egypt and Tunisia have agreed to accept the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to serve his sentence, if the Government is willing to transfer him from his Scottish prison, Nelson Mandela said yesterday.

The former South African president added that the bereaved families of Lockerbie victims he met yesterday did not oppose Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi being moved from Glasgow's Barlinnie prison. Mr Mandela has called for Megrahi to be allowed a fresh appeal and for him to be permitted to serve his jail term in a Muslim country in the meantime. Mr Mandela has discussed the matter with presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Ben Ali of Tunisia.

"I told the relatives [of the Lockerbie victims] that he would go to a country trusted by Britain and the United States to serve his sentence, and the length of the sentence would be determined by the Scottish authorities," he said.

"Nobody opposed it, and I was very happy with their response. They appear to be open-minded, not withstanding the wounds and the scars they have suffered."

Tony Blair had dismissed the idea of Megrahi, a member of Colonel Gaddafi's secret service, being moved to another country. But Mr Mandela said he would try to change the Prime Minister's mind. Mr Mandela was speaking to journalists in London after he had met the Lockerbie families. (...)

Mr Mandela played a key role in persuading Colonel Gaddafi to hand over Megrahi and his co-defendant, Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah, for trial at the specially constituted Scottish court at Zeist, in the Netherlands.

But he has expressed grave disquiet over the subsequent conviction of Megrahi for smuggling a bomb on board the Pan Am jet in 1988, killing 270 people. Megrahi, 49, is serving a life sentence after losing an appeal.

Mr Mandela said he had told the relatives how a UN representative and judges from the Organisation of African Unity had criticised the evidence against Megrahi.

[RB: A report on Mandela’s meeting with the UK Lockerbie relatives published on the BBC News website can be read here.]

Mandela visits Megrahi in Barlinnie

[What follows is excerpted from a report published on The Telegraph website on this date in 2002:]

Nelson Mandela today met the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi at Barlinnie Jail in Glasgow and called for a fresh appeal in the case.

The former South African president visited Megrahi for more than an hour at the prison. (...)

Mr Mandela said he also hoped to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush to discuss the case. (...)

During the 30-minute press conference, Mr Mandela described in detail how a four-judge commission from the Organisation of African Unity had criticised the basis by which Megrahi came to be convicted at a special Scottish court, sitting in the Netherlands, in 2001.

Megrahi was convicted of murder for smuggling a bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 with the loss of 270 lives.

"They have criticised it fiercely, and it will be a pity if no court reviews the case itself," said Mr Mandela.

He said it had been suggested that the case could go either to the Privy Council or the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

"From the point of view of fundamental principles of natural law, it would be fair if he is given a chance to appeal either to the Privy Council or the European Court of Human Rights," said Mr Mandela.

Mr Mandela set out his views clearly in what must be the most extraordinary press conference ever held within the Victorian-built jail. He had arrived there earlier amid strict security for his meeting with Al Megrahi - and later in the day, with Al Megrahi's family, also inside the prison.

He travelled there in a people carrier with darkened windows, flanked by police cars and motorcycle outriders. He was taken to see Al Megrahi after meeting prison chiefs.

Mr Mandela, who did not have to undergo any security checks, was escorted to Al Megrahi's living room along with members of his entourage.

Al Megrahi is kept in a cell of his own within the prison, in a section nicknamed by other inmates as Gaddafi's Cafe.

Among those who met Mandela at the prison was Al Megrahi's lawyer, Eddie MacKechnie, who had earlier told reporters of what he claimed was new information which had not been made available to the trial at the time of Megrahi's conviction.

"An 11 million dollar payment was made by the government of Iran to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command two days after the atrocity," said Mr MacKechnie.

He said the information had come from a former CIA officer who had given details of times, dates and bank accounts, adding: "My concern is not simply that there is evidence of such payment, but whether that information was available to any British authorities."

Al Megrahi's case has also been taken up by Labour MP Tam Dalyell, who said today: "It is a thousand pities that Mr Megrahi's pleas to go into the witness box (at his trial) were not heeded."

