Lockerbie life goes on as world waits bomb verdict

      By Ed Cropley

      LOCKERBIE (Reuters) - Twelve years have done much to heal the wounds in the Scottish
      town of Lockerbie and few residents appeared gripped by the drama due to unfold on
      Wednesday in a courtroom in the Netherlands.

      There, at Camp Zeist, a special Scottish court is to decide the fate of two Libyans accused of
      killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie town.

      Some Lockerbie residents were even unaware that the verdict was due to be delivered.

      "What trial is that?" asked one woman.

      The years that have elapsed since the New York-bound Flight 103 passenger jet exploded six
      miles above their heads have allowed the community to rebuild itself both mentally and physically.

      Sherwood Crescent, where the plane's fuselage gouged a huge trench out of the earth, obliterating houses and
      killing 11 people on the ground, is now a slice of suburbia typical of anywhere in Britain.

      "It was all so long ago -- most people didn't know it (the trial) was coming to a conclusion," said Sue
      Crowhurst, who owns a petshop in the middle of this community of 4,000 people.

      Even for those whose lives were turned upside down the night hell descended, the wounds are healing.

      "The town has moved on. We've learnt to look to the future," said Bill Parr, a dog-handler who spent that
      December night scouring the woods and fields around Lockerbie for the mangled remains of passengers and
      crew.

      Situated some 60 miles (100 km) south of Scotland's second city Glasgow and near the border with England,
      Lockerbie is a typical close-knit market town which hates the attention still thrust upon it after so long.

      Whatever the verdict delivered on Wednesday, many hope it is the last they will see of the world's media and
      that the town which has suffered such horror can look to a future away from the spotlight.

      Grieving relatives, who continue to make regular pilgrimages to Lockerbie's three discreet memorials to the
      victims, are an integral part of the town's expanded community.

      "The relatives will always be welcome. We just want to be out of the public gaze," Parr said.

      However, Lockerbie still shudders at its international fame, which has become synonymous with one of the
      worst atrocities in aviation history.

      "Most Americans have only heard of three places in Scotland -- Edinburgh, Loch Ness and Lockerbie. That can't
      be right," one local hotelier said.