Britain frantically tried to stop Nelson Mandela commenting on the trial of two Libyans accused of blowing up a passenger plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie at a 1997 leaders’ summit held in the country, newly released documents have revealed.
The South African president backed a plan for the suspects to be tried in a country outside the UK and US, but any attempt to raise the issue at a meeting of the 54-nation Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) would have been “disastrous”, British officials said.
Other papers released showed how Mr Blair and then US President Bill Clinton bonded and how the prime minister grappled with plans to tackle Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
The regime of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya was blamed for the atrocity and placed under sanctions by the US and the UK. Qaddafi, who in 2008 styled himself King of Kings of Africa, was assiduous in attempts to offset Western pressure with African allegiances.
Libya was a patron of Mr Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) during the anti-apartheid struggle. Qaddafi was killed in 2011 after uprisings across the Middle East, deposing him from his 42-year unchallenged rule. During the uprising, South Africa attempted to play a mediation role after a Nato-led bombing campaign was launched to protect civilians targeted by the regime.
As the Commonwealth Summit loomed the UK’s new prime minister at the time, Tony Blair, was pressed into writing to Mr Mandela to ensure there was not an open split on the issue. A week before the event Mr Blair tried to dissuade the liberation hero from discussing the topic during the meetings.
“We have a lot of other things to talk about,” Mr Blair wrote. “But I would welcome a further private discussion when we meet next week.”
Two Libyan intelligence agents were accused of putting a suitcase bomb on Pan Am flight 103 which blew up over Scotland in 1988 as it headed to New York, killing 270 people on the plane and ground.
British officials wanted to try the two men in Scotland but Libya refused to hand them over for trial, prompting the UN to impose an air and arms embargo on Tripoli. Mr Mandela offered South Africa as a neutral trial venue but was rebuffed.
British officials learnt two weeks before the summit that Mr Mandela was travelling to the conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, via Libya, and warned Mr Blair’s office of the “sensitive situation”, according to official papers released by the UK’s national archives on Tuesday.
Mr Mandela travelled by road from Egypt for his visit to Libya, which meant that sanctions were not breached, said a foreign office official. “Nevertheless it may attract embarrassing press attention particularly with CHOGM taking place in Scotland, where feelings on Lockerbie run high,” the official wrote.
The note to Mr Blair’s office added: “The Foreign Secretary thinks it is important that we point out the sensitivity of this issues to him and extinguish any thoughts he may harbour of stimulating a collective discussion on Lockerbie in the CHOGM plenary.”
The attempt to silence Mr Mandela failed and his call for a third-country venue for the trial dominated coverage of the leaders’ meeting.
Mr Mandela told a news conference that he had not raised the issue with Mr Blair. “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. Justice cannot be said to be done in that situation,” he said.
A compromise was reached with the two men standing trial three years later at a special temporary Scottish court in the Netherlands.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 27 years. The second man was acquitted.
Megrahi was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was terminally ill with cancer. He died in Libya in 2012. His family has continued to fight to clear his name.
Details of the diplomatic exchanges are included in a file of released documents that cover the first months of Mr Blair’s 10-year premiership.
Key Points
- Protests against President Omar Al Bashir enter their sixth day
- Reports of President Bashir's resignation and arrests of senior government officials
The specs: 2018 BMW R nineT Scrambler
Price, base / as tested Dh57,000
Engine 1,170cc air/oil-cooled flat twin four-stroke engine
Transmission Six-speed gearbox
Power 110hp) @ 7,750rpm
Torque 116Nm @ 6,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 5.3L / 100km
The biog
Favourite Emirati dish: Fish machboos
Favourite spice: Cumin
Family: mother, three sisters, three brothers and a two-year-old daughter
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
Four stars
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
THREE
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
