1 March 2001 Edition
Lockerbie: Guilty Of Being Libyan
BY BRENDAN HOGAN
Twelve years after the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, three Scottish judges convened in a special sitting in the Netherlands to try Al Amin Khalifa Fimah and Adbel Basel Ali Mohameh Ali Megrahi. The former was acquitted, but the latter - a Libyan intelligence officer - was convicted to 20 years for his alleged role in the bombing.
But in the stampede for `justice', the weak case against the two men has been overlooked. There are three main flaws in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) case against the two Libyans, namely:
The CPS based their entire case around the belief that the suitcase containing the bomb had been loaded onboard a flight bound for Frankfurt in Liqa, Malta. It had been established that Megrahi had been at the airport that day, but he carried no luggage and he left on quite a different flight. Furthermore, all 55 bags on board the plane were checked against the passenger list, and all arrived safely in Frankfurt, where they were x-rayed. Even had Megrahi managed to put a case aboard, any suspect device would have been detected at Frankfurt, especially considering its staff were on alert for explosive devices.
The judges concluded that ``the absence of any explanation of the method by which the suitcase might have been placed on board KM180 [the aircraft in question] is a major difficulty for the crown case''. It is more probable, given the evidence, that the suitcase containing the bomb was placed aboard at Heathrow - its final stop en route to the US. Crucially, an airport worker - John Bedford - testified that a suitcase matching the description of the suitcase believed to have housed the bomb had appeared in a luggage container prior to take-off. He told the judges that another worker - a Mr. Kamboj - told him that he'd put the bag there. Kamboj's denial of this was overlooked by the judges.
Tony Gauci, a shop-owner from Malta, was a major witness for the CPS. He testified that Megrahi had bought clothes from him which were later found among the wreckage of the plane. Gauci had told police in 1989 that the man who had bought the clothes was 6 foot tall and about 50 years of age. Megrahi is 5' 8'' and was 37 in 1989. Gauci's ``identification'' of Megrahi was a ``highly important element in the case'', according to the judgement.
Gauci remembered two things about the day that Megrahi allegedly bought the clothes from him: firstly, it was raining, and secondly, there was a particular football match on. The two teams Gauci mentioned played on 23 November and again on 7 December of that year. It was raining on 23 November, according to a senior local meteorologist. Megrahi wasn't in Malta on 23 November, but since he had visited Malta on 7 December the judges concluded that the clothes had been bought on that day. The judges deemed Gauci ``reliable''.
Another key element in the CPS case was a circuit board found amongst the evidence taken from the wreckage. Since it was one of a consignment sold to both Libya and East Germany, the Libyan link was `proved'. However, this circuit board first surfaced three weeks after the explosion, and appeared in a shirt pocket whose label had been changed from `cloth (charred)' to `debris'. According to the judgement, ``there does not appear to be any particular reason for the alteration of the label''.
This evidence was then examined by government scientists, one of whom (Dr. Thomas Hayes) had testified in the case leading to the false convictions of the Maguire family. The FBI agent investigating was Tom Tharman, who had been denounced by his collegues for ``fabricating evidence'' in the past. The man who made the circuit boards, a Mr. Bollier, was dismissed as an ``unreliable'' witness.
The CPS also brought forward Abdul Majid, who was a junior Libyan Intelligence officer and a CIA agent. He came up with his ``evidence'' months after the bombing, and only when the CIA threatened to cut him off their payroll.
The conclusion of the judges was this:
`` We are aware that there is a danger that by selecting parts of the evidence that seem to fit together and ignoring parts that might not it is possible to read into a mass of conflicting evidence a conclusion which is not entirely justified.''
In other words, the judges knew that at least one of the Libyans must be convicted, lest anyone doubt Libyan involvement in an atrocity which has allowed the UN to maintain sanctions over a nine-year period.
Michael Scharf, a law professor at the New England School of Law said: ``It sure does look like they bent over backwards to find a way to convict, and you have to assume the political context of the case influenced them.''
