Page 121 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

One of them, in an upstairs room, raised an automatic weapon and raked
the crowd with bullets, hitting 11 of the protesters. All, mercifully, survived,
though five were seriously injured.

But one bullet hit a 25-year-old police constable, Yvonne Fletcher, who by
rights should not have been in the police force at all because she was just 5ft
4in tall. But somehow, she had talked her way into getting a job and was
engaged to a fellow officer, who was standing nearby and saw her die.

It is the only instance in living memory in which a British police officer has
been murdered in the line of duty and the culprit has got clean away – which
is why Yvonne Fletcher is the only murdered officer whose name can be
instantly recalled by a very large number of people, although she has been
dead for almost 35 years.

Though the Libyans refused to call their premises an “embassy”, its staff
enjoyed all the privileges of accredited diplomats, which meant that the
police were not allowed to go into the building to arrest the killer. All they
could do was surround it, to stop him getting out.

The reaction in Tripoli was instant. Troops encircled the British embassy,
trapping 20 people inside, and Colonel Gaddafi vowed that if their bureau
was stormed “an act of this magnitude will not go unanswered by the Libyan
people”.

The stand-off lasted several days, while the British authorities sought Libya’s
permission for detectives to enter the building. They kept in telephone
contact with staff inside, and took them supplies of food, drink and
cigarettes, while armed police trained their weapons on the building, day
and night. In Tripoli, the British embassy was under a similar siege.

After six days of tense and ultimately pointless negotiations, the British
government broke off diplomatic relations with Libya, ordered the staff from
the Tripoli embassy home, and gave Libya’s diplomatic staff one week to
leave the country. The implication was that after a week they would lose their
immunity and the police would be free to do what they could to identify and
arrest the gunman.

Even as they left, they and their baggage were accorded diplomatic status,
which meant that on 27 April police had to stand back, under the watchful
gaze of diplomats from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria, as dozens of bags
were removed from the building – knowing that one of those bags held the
gun that had killed Yvonne Fletcher. The next day, 30 people trooped out of Page121
the People’s Bureau and boarded a plane for Tripoli.