Proclamation 6642—Fifth Anniversary Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, 1993

This holiday season, while we gather with loved ones, it is important to remember those innocents who can no longer celebrate with their families because of a cruel and senseless act of terrorism. Four days before Christmas in 1988, a bomb exploded aboard Pan American Airways Flight 103, killing its 259 passengers and crew, along with 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. Among the passengers from 21 different nations were 189 Americans who were never to see their families again. Today, those responsible for this heinous act are still at large.

We dare not forget the unsuspecting victims of Flight 103. Their tragedy reminds us that while our world is abounding with opportunities for peace and democracy, it is also filled with danger and uncertainty. The threat of terrorism, both at home and abroad, continues to loom as wars and instances of ethnic and religious turmoil imperil our vision for a safer world.

We must remain ever vigilant if we are to combat merciless brutality and ensure the security of all of our citizens. My Administration is closely monitoring the terrorist threat in order to make the changes needed to create a secure future and to avert the kind of murderous tragedy that occurred in the skies over Scotland. In this holiday season, our hearts go out to all who lost loved ones in the bombing of Flight 103 -- for them, the loss is incalculable. We pledge to remember the victims of this outrage and to recommit ourselves to bringing the perpetrators to justice, so that we may truly create a safer, more peaceful world.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 21, 1993, as the "Fifth Anniversary Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103." I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eighteenth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON