Report delay has added to pain: daughter of IRA bomb victims
A WOMAN who lost both her parents in a Libya-sponsored IRA bombing has spoken of the hurt caused by years of government delays to secure compensation.
Margaret Veitch’s parents William and Agnes Mullan were among 12 people murdered in the 1987 Enniskillen bombing.
At 73 years old, she is now the same age as her parents when they died.
She told the Belfast Telegraph she had been re-traumatised this week after the UK Government refused to publish a Foreign Office report by William Shawcross which examined whether frozen Libyan assets in the UK could be used to compensate victims.
Two victims’ groups also spoke in stark terms of how dozens of people they represent have since died without ever getting redress.
“My father and mother were murdered by the IRA and what we got was nothing. All our British Government did for us was to bury them,” Mrs Veitch said.
“As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t even had an acknowledgement of what we’ve lived through.
“We lived through 35 years of utter violence, and now my parents are dead 34 years.
“Why are other citizens more valued, like the French, Germans and Americans (whose governments compensated victims for Libyan sponsored terrorism)?
“It all goes back to the fact that they don’t care about us and they definitely don’t care about Northern Ireland.”
She added: “Innocent victims like us have been cast aside and I can’t describe the pain of a report coming through, but they won’t even tell us, the victims, what’s in it.
“I’ve been hurt that badly I can’t be hurt anymore and I can’t understand why we can’t be told the truth. As British citizens we’re being treated diabolically.”
On the financial aspect, she said: “I hate talking about money and compensation because money will never bring my parents back, but I do think it’s hurtful that they treat victims differently.”
Kenny Donaldson of the Lisnaskea-based victims group,
South East Fermanagh Foundation, said he knew of at least 30 people of those who originally sought compensation for Colonel Gaddafi sponsored terrorism had died.
Since then, he estimated that up to around 1,000 people in Northern Ireland should be eligible for compensation as a direct result of Gaddafi sponsored IRA terrorism.
Taking the Enniskillen bombing as an example, he said around 15 family members of victims have died before getting closure.
“With Libya, all that’s been talked about is the financial element. But if you were to talk to the Enniskillen families, they would say that this is first and foremost about accountability,” he said. “They feel that British citizens are treated so badly in comparison to Americans and French and Germans.
“You have a situation where Americans — one was murdered and others injured in the Harrods PIRA bomb — those people have been dealt with in terms of the compensation package the US fought for.
“UK citizens who were murdered or injured in the exact same incident have not been compensated. It’s farcical that the payment depends on your nationality.”
Jonathan Ganesh was injured in the IRA’S London Docklands bombing in 1996.
The Docklands Victims Association still represents around 170 families affected by Gaddafi sponsored terrorism, not including 43 people it represented who died over the last seven years.
“That includes people who have unfortunately taken their own lives,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe how many phone calls I had this week from Northern Ireland, Manchester and Warrington. People we represent are heartbroken. One person even thought the announcement was a bad dream at first.
“I have underlying health conditions of my own now. I didn’t realise that my injuries at the time would come back to haunt me later, and I’m one of the younger ones so God knows what the rest of them are going through.
“I’m still going to do all I can, but where do we go from here? It would be far better for the Government to say, ‘You’re never going to get compensation, we’ve been wasting your time for the last 14 years’.
“That would be better than raising our expectations.”
Mr Ganesh said he met William Shawcross last February and believed him to be sincere.
“Mr Shawcross’s words at hearing (this week) in response to the Government statement... he was ‘surprised and disappointed’.
“I felt his words illustrated his concern as I felt during our meeting that he was actually attempting to find a way forward.”
This week, Mr Shawcross told a Westminster committee that Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb had not spoken to him since he submitted his report in March 2020.
The Government has now ruled out using £12bn of frozen Libyan assets in the UK, including the tax profits, to compensate victims. It has also said it won’t use other public funds to compensate victims while it convinces Libya to make any payments.