Letter: Ken Keable

09.09.09.

Hypocrisy of compensation claim

WHAT HYPOCRISY we are hearing about the demand for Libya to compensate the IRA's victims. The Libyans would be well advised to mention a few facts that the British government doesn't want to hear.

Some victims were killed directly by British agents, others by their surrogates. British intelligence agencies have armed unionist paramilitaries, including Ulster Resistance, which was established by Ian Paisley.

British state agencies have also collaborated with unionist paramilitaries to bring illegal shipments of arms into Ireland, the most infamous of these being from the apartheid regime in South Africa. The late Brian Nelson, who was a member of the British army working under-cover as a loyalist paramilitary, killed a great many innocent Catholics with the full knowledge of his secret service handlers.

MI5 and the RUC Special Branch even permitted killings of police officers and soldiers to go ahead in order to protect their agents who were involved.

Relatives for Justice director Mark Thompson has released a statement in which he says:

"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."

Ken Keable, Stoke-sub-Hamdon, England