Victims of IRA atrocities say they have been "stabbed in the back" by the Government after being told they would get no help in their legal battle for compensation from Libya.
ALSO IAlmost 200 families had brought a multi-billion-pound damages claim against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime for supplying plastic explosives to the IRA before he was ousted and killed in the Arab Spring uprising of 2011.
The dictator's Semtex was used in dozens of IRA attacks across the UK, including Enniskillen and Ballygawley in Northern Ireland and Harrods and Warrington in England.
However, as victims slammed the Government snub last night, fresh hope emerged when Labour leader Ed Miliband said if he became Prime Minister he would pressurise the Libyans. A damages case was brought in the US courts but collapsed seven years ago. An email obtained by a UK newspaper showed how Tony Blair, with the knowledge of the Foreign Office, intervened on behalf of Gaddafi over the compensation claims.
It led to a deal between Libya and the US in which American victims of Libyan-sponsored terrorism received multi-million-pound payments but UK victims received nothing. The UK victims have continued their campaign and David Cameron had promised to help. Last year, Mr Cameron appointed Sir Kim Darroch, his national security adviser, to assist in what families hoped would be a concerted effort to secure compensation.
But now Sir Kim has written to victims' relations and lawyers telling them the Government cannot intervene on their behalf.
Sir Kim wrote: "Individual compensation claims are best pursued through private campaigns. So the Government will not directly lobby for payment of specific claims."
Enniskillen Poppy Day bomb survivor Stephen Gault said: "It doesn't surprise me that the British Government has done this. Tony Blair has stabbed the back of the innocent victims yet again.
"He was part of the negotiating team when the Americans secured compensation but he did nothing. He is afraid to go against Sinn Fein and the IRA.
"The whole thing is rotten. The British Government is rotten and we have just been stabbed in the back yet again. We thought we would have an ally in the Conservatives but that is not the case as they have let us down again.
"I would feel betrayed by the British Government. It always seems they are appeasing the terrorist. This is just another nail in the coffin for victims."
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said yesterday: "I met recently with Sir Kim and I impressed upon him the importance of the Government continuing to support the victims in their quest for recognition and indeed for compensation, it is therefore disappointing to read the contents of the letter which has been issued to the victims.
"It is something we will be raising with whoever forms the next government because we have had a Labour government and a Conservative government, neither of whom have been able to help victims from across the UK who are seeking compensation from Libya."
Jonathan Ganesh, who survived the Canary Wharf bombing in London, said: "It is very disappointing. These people desperately need help. I have met many of these people. I have been to Northern Ireland several times, all different people of different religions have been affected.
"And we must remember the Americans were compensated." - Belfast Telegraph
At the end of 1985 Frank Hegarty from Derry worked with the Quarter Master General’s department in the IRA, helping shift weapons which were starting to arrive, which included plastic explosives from Libya. After the Hunger Stirke, Libyan Intelligence and the IRA made a deal. The Libyans would supply hundreds of tons of weaponry and millions of pounds to the IRA, provided they made life hell for Mrs Thatcher’s government, something the IRA rank and file were enthusiastic about. Libya wanted revenge for the expulsion of their Diplomats from London, after policewoman Yvonne Fletcher was shot.
