September 2009:
The controversy about Libya and Britain and
the role of state terrorism during the conflict in the North of Ireland
Speaking in response to news that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to now back families affected during the
conflict by weapons allegedly supplied to the IRA by Libya in their compensation bid against Libya Relatives for
Justice Director Mark Thompson released the following statement:
Statement from Relatives for Justice
"This only underlines the urgent need for a comprehensive truth commission in which victims and survivors of all
aspects of political violence can have truth, accountability and reparations as a final outcome.
The Libyan factor is only one of a series of issues to be addressed. It is complex in that evidence exists which
has previously revealed that Britain's security agencies, MI5 and RUC Special Branch, had prior knowledge of planned
attacks using these weapons yet permitted these actions to go ahead in order to protect agents. Many of these
permitted actions involved the killings of ordinary policemen, policewomen and British soldiers as well as civilians.
So where does culpability morally and legally exist? Many would say with Whitehall and Downing St.
Additionally the role of the British government intelligence services in arming and directing loyalism, the running
of scores of agents that were involved in widespread killings, and the deliberate failings of the criminal justice
in providing impunity to state agents thus facilitating policies of shoot-to-kill and collusion must equally be
examined. The double standards and hypocrisy surrounding these issues need to finally end. Gordon Brown needs to
acknowledge the role of the British government and facilitate a truth commission.
We need to examine the nature, causes and extent of the conflict. This can only happen via an independent
and international truth commission.
We have been in contact with the Libyan Embassy in London concerning these matters and whilst empathetic with
those currently seeking compensation nevertheless expressed our hopes that any intention to pay compensation
must be linked to a proper examination of all these issues through an international and independent truth
commission. Until then we have urged the Libyan Government to withhold any payments in the wider interests
of truth and justice for all those affected by the conflict throughout the island of Ireland. Also in
establishing who is really culpable, the easy way out is to only point the finger at Libya." ENDS
>>>> Website of Relatives for Justice
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams: British stance hypocritical
The demand for compensation from the Libyan government for victims of IRA actions, in which it is claimed Libyan
armaments were used, and the British government’s role in this, is the cause of some controversy. Interestingly
little of this controversy has focused on the inappropriateness of any British government making or supporting such
a demand of any other government, given Downing Street’s war crimes in Ireland.
I would certainly support compensation for all victims. This has to include the victims of British state violence
and collusion. On Monday morning I spoke to Downing Street and to the British Secretary of State Shaun Woodward
about this. I told them there could be no hierarchy of victims; that all victims deserve compensation and that
Mr. Brown’s position is totally inconsistent.
No one should be surprised by the hypocritical stance of successive British governments on this issue. The role of
the British state in killing citizens in Ireland in recent times is well documented. Apart from killings by state
forces British intelligence agencies also armed unionist paramilitaries, including Ulster Resistance, which was
established by the DUP, and provided the information which led to countless deaths.
All of this was part of a British government directed strategy which has its roots in British involvement in
other conflicts. The tactics employed in collusion were drawn from decades of British experience in fighting
colonial wars elsewhere. But it was the writings and work of Brigadier (later General Sir) Frank Kitson which
refined its use in Ireland. Kitson was the British Army’s foremost expert on counter-insurgency.
He rationalised the use of death squads and the corruption of justice: ‘Everything done by a government and
its agents in combating insurgency must be legitimate. But this does not mean that the government must work
within exactly the same set of laws during an emergency as existed beforehand. The law should be used as just
another weapon in the government’s arsenal, in which case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for
the disposal of unwanted members of the public.’
In the early 1970’s the British killed Catholics and Protestants and carried out actions, including bombings, using
surrogate groups. The UDA, which remained a legal organisation for almost 20 years, and the UVF, carried out
a campaign of killings against Catholics. They were supplied with information by the British intelligence
agencies, including files, photographs and details of cars and movements.
One of the first people to be recruited by British intelligence was loyalist Brian Nelson a former British soldier.
Two years later he was appointed the UDA’s Intelligence Officer in its West Belfast Brigade. Later in 1987 he became
the UDA Senior Intelligence Officer. British intelligence helped him to update his intelligence files.
Nelson’s house and car were paid for by the British and he was given £200 a week expenses.
In the summer of 1985 Nelson was sent to apartheid South Africa to get weapons. To finance the trip the UDA, UVF and
Ulster Resistance carried out a bank robbery on the Northern Bank in Portadown, which netted £325,000 which was then
used to purchase a shipment of arms. It consisted of 200 AK47 automatic rifles, 90 Browning pistols, 500 fragmentation
grenades, ammunition and 12 RPG rocket launchers...
In the three years after the South African shipment unionist paramilitaries killed 224 citizens and wounded
countless scores more. One of these was Pat Finucane, a human rights lawyer who was shot dead in February
1989 at his home in north Belfast.
In dealing with the issues of truth and victims all of these matters must be open to scrutiny. This blog has
no problem with campaigns for governments to pay compensation. But that has to include the British government.
Gordon Brown’s position is totally inconsistent but this is in keeping with London’s longstanding game playing
on this important matter ...
The fact is the British government is a player in all of these issues. It was one of the combatant forces
in the conflict and is not and cannot be, or pretend to be, an objective or neutral referee ...
>>>> Gerry Adams' blog (September 7, 2009)
Foto: Gerry Adams, An Phoblacht (September 10, 2009)
