The DUP is now in a position to right a wrong over Libyan compensation

While the MPs all spoke well, including an excellent intervention from Jim Shannon concerning how to identify a victim of Libyan semtex, there were matters that were inexplicably not discussed and points not raised.

What no one mentioned was that in 2011 the victims’ lawyer, Jason McCue, obtained a signed contract from the interim Libyan government to pay compensation to the victims.

Here we have a legal document signed by a sovereign government that has not been honoured.

One wonders why the MPs or lawyers are not making an issue of this.

Second is the utter fallacy that Libya does not have a functioning government with which to engage.

This appears to be a case of “repeat it enough and it’s true”. The Libyan government is signing business contracts and engaging in international legal disputes on a weekly basis.

There is absolutely nothing to stop the UK government from having meaningful talks with them and settling this issue that has been dragging on now for well over ten years.

And finally I come to the elephant in the room of the DUP holding the balance of power in Westminster.

Successive prime ministers from Gordon Brown to David Cameron have paid lip service to this issue, promising the victims that they will take action, only for them to give the victims a slap in the face.

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee report listed over a dozen recommendations for how the UK government could engage with Libya and compensate the victims.

The UK government trashed the report and have rejected all of the recommendations. Since there were DUP MPs sitting on the committee at the time, some who spoke very passionately about the plight of the victims, I am curious as to why the DUP are now silent.

Ian Paisley Jr responded to the government’s trashing of the NIAC report by calling for a “fresh start” from the government.

Last week we saw the government, far from making a fresh start, wheeling out the same tired old excuses it has used for the past ten years.

It still refuses to engage with the Libyans on behalf of the victims and still refuses to bring any pressure to bear on the Libyan government. This in stark contrast to the French, German and American governments who all obtained reparations for their citizens and didn’t engage in a cowardly exercise of word play or throw their own citizens to the wolves like the UK government have done.

And so I am left wondering why, when the DUP hold the balance of power, when the DUP leader has stated publicly that the victims deserve compensation and when the DUP helped come up with the recommendations in the NIAC report, they have responded to the government’s contemptuous response to the NIAC report with all the furore of getting slapped in the face with a piece of wet lettuce.

The DUP are in a position to use their influence to right a wrong, one wonders what was discussed in the talks surrounding the confidence and supply arrangement that has seemingly led to a DUP about turn.

Mr A Magowan, Belfast BT4