Gaddafi funded terror. Raid his fortune to help IRA victims
VICTIMS of Libyan-sponsored IRA attacks last night demanded the Government finally deliver justice by unfreezing billions of pounds of Libyan assets to fund compensation.
More than £60billion of Muammar Gaddafi’s assets were frozen by the UN after his death in 2011 and are set to remain untouchable until stability returns to the wartorn country.
But campaigners say this money should be used to compensate those hit by the tyrant’s terrorism – including victims of IRA bombs made from Libyan-supplied Semtex explosive. The Foreign Office (FCO) is due to appoint an assessor to gauge the level of compensation to be awarded to more than 3,000 survivors and their families following IRA atrocities dating back to 1983, including the Remembrance Day massacre at Enniskillen, which killed 12 and injured 63.
But while this announcement was initially heralded as “a small step forward”, it has been condemned by campaigners and lawyers as “another attempt to push the issue into the long grass”. Jonathan Ganesh is president of the Docklands Victims Association and survivor of the 1996 truck bomb which killed two and injured more than 100 in the IRA’s east London blast.
Last night he said: “We have been campaigning for more than 10 years for justice and for 10 years the British government has done nothing while other nations have secured compensation for victims.
“Just this year Zaoui Berezag, who was left blind and permanently brain damaged when his car was crushed, passed away. Two years ago his wife Gemma, who was desperate for help in caring for him, took her own life.
“Victims are in desperate need. We must send a message to every would-be terrorist out there that Britain will hold them to account. But time is running out.”
Lawyers acting for the families questioned why the FCO is embarking on assessment when a formula has already been worked out by the US. It equates $10million (£8million) to families of those who died and between $3-$7million (£2.4-£5.5million) to each survivor, depending on their level of injuries.
The assessor, an idea originally conceived by Boris Johnson while Foreign Secretary, is expected to be William Shawcross, former chair of the Charity Commission.
But one top lawyer dismissed the idea. “This is yet another half-baked device to avoid the sensible course of action set by other countries and recommended by a parliamentary inquiry – that of utilising frozen Libyan assets,