The campaign to make Libya pay compensation to victims of Tripoli-backed IRA terrorism will be put to officials from Col Muammar Gadafy's government in London today.
Democratic Unionist MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and Nigel Dodds are meeting diplomats at the Libyan Embassy in what the party is hailing as a potentially groundbreaking meeting.
The bid for multimillion pound damages has gained momentum in the last two months since the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds.
British rime Minister Gordon Brown has offered Foreign Office support to bereaved relatives who are hoping to travel to Tripoli to make their case in person. They are seeking compensation for Libya’s role in providing arms and explosives to the IRA during the Troubles.
A spokesman for the DUP, which has backed the families’ campaign, said today’s meeting was significant. “This is the first time the Libyans have agreed to meet parliamentarians on this specific issue,” he said. “It is groundbreaking. Jeffrey and Nigel will put putting the case to the diplomats in the clearest terms.”
The meeting comes amid a controversy at Stormont after it emerged that police officers in Northern Ireland have been sent to Tripoli to train their
counterparts in the north African country. Ian Paisley jnr, a DUP member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, approved the decision to send the first policeman out.
But yesterday his party leader, First Minister Peter Robinson, said the DUP would not tolerate any more officers from Northern Ireland travelling to Libya.
PA