http://www.smh.com.au/world/libyan-34b-for-victims-of-weapons-sold-to-ira-20100613-y659.html
Libyan $3.4b for victims of weapons sold to IRA PAOLA TOTARO HERALD CORRESPONDENT June 14, 2010 LONDON: Libya has agreed to pay about £2 billion ($3.4 billion) in compensation to the victims of Irish terrorism who were killed or maimed by weapons and explosives shipped to the Irish Republican Army during the Troubles. The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has agreed to the payments and £800 million will be paid first to the 147 families of men and women caught in blasts created by the plastic explosive Semtex. However, Libya has insisted it will not accept or acknowledge specific liability, meaning potentially thousands affected by the IRA's campaign in the 1980s and 1990s could come forward with claims. The compensation deal, confirmed by The Sunday Times, forms a key part of a trade breakthrough between Britain and Libya, with Colonel Gaddafi now presumed to present the deal as a type of goodwill gesture and part of discussions. The negotiations suddenly returned to life late last year when the same newspaper revealed that the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, had refused to champion the victims' claims against Libya for fear of harming trade with the oil-rich, strategically placed north African nation. The move is now being seen as a chance for Colonel Gaddafi to make a big gesture towards the victims, allowing the resumption of business and diplomatic ties with Britain. Libya supplied the IRA with huge amounts of weaponry and explosives in the 1980s, dramatically transforming its capacity to wreak violence. Four separate shipments of arms are known to have made their way from Libya to Ireland in the mid-1980s, providing the IRA with about 1000 AK-47 assault rifles, heavy machineguns, anti-aircraft guns, missiles and flame-throwers. However, the deadliest part of the Libyan armoury was the hugely powerful plastic explosive Semtex, which was easy to hide and inflicted enormous damage even in small quantities. The IRA used it in booby traps, grenades, rockets, mortars and roadside bombs. In some cases, it was placed in a simple coffee jar and managed to penetrate armoured vehicles. These are now known as improvised explosive devices and are proving as dangerous in Afghanistan as they did in Northern Ireland. It was widely accepted that Colonel Gaddafi was not motivated by sympathy for the IRA so much as the desire to harm Britain as much as possible. The US government could also add £314 million to the compensation payments if it agrees to co-operate. This money is left over from $US1.5 billion ($1.75 billion) paid in a compensation package for American victims of Libyan-sponsored terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988. Families then received more than £5 million each and it is suggested that similar amounts can be paid to US victims of the IRA, or Irish-born casualties who moved to the US. Briefings on the deal are to be held on Wednesday, just one day after publication of the report on the Bloody Sunday atrocity, in which British soldiers gunned down 13 Catholic demonstrators in 1972. The 5000-page report has cost £190 million and taken 12 years to produce.
