Lockerbie families call for public inquiry

Relatives of the British victims of the Lockerbie bombing called on the Government yesterday to launch an independent inquiry into the atrocity.

The appeal coincides with the 15th anniversary of the bombing, which killed 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103 and 11 residents in the Scottish town. A spokesman for UK Families Flight 103 said the group was determined to achieve a "just resolution".

"In recent suspicious deaths of individuals, independent inquiries have rightly been instigated," he said. "Yet the Government uses the passage of time to erase the need to hold such an inquiry into the unresolved murders of 270 people - the biggest mass murder of the 20th century on British soil.

"We have never been given a forum in which to ask the big and important questions."

The group, which met Tony Blair in December 1998, said its concerns had yet to be properly addressed. The spokesman said: "Mr Blair said he understood that the end of the criminal trial would leave unanswered many of our questions. He was right.

"In [a] letter, Jack Straw said: 'The families have a fundamental need and right to know the reasons how and why Lockerbie happened ... nothing should be swept under the carpet.' "