Mr Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow, who visited Al Megrahi in jail three weeks ago said: "I asked him what he was doing in Malta and he told me in detail how he had been a sanctions buster - getting components for Libyan Arab Airlines because of the sanctions.

"He was going to Nigeria, Brazil and above all to Ethiopia, having contacts with Boeing, in getting much needed parts for aircraft of Libyan Arab Airlines."

Mandela thought handover of Lockerbie suspects one of his biggest foreign policy achievements

[What follows is taken from an article in today’s edition of The Sunday Herald headlined A difficult friend to the West:]

Elsewhere in the Middle East, one of Mandela's first visits after his release was to travel to Libya to thank President Gaddafi for his unbending support for the ANC, providing funds, training and weapons to the armed wing. Four years later, in 1994, Gaddafi was an official guest at Mandela's swearing in as president. The gesture was all the more remarkable because at the time the Libyan president was a pariah in the international community. When Western governments made clear their displeasure, Mandela responded: "Those who feel irritated by our friendship with President Gaddafi can go jump in the pool."

So important was that connection that one of Mandela's grandsons is named after Gaddafi. Not for the first or the last time the newly elected South African president demonstrated that behind his courtesy and his frankness he had a spine of steel and would not be bullied. To him it was quite simple: while the West had done very little to shackle the apartheid regime in South Africa, Libya had been a close ally and supporter of the ANC and it was unthinkable that the friendship should cease. As ever, though, Mandela was not just following his heart: there was a purpose to his diplomacy. Far from following a personal whim, Mandela played a key role in ending Gaddafi's isolation by brokering a deal with the UK over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Under its terms Gaddafi handed over the two leading suspects, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah and Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, for trial by a Scottish court. The former was acquitted and returned to Libya but Megrahi was jailed for life. At the time that the two men were handed over for trial, Mandela claimed that it was one of his biggest foreign policy achievements and that it underlined the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy.

"No-one can deny that the friendship and trust between South Africa and Libya played a significant part in arriving at this solution," he said in 1999 as he approached the end of his presidency. "It vindicates our view that talking to one another and searching for peaceful solutions remains the surest way to resolve differences and advance peace and progress in the world."

Eight years into his sentence Megrahi was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds, a decision that was also welcomed by Mandela. In a world in which hard-nosed politics usually takes precedence over humanity and common sense that kind of universalism, backed by strong moral values, is going to be badly missed.

Fundamental principles were ignored

[What follows is the text of a report published on the website of The Guardian on this date in 2002 (and in the print edition of the newspaper the following day):]

The prison visitor arrived at Barlinnie mid-morning in a flurry of cars and police outriders. He bypassed the bleak waiting room with its metal benches and chipped linoleum and was led, without being searched, straight to a suite of cells deep within the grim Victorian fortress on Glasgow's eastern edge.

The inmate he had come to see greeted him with a handshake. They sat and talked for more than an hour. The statesman and the convicted mass killer: Nelson Mandela and the Lockerbie bomber.

For Mr Mandela, it was a defining experience. Emerging to talk to the press, the former South African president called immediately for a fresh appeal and for Abdel Baset al-Megrahi to be transferred from Britain to a Muslim prison. The Libyan's solitary confinement in Scotland's toughest jail was nothing short of "psychological persecution", he said. And too many questions had been raised about his conviction to let the matter rest. An urgent meeting would be sought with both Tony Blair and the US president, George Bush, to plead Megrahi's case.

Mr Mandela, 83, has long been troubled by Lockerbie. He played a crucial role in persuading the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadafy, to hand over the two men suspected of involvement in the 1988 atrocity which left 270 people dead, and has followed events closely. Last week he announced he intended to travel to Glasgow to check on Megrahi's welfare.

Megrahi faces 20 years in isolation in Barlinnie after his conviction at the Scottish court in the Netherlands. His co-defendant, Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah, was acquitted. The Libyan, who does not have to slop out like other prisoners and has access to kitchen facilities and an interpreter, told Mr Mandela that staff treated him well but he had been taunted by other inmates when he exercised.

