Victim's plea before Libya-IRA compensation Westminster debate

Docklands Victims Association president Jonathan Ganesh claimed a number of victims have taken their own lives or attempted suicide due to the lack of support from successive UK governments.

Mr Ganesh said: “For over a decade GB victims of Gaddafi/IRA Semtex have had to continuously fight to gain equality due to the lack of support from successive UK governments.”

He said American victims of Semtex explosives supplied by Colonel Gaddafi received “substantial compensation” following the Libyan Claims Resolution Act 2008 in the United States. He claimed French and German victims had also been compensated.

The victims’ campaigner, who was injured in the London Docklands bombing in 1996, said: “It was immoral for Her Majesty’s Government not to fight for its victims as their lack of action devalued the life of every UK citizen.

“In addition to their lack of concern it was preposterous for many of the victims to be told that they should resolve this matter by themselves as they considered this to be a private issue.

“Due to the suffering of the victims during this campaign, a number of them have sadly committed suicide or attempted suicide due to the stress caused, we feel, by Her Majesty’s Government.”

Listed under ‘Backbench Business’ the Westminster debate takes place on Thursday. It will see MPs Laurence Robertson, Jim Fitzpatrick and Andrew Rosindell campaign for the government to “take steps to obtain the required international authority to use a proportion of the assets of the Libyan government that were frozen in the UK to compensate the relatives of people murdered and injured as a result of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism and to fund community support programmes in areas affected by that terrorism”.

UUP peer Lord Reg Empey first proposed the Asset Freezing (Compensation) Bill at Parliament last June.

The bill hopes to secure a percentage of Colonel Gaddafi’s UK-based assets, confirmed by the UK Treasury in 2016 to be worth an estimated £9.5billion, to help the victims in the UK.

In his letter sent to all sitting MPs calling for their support, Mr Ganesh said: “The IRA used Gaddafi’s immoral support to bring widespread pain and suffering to the UK in attacks such as Harrods, Bishopsgate, Baltic Exchange, Aldwych, Manchester, Grand Hotel Brighton, London Docklands, Warrington and Enniskillen.

“As a victim of terror I can confirm that terrorism is undoubtedly the biggest threat to humanity we face today. However, as a result of this campaign, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to make a principled stand for all victims of terror.”