British politicians on Friday condemned celebrations in Tripoli on the return of the Lockerbie bomber, scrambling to deflect any international political fallout from a decision to free him on humanitarian grounds.
”The sight of a mass murderer getting a hero’s welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing, above all for the 270 families who grieve every day for the loss of their loved ones 21 years ago,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told BBC Radio.
”How the Libyan government handles itself in the next few days will be very significant in the way the world views Libya’s re-entry into the civilised community of nations,” he added.
Former Libyan agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was serving a life sentence as the only person convicted of bombing flight Pan Am 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. The bombing killed 270 people, many of them American.
Washington described the release as a mistake.
Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am 103, a group representing families of United States victims, said he understood Libya had promised al-Megrahi would not ”go back to a hero’s welcome”.
”There is going to be no dancing in the end-zone, as the expression goes,” he told Reuters on Thursday.
More than 1 000 young Libyans gathered at an airport in Tripoli to welcome al-Megrahi and cheered and waved national flags as his car sped away. Pictures of the blue and white Scottish flag being waved were shown on British television.
Large public gatherings are rare and are usually tightly controlled in Libya.
State media had made no mention of Megrahi’s possible return but a newspaper close to leader Moammar Gadaffi’s reformist son Saif al-Islam was following his progress.
Islam, who accompanied al-Megrahi back to Libya, had promised last year to work for al-Megrahi’s release.
The crowd that greeted them at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, a former US air base, were mostly members of Libya’s National Youth Association, which is close to Islam.
Oil interests
Some had speculated al-Megrahi would address thousands at a night-time rally in Tripoli’s landmark Green Square to mark Libyan Youth Day, but he made no public appearance after leaving the airport.
Alex Salmond, head of the devolved Scottish government, condemned the celebrations.
”I don’t think the reception for Mr al-Megrahi was appropriate in Libya, I don’t think that was wise and I don’t think that was the right thing to do,” he said.
The case has added to tensions between the devolved government led by the separatist Scottish National Party and the British government led by the Labour Party.
Miliband dismissed claims that the British government had wanted al-Megrahi to be freed to bolster diplomatic and commercial ties with Libya and was content to let the Scottish authorities take the blame for an unpopular decision.
”That is a slur both on myself and the government,” he said, adding that no pressure had been put on the Scottish government.
Scotland has its own legal system and its government, led by the separatist Scottish National Party, has broad autonomy on justice matters.
British oil company BP ended a 30-year absence from Libya in 2007 when it signed a bilateral deal for its biggest exploration commitment. Royal Dutch Shell also wants to tap Libya’s reserves, the biggest in Africa. — Reuters