Martin McGuinness a former Chief of Staff of the IRA, had fellow Derryman, Hegarty cleared to be part of the unit, that moved 80 AK-47’s, smuggled from Libya in August 1985, to two temporary dumps in Roscommon and Sligo, where they were discovered by the Garda Special Branch, who were responsible for everything that happened in that area, and raided the dumps. The British & Irish intelligence, came very close to discovering, the Libyan arms smuggling at a very early stage. Hegarty realized that his previous expulsion from the IRA would become known, when the IRA investigated the arms seizure and that he would be the prime suspect, for betraying the weapons, so he fled to England where MI5 kept him in a safe house. The IRA learned, that Martin McGuinness had cleared Hegarty for the operation and was aware of Hegarty's previous expulsion. McGuinness wnated to be Chief of Staff again but the whole episode sullied his reputation. He enticed Hegarty back home, with assurances to both Hegarty and his mother but after Hegarty was interrogated by an IRA Internal Security Unit, he was executed, saving McGuinness from the ame fate in the process. McGuinness is a very wealthy man today, as a result of all the money the British and Gadaffi gave him, so it seems rather odd that the victims do not pursue him, as he is the only wealthy individual around, who was involved with the plastic explosives, that killed all of the victims. The victims would need to do so promptly, before the same fate happen's to McGuinness, as happened to Gadaffi. McGuinness is now an old man and will soon be going where he belongs from now on, into the dustbin of history. Apparently, there are many around, who would like to speed that process up, so the victims would need to act quickly, to recover his vast wealth offshore, otherwise they will miss out once again, as they have no chance of ever recovering monies from Libya, which is in total disarray, after Gadaffi met such a cruel death. It would indeed be a sad day for the victims, if McGuinness was buggered and tortured like Gadaffi, before they received their money, but for others, there would be celebrations all over Ireland, as when his good friend Thatcher, finally kicked the bucket. There were many young boys, buggered in Ireland like Gadaffi, during McGuinness's watch. Personally I have forgiven him not because I wanted too but because it sets my own Spirit Free and besides I believe everyone is entitled to jury of 12 jurors , so it's not for me to judge.However there is little doubt that he has betrayed the Irish people of no property, who gave him mandate to lead, instead of being a twisted servant of Her Majesty, the Queen of England.
Irish news reports suggest thatLibyan leader MuammarGaddafiis not dead but is in fact living a secret life in British Occupied Ireland and will in fact celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland. The photo above was taken in Ireland where is believed to be on active service with CIRA { Continuity Irish Republican Army } losing a considerable amount of weight in the process. He is believed to be very angry about the Provisionals giving all his weapons awayto the British, for a Process, that is currently going nowhere.
The previous reports of his death were a hoax. It is claimed that Muammar Gaddafi, who led his country for 42 years, had his leg amputated after a bombing by NATO fighter jets. After this, he went to a neighboring country for treatment and returned to full health, He then went to Ireland by ship and is currently living undercover. The videos showing his last moments before his death were fake.
However the controversy surrounding his death was stirred when Muammar Gaddafi’s wife, Safiya demanded that the UN reveals where her husband and son Mutasim are buried and also demanded an investigation into how her husband was tortured.
Muammar Gaddafi was last seen alive on 20 October 2011 hiding in his hometown of Sirte. His convoy of 50 vehicles and 250 men were avoiding NATO airstrikes. He was injured by a grenade and attacked by an angry mob of NATO mercenaries. His dead body was said to be later found battered and bruised in a canal. Whatever the facts of it, Muammar Gaddafi is an adopted Son of Ireland and will always be alive in Spirit as true friend and warrior who came to Ireland's aid, in her hour of need.
British Foreign Office and Human Rights in Libya, Iraq and Ireland
By Vladimir OdintsovNovember 10, 2013 "Information Clearing House -The remarkable aspiration of the British Foreign Office to only accuse the administrations of Libya and Iraq for the current state of events there, concealing their initial cause, consisting in initiation by the West and Great Britain in the first place of the recent military intervention in these states in breaking the international law.
In October the British Foreign Office published an “innovation” for the annual report on the human rights in those countries, which critically stated that “progress in abidance of human rights Libya and Iraq continues being very slow”.
In Libya according to British experts such state of affairs is determined by the “fragile political situation, difficulties for the current Libyan government in execution of the total control over security, absence of the progress in development and adoption of the new constitution and problems in judicial and penal systems”. Serious problems are outlined in treatment of the prisoners, claims are made for the appropriate execution of rights of the convicts.
In Iraq case British scientists attribute the major problem in the rights-protection field to “significant aggravation of the safety in the country, reaction of the Iraq officials to the terrorist attacks in the form of execution of the mass verdicts (mainly with accusations of terrorism)”. Due to this very fact in August the so called Ambassador of the Great Britain in Iraq “pointed to” the “special concern” of the Albion.
These “innovations” of the Foreign Office cannot be overlooked not only because of the topics touched by the British experts and complexity of the inner-political processes, occurring in these recently influential and successful in the Arab world states.
