Govt Rejects Calls For Libyan-IRA Victims Fund

The government has rejected calls for a UK reparations fund for victims of Libyan-sponsored IRA attacks.

The fund was suggested in a report published a cross-party group of MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.

Former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi supplied arms to the IRA and Libyan Semtex plastic explosive was a key weapon in the group's bombing campaign.

Labour MP Kate Hoey, who is on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said the government response is "as unsurprising as it is unacceptable".

She said: "They are telling people to seek justice on their own, to bear the cost and overcome the language barrier of obtaining compensation directly from the Libyan Government.

"There is a duty to represent the victims, just as the US and German governments fought for compensation for their citizens."

The government said it considers compensation claims to be private matters.

Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey said: "The Government's rejection of a fund to provide compensation for victims of Libyan sponsored IRA violence is sadly a continuation of the aloof and indifferent approach adopted by successive Governments.

"The suspicion remains that as Prime Minister, Tony Blair did a deal with Gadaffi.

"I began writing to the UK Government about Gadaffi and Libya in 2002 and in all those years I have never heard a coherent explanation for the failure of HMG to get compensation for UK Citizens for all the damage that Gadaffi had inflicted on us as, a result of supplying the IRA with weapons, money and training for over 20 years.

"The repeated failure of successive UK Governments is all the more galling for victims given that the Governments of the USA, Germany and France all managed to secure compensation for their citizens who had suffered. Bearing in mind that Gadaffi waged a proxy war against the UK for decades, it is simply unbelievable that the UK has not achieved a similar outcome.

"The complacent attitude of successive Governments prompted me to introduce a Private Member’s Bill before Parliament last year, but because of the election it ran out of time. I reintroduced it (The Asset Freezing (compensation) Bill) on 5th July 2017 and it will have its second reading on 27th October.

"The aim is to raise the profile of the Libyan connection to terrorism and to ensure that the victims can see that Parliament has not forgotten them and is still seeking a measure of justice for them. There are representatives of all parties supporting it, but we await the Government's response.

"I was disappointed that in the recent negotiations between the Conservative Party and the DUP this issue didn't figure.

"It is simply staggering that Libya has £9.5 billions of frozen assets in London alone! They have more in other countries as well. I want some of that to go towards helping the many who have suffered greatly as a result of Gadaffi's semtex."

(CD/LM)