Lord Empey appeals to UN on Libya-IRA victims compensation

The UUP peer was speaking after reports that Libyan officials responsible for managing the country’s overseas assets met with the United Nations Libya sanctions committee last week.

Col Gaddafi supplied weaponry and Semtex to the IRA during the Troubles, and Libya has already paid out substantial compensation to US, German, and French victims of Libyan terror attacks.

In recent days the Libya Observer reported that the Libya Sanctions Committee of the UN convened a closed meeting in New York with a delegation from the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), at which they told of their strategy “to address the negative effects of the sanctions imposed on its frozen assets”.

The meeting was chaired by the UN Libya Sanction Committee head, Ambassador Jürgen Schulz.

Lord Empey responded that it was well known that Libya “wants off the sanctions hook” but that parliamentarians campaigning for IRA victims have made clear to government that sanctions can only be lifted if the UK agrees, as it has a veto at the UN Security Council.

“As the UN once again considers the future of the freezing of Libyan assets around the world, I appeal to the UN to remember that UK citizens who were brutally killed and maimed by IRA bombings, were killed and injured because Col Gaddafi supplied the IRA with the Semtex that allowed terrorism to continue,” he said.

The reason that only UK citizens have not been compensated by Libya, he said, was because the UK “hasn’t even asked for it”.

He added: “I hope the UK government won’t betray the victims by unfreezing assets before appropriate arrangements are made for compensation.”