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Plans to end all prosecutions related to the Troubles before 1998 have been announced by the UK government.
Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said current and future generations would be “condemned” to division and reconciliation would be impeded if the government did not act.
The package announced by Mr Lewis includes three proposals: a new independent body that he said would focus on the recovery of information relating to Troubles-related deaths, a major “oral history” initiative and a statue of limitations.
“It is, in reality, a painful recognition of the very reality of where we are,” he told the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Senior sources said the amnesty would apply to British soldiers, former police officers and republican and loyalist paramilitaries.
About 3,500 people were killed during the Troubles with tens of thousands more suffering serious injury.
Figures issues by the PSNI late in 2019 showed that the PSNI Legacy Investigation Branch had a caseload of 1,130 cases touching on the deaths of 1,421 people.
Of these 583 deaths were attributed to republicans, 294 deaths to loyalists, 289 deaths to the British army, 51 to police, 69 were unknown attribution and 135 were non-paramilitary related deaths.
A British government source said what some have characterised as an effective amnesty for people who carried out murder during the Troubles was necessary to prevent Northern Ireland being “hamstrung by its past”.
‘Hamstrung by its past’
While the British government appears determined to press ahead with its proposals the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said on Wednesday “this is not a fait accompli”.
Speaking on RTÉ radio Mr Coveney said “I think that victims, who need to be at the centre of all of this, will be deeply hurt by that approach and I know that because I’ve spoken to many victims groups, from all sides, this isn’t a Republican versus Loyalist or Unionist versus Nationalist issue”.
“Victims and their families simply want the truth, they want convictions want to be possible where the evidence is there to secure them, in court, and they recognise that in many cases it won’t be possible to pursue a conviction because the evidence might not be there any longer, but they still want that possibility should somebody come forward and tell the truth.
“What the British government is proposing to do here is to cut off that possibility, to no longer put our faith in the rule of law and instead introduce a statute of limitations which essentially no longer applies the law to the atrocities of the past in Northern Ireland and I think the Irish government cannot support that approach.
“What we will do is we will, of course, listen and work with the British government and others in terms of political parties and victims groups to try and find a consensus we now understand what the British government is bringing to that discussion in terms of a new proposal.”
He added that he will “ approach these discussions and negotiations with an open mind and I hope we will be able to work with the British government who I hope will also have an open mind on how we come to a consensus, a way forward with victims and people of Northern Ireland as the centre and priority of what we’re trying to do”.
“This cannot be driven by a political commitment to veterans or anything else for that matter”.
No equivalence
Mr Coveney said there was no equivalence with the pardons granted under the Good Friday Agreement.
“That involved effectively early release, it was part of a negotiated agreement that everybody signed up to. What the British government is now outlining is a unilateral position which nobody else has signed up to. It’s entirely different,” he said.
John Teggart, spokesman for the families of 10 people killed in Ballymurphy in west Belfast in 1971 said that “once again legacy families are being traumatised over fears that the UK government is planning to introduce an amnesty for crimes/murders that happened during our recent past”.
“We see this as the British Government’s cynical attempt to bring in an amnesty and a plan to bury its war crimes,” he said.
Referring to the recent Ballymurphy inquest decision Mr Teggart said, “The Ballymurphy Massacre inquest findings in May this year is the perfect example of why there should not be a statue of limitations.
“Justice Keegan confirmed what the Ballymurphy Massacre families always stated that all those who lost their lives in the Ballymurphy Massacre were ‘entirely innocent of any wrongdoing’ and ‘posed no threat’.
“This is a war crime and those responsible must be held to account.”
Relatives of the 1974 IRA Birmingham pub bombings in which 21 people were killed described the plan to end all prosecutions as “obscene”.
Julie Hambleton, whose sister Maxine was killed in one of the bombings, has written to the British prime minister Boris Johnson deploring the British government’s plan.
She said, “Tell me prime minister, if one of your loved ones was blown up beyond recognition, where you were only able to identify your son or daughter by their fingernails because their face had been burned so severely from the blast and little of their remains were left intact, would you be so quick to agree to such obscene legislation being implemented?”
This announcement has been flagged by the British government for more than a year. In March last year Northern Secretary Mr Lewis said he wanted to end “the cycle of reinvestigations into the Troubles in Northern Ireland that has failed victims and [BRITISH ARMY]veterans alike”.
“While there must always be a route to justice, experience suggests that the likelihood of justice in most cases may now be small, and continues to decrease as time passes,” he said.
Leaks to media
Over recent weeks the British government has issued several leaks to British media about its plans. In response just over a week ago the Wave Trauma Centre, the largest cross community victims and survivors support group in Northern Ireland, said it would be “fundamentally wrong” to grant a de facto amnesty in relation to all Troubles related killings.
In an open letter to the prime minister Mr Johnson, the organisation argued that dealing effectively with “complex and sensitive legacy issues” will not be done by “perverting the criminal justice system”.
Wave told Mr Johnson, “If anyone in Downing Street or the Ministry of Defence or the Northern Ireland Office seriously thinks that an amnesty of this nature can form the foundation upon which reconciliation could be built then it shows how little they understand the nature of the pain and trauma which continues to be suffered by victims and survivors and their families.”
Brendan Howlin, the Labour Party spokesman on Foreign Affairs, said the party was “dismayed at the unilateral action of the Boris Johnson administration (which) seems to be a feature of everything that they do on European affairs”.
Mr Howlin said that “it seems that painstakingly brokered agreements that have sustained peace have little meaning to them, and that is profoundly worrying”.
It’s indicative of a mindset that is causing great worry for both communities in Northern Ireland, because they don’t have a reliable entity in the British government,” he said. Mr Howlin argued that the London government’s actions were designed to appeal to a narrow constituency of Tory voters in a “box ticking” exercise.
“Everything Boris Johnson is doing in his attitude to Brexit, Covid and Northern Ireland is always through the prism of the electoral advantage to the Tory party in the short term,” he said. “Peace is brokered on the basis that two sovereign governments can sit down with the parties and hammer out an agreement, always on the basis that people wouldn’t act unilaterally.”
He said unionists were feeling exposed and isolated due to Johnson’s actions. “They always felt a Tory government would have their backs, and now I think they do understand whatever issues that arise, it will be what is in the best interest of Tory electoral fortunes in England that will determine the issue.”
“There’s no doubt Boris Johnson will fly the flag and mouth the words but his actions belie the true allegiance,” Mr Howlin said.