2020 report reveals scheme to compensate Gaddafi-IRA victims
After five years the report on the victims of Gaddafi funded IRA attacks was partially released on October 20th, revealing suggestions for a scheme to compensate victims, according to MSN news.
Sir William Shawcross was commissioned by the government in 2019 to compile this report, which the UK government then refused to publish on national security grounds.
The subject of the report is compensation for UK victims of Irish Republican Army attacks that were sponsored by the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Gaddafi’s regime supplied the IRA with the plastic explosive Semtex which was used in bombs that killed hundreds of people.
A difficulty that the report faced, according to the executive summary released on October 20th, was that it is “not possible to identify the number of people affected” by Libyan supplied weaponry, as there were other sources of funding and arms. Therefore Shawcross suggested widening the class of victims who would receive compensation: “If HM Government provides funding (or advance funding), payment to a narrow group of beneficiaries could contribute to tensions over Northern Ireland legacy issues, and could be perceived not to be ‘rigorously impartial’ to both communities in Northern Ireland, an idea that is central to the Good Friday Agreement.”
The UK government’s decision to withhold the report’s findings was met with surprise, as compensation has been paid by Libya to other victims of its attacks, including American, German and French victims. Those who have campaigned for victim compensation have claimed previously that an oil deal between Gaddafi and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in power during the end of the Northern Ireland conflict, could well be a key reason why the UK has not pressed Libya for compensation.
There are £12 billion worth of Libya assets formerly owned by Gaddafi frozen in the UK, and Shawcross’ report suggests using the tax on these assets to compensate victims. The assets are known to be taxed around £5 million a year, and having been taxed for over a decade should have accrued a huge amount of money.
Shawcross said that “HM Treasury should fund the scheme and consider whether there should be separate funding for NI and England. Funding could be obtained from the tax accrued on the frozen Libyan assets but will probably be insufficient, depending on the solution chosen. Other sources of government funding will probably be required.”
MSN/Maghrebi/The Telegraph
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