"Megrahi is all alone," Mr Mandela said afterwards. "He has nobody he can talk to. It is a psychological persecution that a man must stay for the length of his long sentence all alone. It would be fair if he transferred to a Muslim country - and there are Muslim countries which are trusted by the west. It will make it easier for his family to visit him if he is in a place like the kingdom of Morocco, Tunisia or Egypt.

"He says he is being treated well by the officials but when he takes exercise he has been harassed by a number of prisoners. He cannot identify them because they shout at him from their cells through the windows."

Composed and often jovial, Mr Mandela refused to say whether he believed Megrahi to be innocent or to criticise the Scottish judicial system directly. "My belief is irrelevant," he said.

But he listed criticisms of the judgment which led to Megrahi's jailing, including the views of a four-judge commission from the Organisation of African Unity: "This is what other legal men, other judges are saying of this judgment. They have criticised it ferociously and it will be a pity if no court reviews the case itself. From the point of view of fundamental principles of natural law, it would be fair if he is given a chance to appeal either to the privy council or the European court of human rights."

Earlier, Megrahi's lawyer, Eddie MacKechnie, said new information had come to light about an alleged payment of $11m by the government of Iran to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command two days after the bombing. "We have interviewed twice a former CIA officer who has given us details of the payment; times, dates, and bank accounts," he said. "My concern is not simply that there is evidence of such payment, but whether that information was available to any British authorities."

Megrahi's defence team is pursuing a hearing at the European court of human rights which will be launched in Strasbourg in September.

Back inside Barlinnie, Mr Mandela said he did not regret his efforts to bring Megrahi to trial. "No. Why should I regret?" he said. "I got involved in the Lockerbie trial because there was a deadlock. And I intervened because I was thinking first of the relatives of the victims, that they must see justice done - but justice done according to the fundamental principles of law. It does appear from what the judges have said that these fundamental principles were ignored."

But his continued involvement in the case has upset some of the relatives. Susan Cohen of New Jersey, who lost her daughter Theodora, said Mr Mandela's visit to Barlinnie was "an attempt to make Megrahi appear to be the victim".

Mr Mandela said he had hoped to meet the relatives during his visit but time had been too short: "I am coming back here in July and it is my intention to visit Scotland and speak to all the victims of Lockerbie."

It was not strange for him to visit a prison, he said. His own 27 years of incarceration had been leavened by access to other inmates and a full library.

"Our minds were occupied every day with something positive, something productive," he said. "It is difficult for me to believe that I was in jail for 27 years because it seems to have gone very fast."

Blair urged Mandela not to raise ‘sensitive subject’ of Lockerbie at 1997 summit

[This is the headline over a Press Association news agency report as published today on the website of the Central Fife Times. The following are excerpts:]

Tony Blair failed in his attempts to stop Nelson Mandela raising the Lockerbie bombing at a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Scotland, despite being warned by aides the South African leader’s intervention over the terror attack would be “pretty disastrous”, new files show.

Downing Street officials warned the then-prime minister ahead of the 1997 summit in Edinburgh that Mr Mandela was visiting Libya, which later admitted responsibility for the airliner disaster, before heading to CHOGM, and urged Mr Blair to speak to him.

But Mr Blair’s efforts – including a personal letter to Mr Mandela a week before the CHOGM, urging him to “avoid a discussion” about Lockerbie – failed, and the enduring controversy over a failure to bring any perpetrators to justice ended up being one of the key themes of the leaders’ summit.

A tranche of previously classified files released by the National Archives at Kew shows a handwritten note from Downing Street aides urging Mr Blair “to speak to” his South African counterpart.

Mr Blair duly wrote to Mr Mandela, explaining the complexities of bringing suspects to justice, having resisted calls to hold a trial in a different country.

Mr Blair wrote: “Lockerbie is of course a particularly sensitive subject in Scotland because of the deaths on the ground of 11 inhabitants of the small town of Lockerbie, in addition to the 259 people on board the aircraft.

“So I hope we can avoid a discussion of the issue at CHOGM itself – we have a lot of other things to talk about.

