Payouts a step closer for victims of Gaddafi-sponsored IRA terror
THE Government is considering how many victims of Gaddafi-sponsored IRA terrorism should receive compensation, it has emerged.
Foreign Office minister Andrew Murrison confirmed that a “scoping exercise” will investigate the feasibility of calculating the precise number of people affected and how much compensation they should receive from the Libyan government.
Jonathan Ganesh, the president of the Docklands Victims’ Association (DVA), called it “a tremendous step forward” after years of campaigning.
In June, the Government faced fresh calls to compensate victims after it was revealed it collects £5m a year in tax from around £12bn of frozen Libyan assets in theUK.
Former Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi supplied several shipments of Semtex to the Provisional IRA in the mid1980s which were used in several terrorist atrocities.
They included the Harrods attack in 1983, the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bomb in 1987 and the London Docklands blast in 1996.
Mr Murrison set out the details in a letter to MP Simon Hoare, who is the chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
The scoping exercise will be carried out over six months by William Shawcross, who was appointed earlier this year as the Foreign Secretary’s special representative on Gaddafi-sponsored IRA terrorism.
“We believe that this is an important preliminary step to making wider progress,” Mr Murrison said.
Mr Shawcross is to consult widely with victims’ groups and MPs to gather information on the number of victims, the different types of loss suffered and desired compensation.
He will also consult with government departments, agencies and experts on the legal hurdles to what Mr Murrison described as a “pressing but complex issue”.
An internal report will then be submitted to the Foreign Secretary who will decide if the work is taken forward.
Mr Ganesh said: “Ten years ago we (the DVA) were called into the Foreign Office and told we had to do this ourselves as it was a private matter.
“They thought we would just give up but we kept pushing. Since that meeting, I think this is the only genuine statement to come out from the Government and I think we will get compensation now.
“This is a tremendous step. It’s given me so much hope and finally, the right things are being done.”
Mr Ganesh said that he believed around 1,000 people are eligible for compensation, but precise numbers were hard to calculate as many have since passed away.
“In the past when the Government have issued letters on this subject we have felt like they were playing with us,” he said.
“That was even with so many MPs fighting for us. Thank God, we now seem to be getting somewhere.
“It’s not just about the money, it’s about showing that all human life is equal. You can’t just have American victims of IRA terrorism receiving millions of pounds from Gaddafi while the poor people of UK and Ireland are left behind.”