Libya may pay billions to IRA victims

Libya may pay IRA victims billions of pounds for its role in supplying the group with arms.

Yesterday, a Sunday newspaper claimed that Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was to offer about 2bn in payouts.

His move comes after a delegation of MPs visited the North African country last November.

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The cross-party group of three MPs and three members of the Lords met officials from Colonel Gaddafi's rgime to discuss the continuing bid to secure financial redress for Libya's role in arming the republican paramilitaries during the Troubles.

Semtex explosives supplied by Libya were one of the IRA's most lethal weapons in its decades-long terror campaign.

Links between the IRA and Colonel Gaddafi are thought to go back as far as 1972, and Libya is understood to have supplied the Republican group with Czech-made Semtex in the 1980s, as well as thousands of rifles, small arms and flame throwers.

Yesterday, the Foreign Office would not be drawn on claims that a trade deal between the UK and Libya was expected to be part of the settlement.

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A Foreign Office spokeswoman said a unit was established last September to provide a "facilitation, logistical and general advisory role" to campaigners seeking compensation, with support from the UK Embassy in Tripoli.

She added: "The Government is sympathetic to the suffering of the victims and their legitimate attempts to seek redress.

"We believe success is best achieved by direct contacts, which we have helped establish, between the campaign and the Libyan authorities."

As the campaign is private, she said it was inappropriate to give any further details.

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