Robert Black QC, who first suggested that a trial be held in a neutral third country, also condemned the judgement saying: ``This was a very, very weak circumstantial case. I am absolutely astounded, astonished. I was extremely reluctant to believe that any Scottish judge would convict anyone, even a Libyan, on the basis of such evidence.''
Mainstream media coverage surrounding the result was unquestioning and triumphalist, but the evidence available suggests strongly that Megrahi, and by extension Libya, is a convenient scapegoat. He is appealing the verdict.
On Saturday 24 February, thousands of supporters of the indigenous rebel army Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) packed the cathedral square in San Cristobal de Las Casas awaiting the arrival of two dozen Zapatista commanders from four of the ``autonomous municipalities'' in Chiapas. These are villages where Zapatista followers have established local governments and from where the 24 commanders were initiating a journey that has been hailed in the Mexican and foreign media as the Indigenous Civil Rights March.
The caravan, at its core, is a plea for the white and Spanish speaking middle classes in Mexico to confront the marginalisation of its indigenous population.
Travelling to Mexico City in buses, cars and trucks, the Zapatistas hope to bring attention to the sad realities of Mexico's 10 million indigenous inhabitants, who live largely in poverty. More than 44% are illiterate. Three-quarters of them have not completed primary school, and many have had no schooling.
Almost 60% of Indians live without running water, and nearly 90% have no sewers. Indian infant mortality is 70% higher than the national average. While the government takes oil, lumber and electric power from Chiapas, the indigenous people feel it has given very little back.
International observers and residents of other pro-Zapatista villages joined the rousing send-off, including three female members of Las Abejas (The Bees), a pacifist group that supports the rebels' demands. Las Abejas were the victims in a December 1997 massacre of 45 people, mostly women and children, in the Chiapas village of Acteal.
The Zapatista public meeting in San Cristobal de las Casas on 24 February was the first stop on a 15-day trip through 12 states that will end in Mexico City's Congress building. There, the Zapatista commanders will lobby for an Indian rights bill, promoting a law that would expand the rights of Indian communities to enact laws, control lands and use their own languages.
Ahead of the arrival of the caravan, on Thursday 22 February, a congressional peace commission said it will meet with the Zapatistas after they get to Mexico City, in hopes of giving the chosen spokesperson for the occasion, co-founder of the EZLN and former Zapatista commander German - whose real name is Fernando Yáñez Muñoz - a chance to address congress. The commission, which has struck a largely pro-rebel stance, also said it will join the Zapatista march.
However, to pass this bill won't be easy, given some legislators' anger over the Zapatistas' sudden prominence and their concerns that indigenous autonomy could undermine landowners' rights and cause conflicts with existing levels of government.
Curiously, Mexican people are in general proud of the diversity of their culture, but as in most of Central and South American countries, they celebrate indigenous art and heritage while discriminating against the ethnic groups from which these cultures originate.
The Zapatista supporters in San Cristobal know of the difficulties that the delegation will face, but on Saturday 24 February, they stood on rooftops, and climbed cement and wooden platforms, chanting songs and slogans in support of the Zapatista cause. ``The fight continues!''' the crowd shouted as hundreds of pro-rebel villagers - most wearing the trademark ski masks of the rebels - marched into the square waving banners.
The spokesperson for the EZLN, Sub-commander Marcos, strode into town with a group of commanders, all of them unarmed. In a speech to a cheering crowd, Marcos challenged President Vicente Fox, calling him a man ``who talks a lot but listens little'' and who ``rules with a lot of noise'', pointing out how Fox has talked of peace but has failed to meet the Zapatistas' minimum conditions for reopening talks.
The Zapatistas demand that the government release all Zapatista prisoners, close seven military bases near Indian communities, and pass the Indian rights law before they will reopen peace talks.
The trip - called the ``Zapatour'' by local newspapers - is the first time the charismatic Marcos has emerged from the southern state of Chiapas since the Zapatista National Liberation Army launched its revolt for Indian rights on 1 January 1994.
