Lockerbie bombing: How dare people criticise Dr Jim Swire for trying to uncover the truth

Dr Jim Swire’s dogged pursuit of the truth about the Lockerbie bombing, in which his daughter Flora was killed, is heartbreakingly admirable

Towards the end of new Sky drama Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, Colin Firth walks up to the counter in a Scottish café. He is playing Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter in Britain’s worst terrorist attack and wears a badge demanding justice for the Lockerbie victims.

The girl behind the till asks what it’s all about and when he explains, she looks confused and none the wiser. That is the reality now facing the families left behind. Nearly 40 years after the Lockerbie disaster, it is a story lost on a whole generation.

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From the Dunblane tragedy to 9/11, we have lived through some events so huge and terrible that at the time they seemed certain to stop the clocks. Then time marches on.

Dr Jim Swire holds a copy of the verdict after the Lockerbie bombing trial in 2001 which convinced Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (Picture: Michel Porro/Newsmakers)Dr Jim Swire holds a copy of the verdict after the Lockerbie bombing trial in 2001 which convinced Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (Picture: Michel Porro/Newsmakers)
Dr Jim Swire holds a copy of the verdict after the Lockerbie bombing trial in 2001 which convinced Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (Picture: Michel Porro/Newsmakers) | Getty Images

Asking difficult questions

When soldiers returned from the trenches after the end of the First World War, most chose not to talk about it. Down the years that has come to represent monumental stoicism but it also reflected something else – people back home simply didn’t want to hear about it. After four years of horror and deprivation, Britain had won and victory was an excuse to move on.

Of course, life isn’t that simple or straightforward. Unable to talk about or process their grief, many men struggled with civilian life. In the year after the end of the Great War, veterans represented nearly half of all suicides. Moving on is easy to say but very hard to do.

Now 89, Jim Swire has been urged to ‘move on’ repeatedly over the years. As spokesman for the UK Families Flight 103, he was told his work was done when Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 and again when his appeals and judicial reviews were lost. However the former GP didn’t trust the conviction and continued to dig and ask difficult questions.

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In its review of the Sky drama, the LA Times asks “whether Swire has used his time well”. How dare they. His daughter was murdered by terrorists and for him to devote the life he was given to the pursuit of what happened is more than a good use of time, it is heartbreakingly admirable. Plus, coming from the largest metropolitan newspaper in a country that has elected Donald Trump, the LA Times really isn’t in a position to lecture anyone at the moment.

Questions remain

Perhaps they should turn their attention to the American courtroom where Abu Agila Masud will soon go on trial, accused of being the man who actually made the bomb that exploded over Lockerbie. Jim Swire hopes the case will shed new light on the investigation and take us one step nearer the truth.

I suspect we will never really know the whole story but big questions remain with key documents relating to the case still shrouded in secrecy.

If the example of Alan Bates and the Post Office scandal shows us anything, it is that the tenacity of individuals matters. It took him more 20 years to get justice for those caught up in the Horizon IT scandal but he got there in the end.

“I can't go on doing this forever” said Jim Swire last month. While there is still time, I hope he gets the answers he deserves for himself, for his daughter and for all of us.

Related topics:
Dare to be Honest
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