UK condemns Lockerbie bomber homecoming
Sight of a mass murderer being welcomed in Libya 'deeply upsetting,' foreign minister says
Britain's foreign secretary on Friday denounced the warm welcome the freed Lockerbie bomber received in Libya, and said the way Moammar Gadhafi's government behaves in the next few days will help determine whether Libya is accepted back into the international fold.
David Miliband told the BBC that the sight of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's homecoming was deeply distressing. Thousands of young men were on hand to greet al-Megrahi's plane at a Tripoli airport after he was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. Some threw flower petals as he stepped from the plane.
Al-Megrahi is the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. His release is an outrage to many relatives of the 270 people who died.
"I think it's very important that Libya knows - and certainly we have told them - that how the Libyan government handles itself in the next few days after the arrival of Mr. (al-) Megrahi will be very significant in the way the world views Libya's re-entry into the civilized community of nations," Miliband said.
The British government was walking a fine line Friday - condemning al-Megrahi's reception without criticizing the decision to free him, which was made by Edinburgh officials under Scotland's separate judicial system.
The BBC reported that Britain was considering canceling a visit to Libya next month by Prince Andrew, who has visited the country several times in his role as a British trade ambassador. Andrew's office said a visit for next month was in the planning stages and that Buckingham Palace was taking advice from the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office could not confirm the visit would be canceled.
Miliband said the sight of a mass murderer being welcomed so spiritedly in Tripoli was "deeply upsetting, deeply distressing ... for the 270 families who grieve every day for the loss of their loved ones 21 years ago and also for anyone who has got an ounce of humanity in them."
"I think that that is the overriding emotion that people will be feeling today," he said.
