Snippet from article.
The death of British policewoman, Yvonne Fletcher, during the Libyan Embassy siege in London in April 1984 is most instructive to help understand the kind of reactions and messy outcomes that may follow.
Fletcher was killed in St James Square, when apparently bullets were fired on protesters from inside the embassy.
The situation remains confusing to this day; the murderer or shooter could never be identified.
In 1997, a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, ‘Murder in St James’s’ in which ballistic expert Colonel George Styles, home office pathologist Hugh Thomas and Professor Bernard Knight testified that technically Fletcher could not have been a victim of bullets from inside the embassy.
In 1999, while Libya was desperate to mend fences with the West, it accepted a general responsibility and paid compensation though the mystery of Fletcher’s death could not be conclusively resolved. But guess what happened in 1984?
In 1984, tempers were so high that a furious London Metropolitan Police continued an armed siege of the Libyan Embassy for 11 days. Colonel Gaddafi shouted obscenities on the violation of diplomatic immunity and ordered a counter-siege of the British Embassy in Tripoli. Finally, relations broke down and diplomats were ordered to leave under police escort. Some argue that Fletcher’s murder and the tensions that followed later became the major factor in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s decision to allow US President Ronald Reagan to launch the USAF bombing raid on Libya in 1986 from American bases in Britain...
In 1984, tempers were so high that a furious London Metropolitan Police continued an armed siege of the Libyan Embassy for 11 days. Colonel Gaddafi shouted obscenities on the violation of diplomatic immunity and ordered a counter-siege of the British Embassy in Tripoli. Finally, relations broke down and diplomats were ordered to leave under police escort. Some argue that Fletcher’s murder and the tensions that followed later became the major factor in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s decision to allow US President Ronald Reagan to launch the USAF bombing raid on Libya in 1986 from American bases in Britain...
