02/11/2009

Libya Talks On IRA Funding Continue

There may be a deal in sight on compensation for victims of IRA violence that was bankrolled by Libya.

Things are hotting up in the Arab state as talks continued this afternoon between a delegation of UK politicians and Libyan authorities.

While bereaved relatives seeking compensation from the Libyan government - which supplied arms and explosives to the IRA terrorists - last week scotched reports that a compensation deal had 'already been done' with Colonel Gaddafi, Libya's leader, things are today looking more positive.

According to a DUP spokesman, MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and Nigel Dodds will take part in further scheduled meetings, where they will be making a strong case for the thousands of victims of IRA terrorism.

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

Since arriving in the north African state, discussions have been held with the Libyan minister for Europe, Abdulati Alobidi, and the British Ambassador in Libya, Vincent Fean.

Meetings were also convened with the Speaker of the General People's Congress of Libya and the Mayor of Tripoli.

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 Muammar Gaddafi are thought to stretch back as far as 1972, and Libya is understood to have supplied the republican group with Czech-made Semtex in the 1980s.

See: 'No Deal' On Libya Terror Compensation

(BMcC/KMcA)

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