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Victims to sue Qadhafi over IRA bombs

Henry McDonald

American court case targets Libya for supplying explosives that killed or maimed U.K. victims.

VICTIMS OF Irish Republican Army atrocities are to sue Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi and his Government in what their lawyers say is the largest-ever civil action involving terrorism in the U.K.

Survivors of the attacks and relatives of those killed, both from the U.K. and abroad, are seeking millions of pounds in compensation and an apology from Libya through courts in the United States. They claim that for more than three decades Libya supplied war material that left their relatives dead or themselves scarred, physically and psychologically, for life.

Michelle Williamson, 40, whose parents Gillian and George were killed by the 1993 bomb in a fish shop on Belfast's Shankill Road, said: "Libya can't wash its hands of responsibility. It's like the pub owner who knowingly supplies drink to a customer in the knowledge that he or she is going to drive home drunk. If that driver kills someone, then the person who plied him or her with drink bears some responsibility."

Mark McDonald, 55, an oceanographer from Colorado, was peppered with shrapnel by an IRA bomb outside Harrods in west London in 1983. "I see this action as part of making the world safer because it might make other states thinking of sponsoring terrorism think again," he said.

Lawyers for the IRA victims say papers will be filed in New York or Washington D.C. for a "spearhead group" of around 20 plaintiffs. Victims' groups hope hundreds more people from Northern Ireland, Britain, the U.S., and beyond will join the class action, which targets Libya and named individuals. Lawyers say up to 6,000 people were killed or injured with Libyan-supplied guns and explosives during the Troubles.

Among the individuals accused are Col. Qadhafi himself and Nasser Ali Ashour, who in the mid-1980s was third in command of Libyan intelligence and allegedly liased directly with republican leaders including the South Armagh smuggler and former IRA chief of staff, Thomas `Slab' Murphy. Col. Qadhafi sent five huge arms shipments — enough to supply at least two infantry battalions — to the IRA in the 1980s. Stung by Margaret Thatcher's logistical support for U.S. air strikes against Libya, Col. Qadhafi sent the IRA enough guns and explosives to wage war against Britain well into the 21st century.

Jason McCue, who is heading the case for the London-based legal firm H20, said: "Libya sponsored the IRA. The IRA utilised their help to foster their terrorist campaign. Innocent people who got caught up in that campaign suffered dreadful losses.

"Libya has paid compensation to the victims of Lockerbie. It is currently being sued for sponsoring Middle East terrorism. It is time they addressed the victims of the IRA."

H20 is hoping victims of bombings such as those at Canary Wharf and in Manchester will join the class action in America.

A spokesman for the Libyan embassy in London said on Saturday that the consul was unavailable for comment. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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