SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams has entered the debate over possible Libyan compensation for victims of IRA violence by accusing the British government of hypocrisy, saying that there must be “no hierarchy of victims”.
Campaigners seeking Libyan compensation yesterday welcomed what they described as British prime minister Gordon Brown’s “U-turn” on the issue. But Mr Adams contacted Downing Street and also Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward to complain about British government alleged collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.
William Frazer of Fair – Families Acting for Innocent Victims – who is helping drive the campaign for compensation over Libya’s supplying guns and explosives to the IRA, said they had succeeded in forcing Mr Brown to change his mind and offer support to the IRA victims’ families.
He said victims were pressing ahead with plans to travel to Libya later this month to negotiate face to face with the Libyan authorities.
While Col Gadafy’s son Saif al-Islam told Sky News that any compensation claims would be resisted, Mr Frazer and the families’ London solicitor, Jason McCue, who has represented the Omagh families, did not view this comment negatively.
They said they saw it as the effective opening of a negotiation process and an indication that “Libya is at least engaging with the issue”.
Callers to some BBC Radio Ulster talk shows said that the issue raised the question of whether Sinn Féin could also be sued because of the party’s links to the IRA. Sinn Féin rejected this, saying it was separate from the IRA.
Mr Adams said that it must be acknowledged that there were victims of British state violence, sometimes allegedly working in collusion with “unionist paramilitaries”, and these too were deserving of compensation.
He contacted Downing Street and Mr Woodward to make that point. “I told them there could be no hierarchy of victims. Sinn Féin would certainly support compensation for all victims.”
He said that successive British governments had adopted a “hypocritical stance” on victims, and this was compounded by Mr Woodward’s recent “dismissal” of the Eames-Bradley commission proposal for a £12,000 “acknowledgement payment to all victims”.
“Gordon Brown’s position is totally inconsistent but this is in keeping with London’s long-standing game-playing on this important matter,” he added.