“But I would welcome a further private discussion when we meet next week.”

The letter ended with the handwritten sign-off: “Very best wishes. Yours ever, Tony.”

Mr Blair’s hopes were in vain when Mr Mandela was asked about the subject, claiming justice would not be seen to be done if any trial was held in Scotland itself.

He said: “I have never thought that in dealing with this question it is correct for any particular country to be the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge.

“Justice, it has been said especially in this country, should not only be done but should be seen to be done.

“I have grave concern about a demand where one country will be all these things at the same time. Justice cannot be seen to be done in that situation.”

The move, however, provided an unlikely fillip for Mr Blair – as his subsequent invitation to meeting grieving families at Downing Street was seen as an intention to listen after years of refusal.

[RB: The events surrounding CHOGM and President Mandela's attitude towards a Lockerbie trial are described in The Lockerbie Bombing by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph, pages 97 to 101. Further information can be found on this blog here and here.] 

Barlinnie unlocked: Gaddafi Cafe gets a world famous guest

[This is the headline over a story in today's edition of the Sunday Mail (not to be confused with the Mail on Sunday). I reproduce it here simply because it links Abdelbaset Megrahi and South Africa, my second home.]

Huge crowds greeted Nelson Mandela as he travelled from South Africa to meet Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

He met the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in 2002 on a diplomatic excursion to see how he was being treated.

The former president of South Africa also discussed a campaign for Megrahi to serve his sentence in a Libyan prison.

Everyone who has met Mandela speaks of his kindness, gentleness and good manners.

His visit to Gaddafi's Cafe, the nickname given to the area of Barlinnie where Megrahi was held, underlined the humanity of the man.

After all, Mandela himself spent 18 of his 27 years in jail on Robben Island after being locked up by the South Africa's apartheid government.

Most of the crowd hoping to meet him were positioned around the reception and the main gates. Everyone on the staff wanted a glimpse of the great man. The wellwishers were rows deep.

But as he passed through the throng, Mandela stopped, looked to the edge of the crowd and spotted a young prison officer right at the back.

He said: "You sir, step down here."

When the officer got to the front, Mandela shook his hand, giving him a moment he would never forget.

Mandela remarked that he, too, knew what it was like to be at the back row and not noticed.

The great leader then went inside to meet Megrahi.

But he declined an offer to visit the cell blocks.

Mandela had seen enough to last a lifetime.

[My South African friends are in mourning over the miserable Springbok performance in yesterday's match against the Wallabies. In the bar at Gannaga Lodge while the game was in progess I greatly expanded my knowledge of demotic Afrikaans. Every cloud has a silver lining.]

UK government "doing their best to support the US in a cover up"

[What follows is excerpted from a report by Martin Jay headlined Lockerbie: Papers reveal Mandela didn’t buy Blair’s Libya ruse published today on the Maghrebi.org website:]

Confidential documents which became released in the UK might be the reason why the Americans recently kidnapped a third Libyan suspect who they have framed for the Lockerbie bombing.

On December 29th, it was revealed that documents held in the national archive showed that Nelson Mandela actually told the UK it was wrong to hold Libya responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, according to reports. 

They reveal discussions between former British prime minister Tony Blair and his cabinet and Mr Mandela, who was acting as an intermediary for Libya, after the Lockerbie bombing with the South African icon firmly believing that Libya had no hand in the Lockerbie bombing. (...)

In the meeting between Mr Blair and Mr Mandela on April 30, 2001, Mr Mandela opposed the UN stance.

“Mandela argued it was wrong to hold Libya legally responsible for the bombing,” the cables revealed.

“He had studied the judgment from the trial and was critical of the account the judges had taken of the views of the Libyan defector, even though they had described him as an unreliable witness.

“He had discussed it with Kofi Annan [former secretary general of the United Nations] as he felt the Security Council resolution requiring that [Libya’s president Muammar] Qaddafi accept responsibility were at odds with the legal position. (...)

In May 2003 that Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing and had previously agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund to compensate families of those killed in the explosion, although few experts even believe that Gaddafi accepted culpability but was trying to find a diplomatic solution.

