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Victims group to take action against government ministers
By Barry McCaffrey

A NATIONALIST victims' group has signalled its intention to take an Omagh-style civil action against senior British government ministers in connection to state killings of unarmed civilians.
The Relatives For Justice (RFJ) victims' group say they will ask for government funding, similar to the £800,000 which the Omagh families were given to take their civil action against the Real IRA, to fund their case.
Earlier this week the Omagh families won a £1.6 million landmark civil action against the Real IRA and four dissident republicans identified as having been involved in the August 1998 car bomb attack which killed 29 people and two unborn children.
The Omagh families' legal victory is seen as having major implications for those who have been injured in other atrocities around the world.
In 2003, the British government passed the Access to Justice legislation to allow it to give the Omagh families £800,000 to help fund the £2 million needed to take their legal action.
The government was later forced to amend the legislation after a court ruled that the decision had been unlawful.
While the Omagh families retained their government funding, the five dissidents named in the action also received legal aid for their defence. However, RFJ director Mark
Thompson yesterday confirmed that his group now intends to seek similar government funding to bring civil action against a number of former government ministers and Ministry of Defence (MoD) chiefs in connection with the state killing of a number of unarmed citizens.
If successful, the case would be highly unusual in that it would use government funding to take a civil action against former government ministers.
Confirming that plans for a civil action were now at an advanced stage, the RFJ director said: "We watched the Omagh case closely and were informed that we had to wait for its conclusion before we could consider launching our own civil case.
"We intend taking a civil action against a number of government ministers and senior MoD officials who we believe were involved in formulating policies and actions which directly led to the murder of innocent citizens, both nationalist and unionist."
Questioned whether the case could expect the same level of government funding received by the Omagh families, Mr Thompson said: "We would not expect there to be any disparity between the financial assistance afforded to the Omagh families and the victims of state violence.
"The legislation is supposed to give all victims access to justice and that is something we are now determined to pursue fully."