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Belfast Telegraph
Malachi O'Doherty: Politicians miss out on Gadaffi millions for victims of violence


By Malachi O'Doherty
featureseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

15 September 2003
SUDDENLY, when it is too late, there is a campaign to exact compensation from Libya for the victims of their proxy bombers in the IRA and Real IRA.

It is too late because the heel on Gadaffi's neck has been lifted. The UN has removed sanctions imposed since mass murder over Lockerbie.

The time to get an additional claim in against Libya was last week, when the French lodged theirs and made demands that were met.

Ian Paisley, jnr., was the first to notice that thousands of people in Northern Ireland might have a legitimate claim that they are victims of Libyan terrorism too, that Colonel Gadaffi has more blood to answer for in Ireland and England than in a dozen Lockerbies.

But there was no chance that on Thursday night the UN would take sudden notice of that. No, it would have taken somebody to raise the issue months ago and nobody did. It would have taken a loud voice in the US and the UN to do that.

If whinging about Libyan support for the IRA was to be more than gestural politics and converted into real action that would achieve real benefit for victims, then someone should have copped on to the issue earlier and driven it forward tactically. Instead, all we have is blather.

Suppose, Mr Paisley had worked on this for a year, what might he have done to land big money for victims in Northern Ireland?

First, he may have had to make alliances with people who are not the natural allies of the DUP. But that's politics.

He could have gone to see Nelson Mandela and asked for his support. He could have explained that the injection of Libyan weaponry into the IRA probably deferred the peace process by a decade.

But that would have been a hard argument for Mr Paisley to make since he doesn't believe in the integrity of the peace process at all.

But Mr Mandela does, and it would have been helpful to speak his language.

Another valuable person to meet would have been Mary Robinson. She is at the heart of the UN. She is Irish. She has compassion for the victims of violence everywhere and she has the legal brain that could have mapped the course forward.

But there is one person who could have saved Mr Paisley all that trouble and travel; one man who could had the clout to win US support for the extension of the claim against Libya to cover the victims of Libya Semtex in Ireland and England.

Tony Blair's credit with the US in their "war on terror" is so high that he could have probably got all the support he needed with a single phone call.

George Bush would not have refused him. Was Mr Blair asked? Did the idea occur to him at all?

Without Gadaffi's Semtex the IRA could not have trashed Canary Wharf and the heart of Manchester. Would the city council in Manchester or the chamber of commerce there not have appreciated a cut of the billions that Gadaffi was ready to fork out to have sanctions lifted? Did the idea not occur to them either?

Mr Blair must not have wanted a claim against Libya for the victims of the IRA. Perhaps he felt that it would unsettle the peace process to so embarrass republicans. No one was on the case. Still, he could have delivered enormous credit into the lap of the political party which urged the claim.

Could the DUP have met his terms for that credit? Maybe not. But if they are of a mind to make a painful political compromise then surely the sight of one of the Paisleys bringing money for the victims and humiliating Sinn Fein on the world stage would have sweetened the moment for them.

The Ulster Unionists could have run with this, exposed the IRA's links with Gadaffi and landed a massive prize for victims. The Ulster Unionist Council would have washed David Trimble's feet.

The SDLP would probably have regarded it as mischief making to raise the issue but what a mission for John Hume that would have been.

Perhaps Mr Blair felt it would all just be too complicated: it would not seem fair to compensate victims of the IRA with huge sums of money and refuse it to other victims of violence.

There might have been unseemly arguments about who was killed by Libyan weaponry and who was not.

The dead of Enniskillen and Omagh were; the dead of Bloody Friday and La Mon were not.

Still, Gadaffi could have been strong-armed last week into giving a billion pounds to a fund for the victims of violence in Northern Ireland, violence to which he contributed more than anybody, and the moment was lost.

What marvellous politicians we have!

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