Ulster Unionist MP Danny Kinahan, has said that successive UK Governments have failed victims of Libyan sponsored IRA terrorism.
Mr Kinahan, who sits on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, was commenting after the Committee published its report into Government support for UK victims of Gadaffi sponsored IRA terrorism.
The South Antrim MP said:
“The Gaddafi regime, through supplying finance, weapons and semtex to the IRA for a 25 year period, bears its share of responsibility for the death and injury inflicted on many victims.
“As the Committee’s report as documented, the UK Government has failed victims by not securing compensation from Libya, unlike the American, French and German governments when their citizens fell victim to terrorism sponsored by the Libyan state.
“While the report has suggested the most preferable option is to secure compensation in a voluntary agreement with Libya, if this is not possible the Government must establish its own reparations fund, preferably using some of the £9.5 billion of Gaddafi-linked frozen assets in the United Kingdom to finance it.
“I, along with my Party colleagues Lord Empey, Tom Elliott MP and other supportive MPs and Peers, have on numerous occasions met with Ministers and officials, pushing for this course of action. To date the Government has appeared very reluctant to go down this path.
“The UK Government has missed opportunities in the past to secure compensation, it must now act to recognise the victims of IRA terrorism and Libya’s role in their suffering.”