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Show Sunday, October 13, 19 THE DAILY HERALD, Prove, I Uh Pag tion plan may be FOiongin N. Ireland conflict Oomp By SHAWN POGATCHNIK Associated Press Writer Insuring Northern BELFAST, Northern Ireland ;rAfter a summer of riots and I destruction, the people of Northern Ireland are picking up the pieces '. and British taxpayers are pick-- ; ing up the check. ' Some people are wondering whether the government, by cover-- ; ing the tab for Northern Ireland's : "troubles," actually helps keep them going at a perversely accept- l able level. Since the Irish Republican Army began trying to bomb the heart out of Northern Ireland in the early 970s as part of its campaign against British rule, the government has countered by insuring almost everything against terrorism, riots and thuggery. It has paid out more than $1.2 I billion to businesses, home owners and motorists, accounting for a critical chunk of economic activity in this land of 900.000 Protestants and 650,000 Roman Catholics. The had peace process promised to cut this bill. But then collision the of Protestant marchers. Catholic protesters and riot police in July caused more than $30 million in wrecked prop- Ireland Sine vtotann tat sscatetsd in ffw Northwn Ireland in Bw 1970s, tw British government has mured simos eventwig against terrorism, riots and txiggery. Mora twn $12 Mfesn later, enbes wonder I the poScy hasrrl compounded tm fxobtem. t1y 120 fiscal ym ndtng Msrenai Millions of pounds 100 Total cost ot criminal damage and injuries 1 ; 1 20 0 Brrtisn compensation lor criminal damage 1980VB9 1969-7- '90-9- 25 miles North Atlantic Ocean Londonderry IRELAND' Lough J CT ,agh NORTHERN IRELAND Belfast Armagh Newry e, d, never-realize- The right peop The ng ht pari The riahf mice u d; ""v erty. Critics say the government's offer to reimburse all damage exceeding 200 pounds ($300) per claim makes Northern Ireland residents less likely to move from hard-lin- e positions that underpin the conflict. But they see no moral alternative. "It is perverse, but nonetheless true, that the government's compensation scheme has provided a big cushion against the realities of the Northern Ireland situation," said Eddie Moxon-Browna longtime Belfast resident and director of the peace studies program at the University of Limerick in southwestern Ireland. That cushion, and a heavy security presence of one soldier or police officer for every 50 residents, condition people to the idea that Northern Ireland may periodically blow up but never really spiral into a civil war. "The fact that the British army is in Northern Ireland in such numbers holds the ring between the two communities and it always has said. done," Moxon-Brown- e "Some say, 'Why not withdraw and let the two fight it out?' That would allow the d civil war to take matter what the IRA does. It's clearly had a major impact." Without compensation, many people would be reluctant to buy new cars, but Northern Ireland has more new cars per capita than anywhere else in Britain or Ireland. Developers of Belfast's new! $50 million concert hall, riverside Hilton hotel and assorted suburban supermarkets now under construction probably would never have started. David Robinson, a loan adjuster contracted by the government to assess claims since the early 1970s, has little time for the argument that the system contributes to Northern Ireland's inflexible politics. "At the end of the day, people see me as the person with the checkbook," he said. "The system keeps this whole society from collapsing. It makes things better, not worse." Along north Belfast's Shore Road, Robinson stopped to read the ruins: a Protestant church hall, a Catholic priest's home and a Catholic primary school, all a gas station ransacked by rioters; a Catholic senior citizen's house with smashed windows. Robinson's biggest client from the latest outbreak of violence is the near hotel Killyhevlin Enniskillen. It was ruined by a 1,200-poun- d jeep bomb in July. No one claimed responsibility for the damage, which Robinson thinks may cost $3 million to fix. The summer's mayhem is "not the worst I've seen, not at all," he said. "It will be absoroed into the caseload and become another blip on the graph." Many victims say the compensation system cannot repair the most important damage to community relations. "We've got to get this play group back open, but they say the work will take six, seven months," said the Rev. Mark Templeton, whose Congregational church in a religiously polarized part of north Belfast was firebombed July 11. The playroom that used to welcome Protestant and Catholic youngsters was ruined. Robinson said the government was certain to pay for reconstruction, but Templeton might be stuck with the bill if he rented a mobile building before then. Irish Sea IRELAh APWm. J. Castelto and, maybe, a peace setplace tlement would come in its bloody wake as happened in Bosnia." The British government took over primary responsibility for compensating victims of Northern Ireland's violence in 1977, after insurers private increasingly refused to bear the risk. Professor Desmond Greer, an expert in British compensation law at Queen's University of Belfast, says this makes Northern Ireland unique among the world's conflict zones. "The scheme really is part of the way in w hich the United Kingdom government supports Northern Ireland economically," said Greer, noting that the province produces about $7.5 billion in tax revenue annually but gets $12 billion in support. "The money paid out in compensation is huge by Northern Ireland standards, and pocket money by English standards," he said. "Presumably it enables businesses to come back again and again no Find yourself out of change when your carrier comes to collect? 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