Document:Lockerbie Bombing and my Reinstatement in HM Diplomatic Service
| Former diplomat Patrick Haseldine writes to former Prime Minister James Callaghan |
letter by Patrick Haseldine dated 29 January 1997Subjects: James Callaghan, Malcolm Rifkind, Pan Am Flight 103, John Major, Bernt Carlsson, UN Commissioner for Namibia, New York Accords, Pik Botha, Magnus Malan, Neels van Tonder
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Rt Hon Lord Callaghan of Cardiff
House of Lords
Westminster
LONDON SW1A 0AA
Dear Lord Callaghan,
Earlier this month I wrote to the Foreign Secretary asking to be reinstated in the Diplomatic Service (copy letter attached). I had been suspended on 7th December 1988 – two weeks prior to the Pan Am 103 – for writing to The Guardian and accusing South Africa of being a terrorist state. My dismissal from the Diplomatic Service by the then Foreign Secretary, John Major, came eight months later. This was the second occasion in 1988 that I had been suspended. The first period of five months followed my appearance on BBC tv Question Time of 25th February 1988 when I spoke from the programme audience in favour of economic sanctions against South Africa. I was also on camera when a vote was taken on the issue (please see following transcript and letter from the editor of Question Time).[1]
In the past few years I have petitioned both the Prime Minister and the Queen for reinstatement but without success. Rather than wait until after the general election for a new Foreign Secretary, I thought it would be a good idea to give this government one last opportunity to make amends. I am asking for your support in getting me reinstated this time because you know some of the background (my wife, Eliane, and I had the pleasure of dining with you and Lady Callaghan at the Brentwood & Ongar CLP dinner in November 1994) but you may not be aware of the evidence I have uncovered linking South Africa with the Lockerbie bombing: UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was scheduled to fly direct from Brussels to New York for the signing at the UN of the Namibia Independence Agreement. Mr Carlsson was persuaded to stopover in London and died on flight Pan Am 103.
A South African delegation (including Foreign Minister Pik Botha, Defence Minister Magnus Malan and Intelligence Chief Neels van Tonder) had been booked on that flight but took the earlier flight Pan Am 101 instead. The evidence I compiled over the past six years has been presented to both UK and US prosecuting authorities for their further investigation, though I am doubtful it will be acted upon.
Yours sincerely,
