Lockerbie victim's family want answers

Dec 21 2009 By Dave Black, The Journal

PARENTS of a North East victim of the Lockerbie bombing say the long-running campaign for a public inquiry into the atrocity will continue, although optimism is fading that it will ever happen.

Alistair Berkley (pictured), 29, from Northumberland was among the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town in December 1988.

His elderly parents, Barrie and Jean Berkley of Sandhoe, Hexham, are leading members of the UK Families Flight 103 Group, which was set up in the wake of the terrorist outrage.

Two months ago the group handed in a letter at 10 Downing Street asking for a meeting with Gordon Brown to discuss its renewed calls for a full independent inquiry into the bombing.

So far the group has received an acknowledgement of the letter but no formal reply, following an apparent dispute between Whitehall and the Scottish Government over who would be responsible for conducting any such inquiry.

Mrs Berkley, who is coordinator of UK Families Flight 103, said: "I would imagine we will eventually get a more detailed response from the Government, but it is certainly something we will be pursuing and enquiring about.

"We are not all that hopeful of a successful outcome and it is hard to be optimistic after our request has been turned down on previous occasions. We have been asking for a full independent inquiry for a very long time, but there always seem to have been reasons for it being turned down.

"We would see it as something which the Scottish Parliament and the Government could cooperate on, but there does seem to be tendency for passing the buck on this issue. We hope they will eventually recognise the validity of our call for an inquiry, which we believe would bring out more of the truth about what happened and look at some of the issues we have been raising."

Two months ago Mr Berkley said it was ‘absolutely scandalous’ there has never been an independent public inquiry into the Lockerbie atrocity. He was speaking after it was revealed that police in Scotland were carrying out a review of evidence in the case.

Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, 57, the only man to be convicted of the bombing, was convicted of the mass murder in 2001 before a panel of Scottish judges at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, and told he would spend a minimum of 27 years in prison.

But he was released from prison in Scotland and allowed to return home in August this year on compassionate grounds. Al-Megrahi has terminal cancer and was released so he could die in his homeland.

Despite suggestions his condition had improved it was yesterday reported Megrahi was admitted to a medical centre on Saturday and a scan showed the cancer had spread and his condition was worsening.

Mrs Berkley said: "(Megrahi’s medical) situation is not something our group would make an issue about. We are not so much focused on him but on finding out more about what happened."

A Downing Street spokeswoman said the group’s letter was ‘receiving attention’. The Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary David Miliband had made it clear in October any public inquiry into Lockerbie was a matter for the Scottish authorities.