Rodney Edwards | Fermanagh TV: Enniskillen Bomb Victim Jim Dixon says Libya has to “pay a price”
After intense pressure, Gordon Brown has been forced to pledge Government support for IRA victims seeking compensation from Libya.
For several years from 1985, Libya shipped Semtex and arms to the IRA. It is believed Semtex was used in a series of IRA atrocities, including the Enniskillen Bomb in 1987.
Lawyers acting for the IRA victims want the Prime Minister to demand Libyans secure a US-style scheme for victims of terror attacks such as the Poppy Day atrocity in Fermanagh where eleven people were killed and over 60 injured.
Libya had already paid out $2.7 billion (now £1.6 billion) to families of victims of the bombing of the Pan Am jet over Lockerbie in which 270 died.
Enniskillen Bomb sufferer Jim Dixon, who was the most seriously injured person to survive the blast, says Libya has to “pay a price.”
“People refer to it rather crudely as money, but if you commit a crime, you go before the justice and there is a charge made against you. In this case it was the crime of supplying arms and bomb equipment to the IRA.”
“There is a charge against the Libyan Government for what they’ve done and they have to pay a price. If you go to court and you see justice being done it helps to resolve the hurt that you had. If [Muammar] Gaddafi is forced to admit what he’s done wrong and pay reparation for that, then that is justice.”
Mr. Dixon says he has never lived “an hour without pain” since the tragedy.
“The memories are horrific. To be caught up in a bomb is something I couldn’t even describe; the fear and trauma that I went through is indescribable.
“I had a number of fractures in my skull, the bone-cages at the back of my eyes disintegrated in my head – the surgeon told me my eyeballs were sitting down on my cheeks. The roof of my mouth was blown out. I had brain damage, my face was paralysed, my tongue was 80% paralysed, I had a nine-inch gash up the right hand side of my face were my jaw was - part of my jaw was missing. I had ribs broken; my pelvis was broken in three places. My legs smashed.”
“I was told by doctors that I wouldn’t survive the bomb, but I did.”
By Niall McCracken and Rodney Edwards for fermanagh.tv