The highland city of San Cristobal is one of several Chiapas towns the Zapatistas seized briefly during their 1994 uprising, which led to 12 days of fighting that claimed more than 145 lives before a ceasefire took hold. The rebellion was followed by six years of abuses from pro-government paramilitary groups on any indigenous person suspected of being a rebel sympathiser.
Peace talks were held at San Cristobal's cathedral, but negotiations have been frozen since 1996 when then-Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo rejected a bill meant to enact the only substantive agreement reached between the two sides, on Indian rights.
Surprisingly, the Mexican government has mounted special security measures to safeguard the caravan from possible attacks from paramilitary groups close to the Mexican army ranks.
However, the march has not appealed in the same way to some other politicians. Some senators and governors denounced the Zapatistas for refusing to give up their masks and guns. Others say they fear accidents or conflicts on the route could set back peace efforts. Business groups worry that the march could frighten investors.
A state congressman from Morelos, one of the Zapatista stops, challenged Marcos to a shootout. Ranchers in Chiapas, angry at the occupation of their extensive lands by poor indigenous farmers, threatened to block the route.
The Zapatistas themselves have accused the government of interfering with the trip, waging a publicity campaign to force the rebels to sign a peace pact that would reflect well on Fox without achieving the Indians' goals.
Floods in Mozambique
More than 100,000 people in Mozambique are threatened with fresh floods, after another river burst its banks.
WIth the Cahora Bassa reservoir already critically full, the authorities are having to release water, threatening areas further downstream. But relief efforts are hampered by a lack of resources, with only one Mozambican army helicopter currently working in the danger area.
Mozambique has appealed for $30 million in aid and aircraft as it battles floods that have affected almost 400,000 people in the central provinces of Zambezia, Sofala, Manica and Tete. More than 77,000 are homeless already and at least 41 have died so far.
The current disaster comes only a year after another set of floods caused widespread devastation. Last year's floods killed 700 people and left more than 500,000 homeless, prompting one of the biggest rescue missions in southern Africa.
Neighbouring Malawi is also severely affected.
Slaughter in Borneo
On Monday 26 February, Indonesia said that it would send extra soldiers to Borneo and its chief security minister expressed concern that ethnic violence there, which has already killed up to 400 people, could spread.
The violence flared up in the second week of February, when indigenous Dayaks began attacking Madurese immigrants while the military and police largely stood aside.
Rampaging Dayaks have triggered a humanitarian crisis, forcing some 30,000 mainly Madurese to flee the town of Sampit in Central Kalimantan province, scene of most of the unrest.
Local officials have put the confirmed death toll at 270 around Sampit, although the official Antara news agency said some 400 people had been killed, based on information it had collected. Dozens of people have been wounded.
The country's leadership has been largely silent on the slaughter, the latest to hit Indonesia after three years of chaos. President Abdurrahman Wahid, who is on a visit to Egypt, has said little about the killings. Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, in charge during the Muslim cleric's latest trip abroad, has said nothing publicly.
The terrible attacks on settlers are a legacy of a failed government policy of encouraging migration between the different islands of the archipelago.
Immigrants from the impoverished island of Madura started arriving in Borneo as long ago as the 1930s. The devoutly Muslim Madurese are viewed throughout Indonesia as aggressive settlers. Clashes between them and indigenous Dayaks go back many decades.
The Dayaks are the originial inhabitants of the Borneo rainforest. In recent years they have been marginalised by the rapid economic development of Indonesian Borneo and have found themselves competing with the Madurese for jobs. One of the worst outbreaks of violence happened in the province of West Kalimantan in 1997 when large groups of Dayaks armed themselves and attempted to drive out the Madurese.
On that occasion, at least 1,000 people were killed and many were beheaded in a grim revival of an old Dayak custom. Following the fall of the Suharto regime, violence broke out again in 1999.
In the most recent violence, local Malays and other ethnic groups joined the Dayaks in their attacks on the immigrants.
