Families of victims of IRA bombings have attacked the apparent “entente cordiale” between the British and Libyan governments expressed in the release of the Lockerbie bomber and called for compensation from Libya.
Lawyers for relatives of the 141 people killed by IRA action between 1983 and 1996 have already begun civil proceedings against Col Muammar Gadafy's government for Libya’s role in the terrorist campaign.
They blame Libyan authorities for supplying the Semtex explosives used at the height of the Provisional IRA’s campaign.
The head lawyer for the group, Jason McCue, who was involved in successful civil action against the men blamed for the 1998 Omagh bomb, said Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi’s return to Libya was “politically short sighted”.
“The entente cordiale with Libya appears to be indifferent to the sensibilities and legal rights of the victims of Libyan Semtex and, more generally, their human rights,” he said.
“The intended beneficiary of all this is Anglo-Libyan trade. It is politically short sighted of both governments and repugnant to the memories of the dead.”
Colin Parry, whose 12 year-old son Tim was killed in the IRA bombing of Warrington in 1993, criticised Westminster for failing to put pressure on Libya to compensate the victims of the IRA bombs.
“While the British government has been ready to meet the Libyan requests to free al Megrahi, its absence of demands for British victims of Libyan terror is stark by comparison,” he said.
“On a humanitarian basis, we lost loved ones and suffered greatly through the actions of the Libyan government. The Libyan government has fought for al Megrahi. Why can’t the British government fight for us?”
“A moment in time has arisen with the release of Megrahi for Libya to address the actions of the past, especially as it aspires to be a respected nation in the eyes of the world,” Mr Parry said.
He said an apology would not be enough and called on the Libyan leader to accept the compensation claim.
Megrahi, who was convicted of murdering 270 people in the 1988 Pan Am bombing, was freed from a Scottish jail last week on compassionate grounds - he is suffering from terminal cancer and is has only months to live.
PA