Lockerbie tragedy commemorated in Scotland

Relatives of the 270 persons killed in the Lockerbie disaster marked
the 20th anniversary of the incident on Sunday in The land o'the leal.
The Pan Am Flight 103 was breathed out up over the Scottish city on
Dec. 21, 1988, killing all on board as well as 11 local residents on
the ground, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) stated.
Special "places to remember" were began in Lockerbie for low-key
remembrance events.
Earlier, one of the tributes was held in the Garden of Remembrance,
which has been built on the site where the plane came down in
Lockerbie.
Lisa Vickers, U.S. consul in Edinburgh, was present at the ceremony.
"There were 180 people that were American citizens on board that
flight, 35 of them students at Syracuse University, and we still
remember very much the events of that night 20 years ago," she said.
Some 300 people including relatives and some former employees of the
Pan Am the airline also attended a private memorial at Heathrow
Airport chapel.
Alex Salmond, first minister of Scotland, said: "I know that through
the events being organized in Lockerbie, at Syracuse University, and
at other locations in the U.K. and the U.S., that fitting tribute will
be paid to those who so tragically lost their lives and those, in
south of Scotland and beyond, whose lives have been affected by the
atrocity."
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a former Libyan cleverness officer,
was found guilty of mass murder following a trial at CampZeist in the
Netherlands in 2001. However, he has denied fault for the bombing and
a second appeal against his sentence will be heard by the courts next
year, said the report.