Twelve years after the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, three Scottish judges convened in a special sitting in the Netherlands to try Al Amin Khalifa Fimah and Adbel Basel Ali Mohameh Ali Megrahi. The former was acquitted, but the latter - a Libyan intelligence officer - was convicted to 20 years for his alleged role in the bombing.
But in the stampede for `justice', the weak case against the two men has been overlooked. There are three main flaws in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) case against the two Libyans, namely:
The CPS based their entire case around the belief that the suitcase containing the bomb had been loaded onboard a flight bound for Frankfurt in Liqa, Malta. It had been established that Megrahi had been at the airport that day, but he carried no luggage and he left on quite a different flight. Furthermore, all 55 bags on board the plane were checked against the passenger list, and all arrived safely in Frankfurt, where they were x-rayed. Even had Megrahi managed to put a case aboard, any suspect device would have been detected at Frankfurt, especially considering its staff were on alert for explosive devices.
The judges concluded that ``the absence of any explanation of the method by which the suitcase might have been placed on board KM180 [the aircraft in question] is a major difficulty for the crown case''. It is more probable, given the evidence, that the suitcase containing the bomb was placed aboard at Heathrow - its final stop en route to the US. Crucially, an airport worker - John Bedford - testified that a suitcase matching the description of the suitcase believed to have housed the bomb had appeared in a luggage container prior to take-off. He told the judges that another worker - a Mr. Kamboj - told him that he'd put the bag there. Kamboj's denial of this was overlooked by the judges.
Tony Gauci, a shop-owner from Malta, was a major witness for the CPS. He testified that Megrahi had bought clothes from him which were later found among the wreckage of the plane. Gauci had told police in 1989 that the man who had bought the clothes was 6 foot tall and about 50 years of age. Megrahi is 5' 8'' and was 37 in 1989. Gauci's ``identification'' of Megrahi was a ``highly important element in the case'', according to the judgement.
Gauci remembered two things about the day that Megrahi allegedly bought the clothes from him: firstly, it was raining, and secondly, there was a particular football match on. The two teams Gauci mentioned played on 23 November and again on 7 December of that year. It was raining on 23 November, according to a senior local meteorologist. Megrahi wasn't in Malta on 23 November, but since he had visited Malta on 7 December the judges concluded that the clothes had been bought on that day. The judges deemed Gauci ``reliable''.
Another key element in the CPS case was a circuit board found amongst the evidence taken from the wreckage. Since it was one of a consignment sold to both Libya and East Germany, the Libyan link was `proved'. However, this circuit board first surfaced three weeks after the explosion, and appeared in a shirt pocket whose label had been changed from `cloth (charred)' to `debris'. According to the judgement, ``there does not appear to be any particular reason for the alteration of the label''.
This evidence was then examined by government scientists, one of whom (Dr. Thomas Hayes) had testified in the case leading to the false convictions of the Maguire family. The FBI agent investigating was Tom Tharman, who had been denounced by his collegues for ``fabricating evidence'' in the past. The man who made the circuit boards, a Mr. Bollier, was dismissed as an ``unreliable'' witness.
The CPS also brought forward Abdul Majid, who was a junior Libyan Intelligence officer and a CIA agent. He came up with his ``evidence'' months after the bombing, and only when the CIA threatened to cut him off their payroll.
The conclusion of the judges was this:
`` We are aware that there is a danger that by selecting parts of the evidence that seem to fit together and ignoring parts that might not it is possible to read into a mass of conflicting evidence a conclusion which is not entirely justified.''
In other words, the judges knew that at least one of the Libyans must be convicted, lest anyone doubt Libyan involvement in an atrocity which has allowed the UN to maintain sanctions over a nine-year period.
Michael Scharf, a law professor at the New England School of Law said: ``It sure does look like they bent over backwards to find a way to convict, and you have to assume the political context of the case influenced them.''
