Yvonne
Fletcher (15th June 1958 to 17th April 1984)
Here I am outside the Libyan embassy in St James’s Square in
London at the spot where policewoman Yvonne Fletcher died. She was shot by a
machine gun but and died within an hour aged 25. I can remember being about 17
when this was on the news. Police officers getting killed on duty was very rare
in the 1980s. The killer has still not been brought to justice.
Yvonne
was among about thirty offices keeping an eye on a protest outside the Libyan
embassy (her fiancé was among them.) The Libyan dissidents were protesting
against the rule of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Gaddafi loyalists were also there mounting a counter-demonstration. On
the day she died police were keeping the two sides apart with crowd control
barriers. Both groups shouted at each other and waved placards. For some reason
music was played loudly from the People's Bureau to drown out the noise of the
protesters.
At about 10:18 am a Sterling machine gun
was fired from the first floor. In total eleven people were hit including the
Yvonne Fletcher who was unarmed. She was hit in the stomach. Her fiancé was
among the officers who grouped around her. She was rushed to Westminster
Hospital but died about an hour later aged 25. Her death propelled the police laying siege to the embassy
for the next eleven days, and the UK government cut all diplomatic relations
with Libya. Two years later the murder helped Margaret Thatcher's decide to allow
US President Ronald Reagan to launch US bombings of Libya from UK air bases.
No one has ever been convicted of the
murder but the government of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi accepted responsibility
for her death and paid compensation to her family. Hopefully the main suspect Saleh Mabrouk will face trial
shortly.