Al Megrahi being found guilty and the compensation package was a way out for the Libyan leader.

The Libyan intelligence agent was framed and was the only man convicted over the attack. He was sentenced to life until his release on compassionate grounds in 2009 after a cancer diagnosis. He died in Libya in 2012. [RB: The only evidence that Megrahi was involved with Libyan intelligence came from Majid Giaka. The judges found Giaka to be a fantasist, wholly incredible and unreliable, but (with no explanation) accepted his evidence on this one issue.] 

The efforts by Margaret Thatcher, John Major and finally Tony Blair to support the Libyan angle are highly suspicious though, as a number of experts believe that the UK governments were simply doing their best to support the US in a cover up.

If American families knew the truth about the Lockerbie bombing – that the Pan Am flight was carrying drugs and money under the supervision of CIA officers on board as part of a whacky scheme of Ronald Reagan to cooperate with terrorists in Beirut – then the legal cases would be unprecedented in US history.

Because of this gargantuan cover up, America, still to this day needs to keep the Libyan ‘story’ alive.

Consequently, a Libyan man, Abu Agila Masud, was recently accused of making the bomb that destroyed the Pan Am flight and was taken into US custody through an illegal rendition helped by rogue militias in Libya believed to have been paid by the US. Some sceptical analysts might conclude that the date of the released documents was known by the US, hence the timing of the kidnapping of Masud.

Mandela, Gaddafi and Blair

[What follows is excerpted from a long article headlined Gaddafi, Britain and US: A secret, special and very cosy relationship that was published in The Independent on this date in 2011:]

Britain's extraordinary rekindling of relations with Libya did not start as Mr Blair sipped tea in a Bedouin tent with Gaddafi, nor within the walls of the Travellers Club in Pall Mall – although this "summit of spies" in 2003 played a major role. It can be traced back to a 1999 meeting Mr Blair held with the man hailed as one of the greatest to have ever lived: Nelson Mandela, in South Africa.

Mr Mandela had long played a key role in negotiations between Gaddafi, whom he had hailed as a key opponent of apartheid, and the British government. Mr Mandela first lobbied Mr Blair over Libya in October 1997, at a Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Edinburgh. Mr Mandela was pressing for those accused of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to be tried outside Scotland. In January 1999, Mr Mandela, during a visit by Mr Blair to South Africa, actively lobbied the PM on behalf of Gaddafi, over sanctions imposed on Libya and the Lockerbie suspects.

UN sanctions were suspended in April 1999 when Gaddafi handed over the two Lockerbie suspects, including Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was eventually convicted of the bombing. Libya also accepted "general responsibility" for the death of Yvonne Fletcher. Both moves allowed the Blair government to begin the long process of renewing ties with Libya.

Within a couple of years, the issue of persuading the Gaddafi regime to turn itself from pariah into international player surged to the forefront of the British government's agenda. It was during this time, according to the documents found in Mr Koussa's office, that MI6 and the CIA began actively engaging with Libyan intelligence chiefs. But it was a key meeting on 16 December 2003, at the Travellers Club, that would put the official UK – and US – stamp on Gaddafi's credibility. Present were Mr Koussa, then head of external intelligence for Libya, and two Libyan intelligence figures; Mr Blair's foreign affairs envoy, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, and three MI6 chiefs; and two CIA directors. Mr Koussa's attendance at the meeting in central London was extraordinary – at the time he had been banned from entering Britain after allegedly plotting to assassinate Libyan dissidents, and so was given safe passage by MI6.

Mr Koussa's pivotal role at the Travellers Club casts light on how, following his defection from Gaddafi's regime during the initial Nato bombing campaign earlier this year, he was able to slip quietly out of the country. Two days after the 2003 meeting, Mr Blair and Gaddafi held talks by telephone; and the next day, 19 December, the announcement about Libya surrendering its WMD was made by Mr Blair and President Bush.

In March 2004, Mr Blair first shook hands with Gaddafi in his Bedouin tent. The pair then met again in May 2007, shortly before Mr Blair left office.

