UK urged to use tax from frozen Libya funds to compensate IRA victims' families

Long-delayed report recommends directing funds to bereaved relatives affected by Qaddafi-sponsored terrorism

Three-year-old Johnathan Ball, left, and Tim Parry, 12, died in bomb blasts in Warrington, England, in 1993, for which the Provisional IRA claimed responsibility. PA

Victims of attacks by the Irish Republican Army using explosives and weapons supplied by Libya should be compensated using tax raised from income generated by the country’s frozen assets, a report in the UK has concluded.

The suggestion was made in an internal report carried out by Sir William Shawcross which was handed to British government ministers five years ago. Campaigners lobbied for the report, commissioned by the previous Conservative government, to be made public. Its executive summary has now been released.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime supported the IRA, including providing arms and ammunition, millions of dollars in finance, military training and explosives.

It included several shipments of Semtex, a highly powerful, malleable and almost undetectable plastic explosive. The use of Semtex supplied by Libya has been directly linked to the deaths of at least 18 people and the injury of at least 190 more in IRA terrorist attacks.

Among the atrocities, two children were killed and 54 injured in bomb blasts in Warrington, north-west England, in 1993, for which the Provisional IRA claimed responsibility, having loaded litter bins with Semtex provided by Libya.

Libyan assets estimated at between $40 billion and $200 billion were frozen by the UN in 2011 after Qaddafi was toppled and have been subject to sanctions ever since.

Muammar Qaddafi’s regime provided extensive support for the IRA. Reuters

Victims have for several years been calling for tax generated by the assets to be used for compensation and lobbying for Mr Shawcross’s report to be made public.

In the executive summary, the former chairman of the Charity Commission said it “is time to draw a line” on Libya’s backing for the IRA as “the pain and suffering of the victims is real and harrowing”.

“It has been compounded by the length of time this matter has been under discussion and that victims have waited for the redress they believe is due to them, partly because they have been encouraged in that belief,” he wrote.

Under the terms of the UN sanctions, the frozen assets and interest accrued cannot be used for compensation, Mr Shawcross said. He concluded the most straightforward way of getting funds to victims is to divert the tax collected on income and gains instead.

An IRA Semtex bomb in the Docklands area of east London killed two people in February 1996. PA via Getty Images

But he added this “will probably be insufficient” and “other sources of government funding will probably be required”.

The UK's Northern Ireland Affairs Committee found in 2017 that victims of IRA attacks using Libyan weapons had received limited support and may not have been aware compensation was available.

The MPs recommended the government release clear information on any tax collected from the £9.5 billion ($12.7 billion) of frozen Libyan assets in Britain.

Successive Conservative governments said it was the responsibility of Libya's government to compensate victims of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism supported by Qaddafi and it would not fund a scheme using public finances for that reason.

Mr Shawcross was appointed special representative on UK victims of Qaddafi-sponsored terrorism with a remit to assess how Libya could provide recompense.

Semtex, a deadly plastic explosive supplied regularly by Libya to the IRA. PA

Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, chairman of the Libyan-IRA Terrorism Victims’ Parliamentary Support Group, said the report is “a landmark in the long and painful journey for justice by the victims”, albeit one that will “undoubtedly reopen old wounds”.

“The absolute need to utilise taxation on frozen assets to issue overdue compensation has been the long-standing position of our group,” he said. “The campaign was consistently told by consecutive governments that such a solution would be unworkable, illegitimate and even unlawful.

“Today, we discover that this was in fact one of the potential options highlighted by Sir William in the internal report commissioned by and for the government," Mr Rosindell added.

“The sense of duplicity will undoubtedly be a challenge for victims and their families, as they recognise that their suffering could have been partly ameliorated many years ago if successive governments had only listened to their own advice.”