The value of Libyan assets frozen by the British authorities has risen to £12 billion but it cannot be used to compensate victims of IRA attacks involving Libyan-supplied Semtex, MPs have heard.
Foreign office minister Alistair Burt told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that parts of the fund had underperformed the market because of international restrictions.
Mr Burt told the committee that his government’s policy was to support victims’ efforts to win compensation from Libya but not to pursue them as a state policy.
The US, Germany and France negotiated financial settlements with Muammar Gadafy’s regime to compensate victims of terrorist groups he supported. But Britain’s Labour government did not negotiate any such settlement and Libya has descended into chaos since the western powers toppled Gadafy.
MPs criticised the government’s approach, which the DUP’s Ian Paisley described as “treading water” and taking no action in support of the victims.
“That just confirms my view that nothing is going to happen and victims are going to die,” Mr Paisley said.
IRA attacks using Libyan-supplied Semtex included the Harrods bombing in 1983, which killed six people and injured 90; the Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen in 1987, which killed 11 people and injured 63; the Warrington bombing in 1993, which killed two children and injured dozens; and London’s docklands bombing in 1996, which killed two people and injured more than 100.