Robert Black QC, who first suggested that a trial be held in a neutral third country, also condemned the judgement saying: ``This was a very, very weak circumstantial case. I am absolutely astounded, astonished. I was extremely reluctant to believe that any Scottish judge would convict anyone, even a Libyan, on the basis of such evidence.''
Mainstream media coverage surrounding the result was unquestioning and triumphalist, but the evidence available suggests strongly that Megrahi, and by extension Libya, is a convenient scapegoat. He is appealing the verdict.
Zapatistas march on Mexico City
On Saturday 24 February, thousands of supporters of the indigenous rebel army Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) packed the cathedral square in San Cristobal de Las Casas awaiting the arrival of two dozen Zapatista commanders from four of the ``autonomous municipalities'' in Chiapas. These are villages where Zapatista followers have established local governments and from where the 24 commanders were initiating a journey that has been hailed in the Mexican and foreign media as the Indigenous Civil Rights March.
The caravan, at its core, is a plea for the white and Spanish speaking middle classes in Mexico to confront the marginalisation of its indigenous population.
Travelling to Mexico City in buses, cars and trucks, the Zapatistas hope to bring attention to the sad realities of Mexico's 10 million indigenous inhabitants, who live largely in poverty. More than 44% are illiterate. Three-quarters of them have not completed primary school, and many have had no schooling.
Almost 60% of Indians live without running water, and nearly 90% have no sewers. Indian infant mortality is 70% higher than the national average. While the government takes oil, lumber and electric power from Chiapas, the indigenous people feel it has given very little back.
International observers and residents of other pro-Zapatista villages joined the rousing send-off, including three female members of Las Abejas (The Bees), a pacifist group that supports the rebels' demands. Las Abejas were the victims in a December 1997 massacre of 45 people, mostly women and children, in the Chiapas village of Acteal.
The Zapatista public meeting in San Cristobal de las Casas on 24 February was the first stop on a 15-day trip through 12 states that will end in Mexico City's Congress building. There, the Zapatista commanders will lobby for an Indian rights bill, promoting a law that would expand the rights of Indian communities to enact laws, control lands and use their own languages.
Ahead of the arrival of the caravan, on Thursday 22 February, a congressional peace commission said it will meet with the Zapatistas after they get to Mexico City, in hopes of giving the chosen spokesperson for the occasion, co-founder of the EZLN and former Zapatista commander German - whose real name is Fernando Yáñez Muñoz - a chance to address congress. The commission, which has struck a largely pro-rebel stance, also said it will join the Zapatista march.
However, to pass this bill won't be easy, given some legislators' anger over the Zapatistas' sudden prominence and their concerns that indigenous autonomy could undermine landowners' rights and cause conflicts with existing levels of government.
Curiously, Mexican people are in general proud of the diversity of their culture, but as in most of Central and South American countries, they celebrate indigenous art and heritage while discriminating against the ethnic groups from which these cultures originate.
The Zapatista supporters in San Cristobal know of the difficulties that the delegation will face, but on Saturday 24 February, they stood on rooftops, and climbed cement and wooden platforms, chanting songs and slogans in support of the Zapatista cause. ``The fight continues!''' the crowd shouted as hundreds of pro-rebel villagers - most wearing the trademark ski masks of the rebels - marched into the square waving banners.
The spokesperson for the EZLN, Sub-commander Marcos, strode into town with a group of commanders, all of them unarmed. In a speech to a cheering crowd, Marcos challenged President Vicente Fox, calling him a man ``who talks a lot but listens little'' and who ``rules with a lot of noise'', pointing out how Fox has talked of peace but has failed to meet the Zapatistas' minimum conditions for reopening talks.
The Zapatistas demand that the government release all Zapatista prisoners, close seven military bases near Indian communities, and pass the Indian rights law before they will reopen peace talks.
The trip - called the ``Zapatour'' by local newspapers - is the first time the charismatic Marcos has emerged from the southern state of Chiapas since the Zapatista National Liberation Army launched its revolt for Indian rights on 1 January 1994.
