Libya revolution shows true Spirit of East End comes through

Dear Ed... We victims of the IRA South Quay terrorist outrage in 1996 express our gratitude to those in the East End who have supported the people of Libya, with the events unfolding during the past weeks, and for supporting the victims of Gaddafi’s Semtex IRA bombs.

The IRA detonated a massive bomb 15 years ago outside Newstop-2000 newsagent’s at South Quay DLR station packed with Semtex supplied by Gaddafi and his evil regime. This appalling act of terrorism killed Inam Bashir and John Jeffries and severely injured many innocent people in the IRA’s attempt to destroy our community.

Gaddafi finally acknowledged in 2005, nine years later, that his regime supplied Semtex to facilitate IRA atrocities in the UK, including the outrage at South Quay.

He agreed to pay compensation to IRA victims who held US passports, but arrogantly not UK citizens.

We eventually managed to force the Labour government to provide Foreign Office support for all the IRA victims and their families. This was an astonishing achievement as the government had initially refused to help us and appeared more interested in securing lucrative trade contracts with Gaddafi’s evil regime.

But due to the Libyan uprising and the people’s desire for freedom, we immediately ceased negotiations for compensation with Gaddafi’s regime. We also protested at the Libyan embassy as a show of solidarity with the Libyan people and I am grateful for all those who joined us.

Our campaign has received a letter from the chairman of the Libya’s National Transitional Council, Mustafa Jalil, to help all victims of Gaddafi-sponsored terrorism.

I feel proud of the East End community’s support for the people of Libya against Gaddafi and his evil regime.

Jonathan Ganesh

Docklands IRA Victims’ Association

Three Colt Street

Limehouse