History of the western, in the first place British manipulations of the Arab world are not limited to the last century, although in the XX century Great Britain together with the USA actively tried to alter the map of the Near East, overturning the undesirable regimes and getting rid of the hostile leaders. The major driving force of these policies were definitely the interests of the economic benefit, struggle for the access to the energy sources and control over the trading routes.
From the middle of the XX century the official London and Washington neglecting the rights of the people inhabiting Near East countries organized military expeditions aiming at destabilization of the secular Arab states. Particularly, in 1956 the Suez crisis was provoked and an armed intervention in Egypt was prepared, which, however, failed. There were two attempts on Naser´s life, which also failed. There were attempts to stir up two revolutions in Syria, but these attempts weren´t successful either.
Today the recently prosperous Naser´s, Kaddafi´s and Hussein´s states are ravaged, their resources ransacked, state infrastructure ruined and children grow surrounded by gun sights. All these happened in the first place because of the officials of London and the USA, which by organized military NATO interventions broke the law of war prevention (jus contra bellum) and international humanitarian law (jus in bello). From the legal standpoint no armed rebels in the domestic conflict (either in Libya, Iraq, Syria or other country) cannot be looked at as civilians and NATO cannot have authority not only to lend help to one politically beneficial to the West side, but also to its defense. As in case with the opposition delivery of the military arms, it spread all over the region, started being used by various extremist and terrorist groups, including Al-Qaida jihadists.
Speaking of human rights violation in Libya and Iraq, Foreign Office by some “strange coincidence” didn´t point to the concern of the guilt by its authorities in the deaths of civilians in Libya during British air force attacks in Tripoli. Or in the deliberate deception of the kingdom´s subjects when the decisions about the intrusion of the British army in Iraq were made on the basis of the false data about Saddam´s Hussein´s possession of the weapons of mass destruction.
According to several competent NPOs, Great Britain attempting to keep its image of a leader in observance of the human rights standards carefully conceals many occasions of the domestic human rights violations, which British authorities are responsible for. The acute problems for the Great Britain are the same problems mentioned by Foreign Office in Libya and Iraq.
Thus, criticizing Libya for serious problems in treatment of the prisoners British experts don´t want to accept the use of tortures and non-human or humiliating treatment in their penitentiaries. The examples of these may be particularly the resonant court case on the fact of use of tortures and violence against the Kenyan businessman O. Avadh, which sued the British authorities with the request to accept the involvement of the secret services of the country to unlawful kidnapping of people suspected of terrorism.
In this context, the report of the chief inspector of the prison in England and Wales promulgated in August 2011 is demonstrative about the conditions of prisoners´ keeping in one of the UK ‘s largest prison Wandswort. It has been listed numerous violations of prisoners’ rights, including the lack of access to basic hygiene.
Or should one remind who has invented concentration camps? Those were Victorian gentlemen during the Second Boer War of 1899—1902, and not Nazis. The name of the inventor is Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, a British Field Marshal.
In September 2011, the Special Citizens Commission of the UK under the leadership of W. Hague completed the three-year investigation into the death of Iraqi citizen B. Musy, use of torture and severe bodily harm to another nine Iraqis detained by British troops in Basra in 2003
In September 2011, one of the most high-profile scandals connected to the violations of the right to privacy, correspondence and telephone calls in the UK was the so -called “Newsgate” when employees of the edition of “News of the World” illegally wiretapped phone conversations of celebrities, politicians, and victims of high-profile crimes .
In April 2012, the National Black Police Association (NBPA) appealed to British Prime Minister David Cameron with a request to take control of the situation with a large-scale discrimination on grounds of race in London Police. But there’s little surprise, according to The Telegraph David Cameron himself stated that Britain should put a limit to the flow of the work force coming from the Eastern Europe. Among the “unwanted” are the workers from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the same very countries that share membership with Britain in the EU and NATO.
Such examples are multiple.
As for the relatively clear desire of the Great Britain to take the “looking” position for the countries of the “greatest danger” from the point of view of democratic norms, we must not forget that Foreign Office did not confer such authority to anyone. First of all, due to no flawless policies of London.
