LONDON: Libya will refuse to pay compensation to the families of people killed by Irish republican bombs they say were made using Libyan-supplied explosives, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi said.
Seif Al-Islam said Libya would fight any claims in the courts, putting him at odds with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who said he would support the compensation claims.
“Anybody can knock at our door and ask for money. But you go to the court, we have lawyers,” Seif told Sky News.” British lawyer Jason McCue, who represents the families of Irish Republican Army (IRA) victims, said he was prepared to take the compensation claims to court, but hoped a deal could be reached without legal action.
“Everyone realizes in litigation that a settlement is the best way to go and I am sure Libya will realize that is the best way for Anglo-Libyan relations,” he told BBC radio.
The families say they have evidence that Libyan-supplied explosives were used in a string of IRA attacks, including the 1987 blast at a remembrance day service that killed 11 people in the town of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, the Sunday Times reported.
“The fact is, if the Libyans hadn’t provided the IRA with the Semtex, my son would be alive today,” said peace activist Colin Parry, one of more than 150 litigants in the case first filed in US courts in 2006 and currently in limbo. Parry’s 12-year-old son and a 3-year-old boy were killed when the IRA bombed a shopping district in Warrington, northwest England, in February 1993.
The Libyan shipments also helped the IRA carry out the 1996 bombing that devastated the center of Manchester, northern England, and several explosions in London, the Times added.
The British government says Libya shipped weapons in the 1980s and 1990s to guerrillas fighting to end British rule of Northern Ireland. A boat, the Eksund, was seized off the French coast in 1987 and found to be carrying weapons for the IRA.
Britain’s improving relations with Libya have come under close scrutiny after the early release of a former Libyan agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing in which 270 people were killed.
The United States condemned the decision to free Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi and Brown’s opponents have questioned whether he pressured the Scottish government to release him in order to help Britain’s business interests, a charge he denies.
Britain’s opposition Conservatives accused Brown of caving in to public pressure to support the IRA victims’ families after initially saying the government would not directly engage with Libya on the arms issue.
Brown’s spokesman denied there had been a government U-turn and said officials would “facilitate not negotiate” in the compensation process.
Brown said he would provide “dedicated” Foreign Office staff to assist victims and their lawyers in their fight for compensation.
Diplomats at the British Embassy in Tripoli would also accompany and advise the group when they traveled to Libya in coming weeks to seek direct talks with Qaddafi on the issue, he said. “We are taking what action we believe is necessary to support the families in the difficult but necessary attempt to represent themselves with the Libyan authorities,” he said.
Seif accused politicians in the United States and Britain of “disgusting behavior” over the Lockerbie case. “They are trying to use this human tragedy ... for their own political agenda,” he told Sky News. “It is completely immoral.” With a British election due within a year, politicians have used the case to advance their own cause, Seif added.
The row over ties with Libya, coupled with a rising death toll in Afghanistan, has made for a turbulent return to work for Brown after his summer holiday.