The highland city of San Cristobal is one of several Chiapas towns the Zapatistas seized briefly during their 1994 uprising, which led to 12 days of fighting that claimed more than 145 lives before a ceasefire took hold. The rebellion was followed by six years of abuses from pro-government paramilitary groups on any indigenous person suspected of being a rebel sympathiser.
Peace talks were held at San Cristobal's cathedral, but negotiations have been frozen since 1996 when then-Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo rejected a bill meant to enact the only substantive agreement reached between the two sides, on Indian rights.
Surprisingly, the Mexican government has mounted special security measures to safeguard the caravan from possible attacks from paramilitary groups close to the Mexican army ranks.
However, the march has not appealed in the same way to some other politicians. Some senators and governors denounced the Zapatistas for refusing to give up their masks and guns. Others say they fear accidents or conflicts on the route could set back peace efforts. Business groups worry that the march could frighten investors.
A state congressman from Morelos, one of the Zapatista stops, challenged Marcos to a shootout. Ranchers in Chiapas, angry at the occupation of their extensive lands by poor indigenous farmers, threatened to block the route.
The Zapatistas themselves have accused the government of interfering with the trip, waging a publicity campaign to force the rebels to sign a peace pact that would reflect well on Fox without achieving the Indians' goals.
Floods in Mozambique
More than 100,000 people in Mozambique are threatened with fresh floods, after another river burst its banks.
WIth the Cahora Bassa reservoir already critically full, the authorities are having to release water, threatening areas further downstream. But relief efforts are hampered by a lack of resources, with only one Mozambican army helicopter currently working in the danger area.
Mozambique has appealed for $30 million in aid and aircraft as it battles floods that have affected almost 400,000 people in the central provinces of Zambezia, Sofala, Manica and Tete. More than 77,000 are homeless already and at least 41 have died so far.
The current disaster comes only a year after another set of floods caused widespread devastation. Last year's floods killed 700 people and left more than 500,000 homeless, prompting one of the biggest rescue missions in southern Africa.
Neighbouring Malawi is also severely affected.
Slaughter in Borneo
On Monday 26 February, Indonesia said that it would send extra soldiers to Borneo and its chief security minister expressed concern that ethnic violence there, which has already killed up to 400 people, could spread.
The violence flared up in the second week of February, when indigenous Dayaks began attacking Madurese immigrants while the military and police largely stood aside.
Rampaging Dayaks have triggered a humanitarian crisis, forcing some 30,000 mainly Madurese to flee the town of Sampit in Central Kalimantan province, scene of most of the unrest.
Local officials have put the confirmed death toll at 270 around Sampit, although the official Antara news agency said some 400 people had been killed, based on information it had collected. Dozens of people have been wounded.
The country's leadership has been largely silent on the slaughter, the latest to hit Indonesia after three years of chaos. President Abdurrahman Wahid, who is on a visit to Egypt, has said little about the killings. Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, in charge during the Muslim cleric's latest trip abroad, has said nothing publicly.
The terrible attacks on settlers are a legacy of a failed government policy of encouraging migration between the different islands of the archipelago.
Immigrants from the impoverished island of Madura started arriving in Borneo as long ago as the 1930s. The devoutly Muslim Madurese are viewed throughout Indonesia as aggressive settlers. Clashes between them and indigenous Dayaks go back many decades.
The Dayaks are the originial inhabitants of the Borneo rainforest. In recent years they have been marginalised by the rapid economic development of Indonesian Borneo and have found themselves competing with the Madurese for jobs. One of the worst outbreaks of violence happened in the province of West Kalimantan in 1997 when large groups of Dayaks armed themselves and attempted to drive out the Madurese.
On that occasion, at least 1,000 people were killed and many were beheaded in a grim revival of an old Dayak custom. Following the fall of the Suharto regime, violence broke out again in 1999.
In the most recent violence, local Malays and other ethnic groups joined the Dayaks in their attacks on the immigrants.