Nelson Mandela and the path towards Zeist

On this date in 1997, President Nelson Mandela, who was in Scotland for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh. His address on that occasion can be read here.  

At a press conference in Edinburgh, President Mandela took the opportunity to express some views on how the Lockerbie impasse between Libya and the United Kingdom might be resolved. He said amongst other things: “I have never thought in dealing with this question that it is correct for any particular country to be the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge at the same time.”

A relevant article in Wikipedia contains the following:

“Upon the indictment of the two Libyan suspects in November 1991, the Libyan government was called upon to extradite them for trial in either the United Kingdom or the United States. Since no bilateral extradition treaty was in force between any of the three countries, Libya refused to hand the men over but did offer to detain them for trial in Libya, as long as all the incriminating evidence was provided. The offer was unacceptable to the US and UK, and there was an impasse for the next three years.

“In November 1994, President Nelson Mandela offered South Africa as a neutral venue for the trial but this was rejected by the then British prime minister, John Major. A further three years elapsed until Mandela's offer was repeated to Major's successor, Tony Blair, when the president visited London in July 1997 and again at the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Edinburgh in October 1997. At the latter meeting, Mandela warned that "no one nation should be complainant, prosecutor and judge" in the Lockerbie case.

“The eventually agreed compromise solution of a trial in the Netherlands governed by Scots law was engineered by legal academic Professor Robert Black of Edinburgh University and, in accordance with the Labour government's promotion of an "ethical" foreign policy, was given political impetus by the then foreign secretary, Robin Cook. The Scottish Court in the Netherlands, a special High Court of Justiciary, was set up under Scots law in a disused United States Air Force base called Camp Zeist in Utrecht, in the Netherlands.”

Growing opposition to US Libya sanctions

[This is the headline over an article published in Green Left Weekly on this date in 1997. It reads as follows:]

In response to US State Department criticism of his visit to Libya on October 23, South African President Nelson Mandela has accused the US administration of racism and condemned itsarrogance to dictate where South African leaders should go.

US officials had attempted to pressure Mandela into cancelling the visit, arguing that governments should have the lowest possible diplomatic contact with the government of Libya and proclaiming that they would be disappointed by any ratcheting up of South African-Libyan relations.

Mandela said his visit fulfilled a moral commitment to Libya, which supported us during our struggle when others were working with the apartheid regime. The US government said Mandela’s response to its warnings was unfortunate.

This is just the latest attempt by the US to force South Africa to cede to US policy in relation to governments it considers troublesome. Libya, along with Cuba, Iran and Syria, is top of that list.

In 1995, a proposed deal involving the storage of Iranian oil in South Africa was scrapped under pressure from the US. Soon afterwards, concerns were raised in the US Congress about South Africa’s relations with Cuba. The following year, discussions about a possible arms deal between South Africa and Syria were cancelled after strong condemnation and threats from the US.

The US campaign against Libya began when the September 1, 1969, revolution overthrew the US puppet King Idris, refused to renew foreign base agreements and nationalised US, French and British oil interests. Since then, the US and its allies have waged a covert and overt war against Libya, including a series of CIA-orchestrated assassination attempts, provocative incursions into Libyan territorial waters and the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 1986.

In 1992, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Libya which prohibit arms sales and flights to and from the country. These sanctions were ostensibly to punish Libya for so-called terrorist activities and to force it to extradite two Libyan agents accused by Britain and the US of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, which killed 270 people.

Libya, supported by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), has proposed that the Lockerbie trial be held in a neutral country, conducted under Scottish law. In the words of Mandela, who has been mandated by the OAU to mediate between Britain and Libya on the issue: You can’t have a country like Britain, which is the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge at the same time. For a country to combine the three roles, there can be no justice there.

The British families of those killed in the Lockerbie disaster have welcomed Mandela’s call and endorsed South Africa as a suitable venue for a trial.

The South African government has further angered the US by supporting the OAU’s demand that the UN lift the sanctions against Libya.

Last month the Arab states voted to permit planes carrying Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi to land on their territory and to permit other flights for religious and humanitarian purposes.