The article below is by the Irish republican party Sinn Fein president and member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for West Belfast Gerry Adams. Adams discusses the hypocrisy of British government demands for compensation over armed actions carried out by the Irish Republican Army, as part of its struggle for a united Ireland free from British control, in recent decades. It is abridged from .
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.
On September 7, I told Downing Street and British Secretary of State Shaun Woodward there could be no hierarchy of victims. All victims deserve compensation and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's position is totally inconsistent.
The role of the British state in killing citizens in Ireland in recent times is well documented. British intelligence agencies also armed unionist paramilitaries [supporting continued British rule of the six counties in Ireland's north] and provided information leading to countless deaths.
In the early 1970s, the British killed Catholics and Protestants, and carried out actions, including bombings, using surrogate groups.
Unionist paramilitaries carried out a campaign of killings against Catholics. They were supplied with information by British intelligence.
One of the first people to be recruited by British intelligence was former British soldier, Brian Nelson. Two years later, he was appointed an intelligence officer in unionist paramilitary, the UDA. British intelligence helped him in this role.
Nelson's house and car were paid for by the British and he was given £200 a week expenses.
In 1985, Nelson was sent to apartheid South Africa to get weapons.
Dick Wright, an agent for the South African arms manufacturer Armscor, offered armaments in return for missile parts or plans obtained from the huge military production plant in East Belfast.
In 1988, a model of the Javelin missile system was stolen from the plant and a Blowpipe missile went missing.
In 1989, three members of Ulster Resistance were arrested in Paris during a meeting with a South African diplomat and an arms dealer.
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.
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.
Brown's position is totally inconsistent but in keeping with London's longstanding game-playing on this important matter.
Another example is Woodward's recent dismissal of the Eames/Bradley Commission proposal for an acknowledgement payment to all victims.
The fact is the British government is a player in all of these issues. It was one of the combatant forces in the conflict in Ireland. It is not and cannot pretend to be a neutral referee.