The unforgivable UK approach to Libya-IRA victims isn’t just because it wants trade with Tripoli but is also done to placate republicans

It is often said that the UK has been tardy in pursuing justice for Libya-IRA victims because it wanted trade with the north African nation post Colonel Gaddafi.
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

It is at least as likely, if not more likely, that this inaction was about not wanting to upset republicans.

After all, any discussion of the implications of the Libyan Semtex shipments to the IRA necessarily involves a reminder of that terrorist organisation’s brutal essence.

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Days ago it was the 37th anniversary of the grievous IRA crime of bombing a department store in the run-up to Christmas, Harrods, murdering six people.

Weeks ago it was the 33rd anniversary of the grievous IRA crime of bombing a remembrance day service in Enniskillen, murdering 12 people.

Successive UK governments, worst of all Tony Blair but the later Conservative administrations have been barely any better, have seemed determined that people should not be put in a position to dwell on the IRA’s blood soaked past.

After all, if both Labour governments and Tory ones show a determination above all to keep republicans in the political system, you can see why they might take this approach.

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They even let Irish governments lecture the UK over legacy cases which involve allegations against British authorities without ever saying anything about Irish extradition refusals, which were such a boon to the IRA.

It is a quite unforgivable state of affairs.

And with regard to Libya, nothing has changed. The betrayal of UK victims of Libyan sponsored IRA mass murder is all the more stark given that other countries such as America, which do not act in such a timid way, got compensation for their victims of Libya, including a US Harrods victim.

The government must release the findings of the Shawcross report into UK victims of Libya-IRA. And, now that a Gaddafi lieutenant, Abdullah al-Senussi, who is alleged to have helped supply Semtex, is in a Libyan jail, it will be telling, as victims groups have said, if UK tries to extradite him.

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