WE LIVE IN FEAR OF A KNOCK AT THE DOOR
NI ARMY VETERANS SLAM ‘WITCH-HUNT’
AGROUP of former members of the security forces are vowing to shatter the silence of their past to counter what they claim is a “witchhunt” against them.
They have pledged to oppose any political deal that would propose an amnesty for terrorists in Northern Ireland.
The retired soldiers, police officers and Prison Service personnel set up Northern Ireland Crown Forces Veterans for Justice (NICFVFJ) earlier this year.
It held a rally last month at Belfast City Hall to protest at how it feels veterans have been treated by the judicial system, in which it says it has little confidence.
The organisation has threatened to demonstrate at Stormont because it thinks unionist politicians have cold-shouldered veterans.
Members are angry over what they see as attempts to “legitimise terrorists while demonising the people who stood up to them”.
Founder Mel Brown (51), who was in the UDR/Royal Irish for nearly 10 years, says her organisation has the backing of 760 veterans who have signed up to a restricted Facebook page, which is not accessible to members of the public who do not have security force links.
NICFVFJ says it no longer has any formal ties to Britain-based veterans’ groups but is supporting individual ex-soldiers like 76-year-old Dennis Hutchings, who is awaiting trial here on charges related to the killing of John Pat Cunningham in 1974.
The group says hundreds of other ex-soldiers are “dreading the knock on the door” that would tell them they too are under investigation over killings that happened 40-plus years ago — including Bloody Sunday.
The local veterans agree with campaigners who have lobbied for the introduction of a new statute of limitation to ensure that no further former security force members are charged with historic offences.
The Government recently indicated that it is ready to start consultations on the statute.
But the Ulster veterans fear such a measure could be used to equate terrorists with security force members and exempt everyone from prosecution.
“Equivalence is something we couldn’t stomach,” says Wilfie Brown, who is 53 and was in the R Irish for 22 years.
“We don’t want an amnesty for the terrorists.”
He is convinced that former terrorists stand to be exonerated under a new deal that would sanitise what the IRA did and even offer its ex-members cash — a type of pension for paramilitaries.
Former Parachute Regiment soldier John Ross (64) from Belfast says that equivalence is high on the agenda of republicans.
He adds: “There is no equivalence between right and wrong; between good and evil; between the innocent and the guilty.
“There can’t be equivalence between a terrorist organisation who murdered people in pursuit of their political agendas and legitimate forces in which soldiers and police served their country in the line of duty.”
Last week four Tory and Labour MPs wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Theresa May calling for an amnesty across the board.
They are former Army captain Johnny Mercer; Julian Lewis, the chairman of the Commons Defence select committee; former Defence Minister Kevan Jones and Dan Jarvis, a former paratrooper.
They say they acted because they were concerned about the arrests of ex-military personnel, but discovered that expert evidence indicated a statute of limitation that covered only security force members would be out of step with international law.
NICFVFJ — which has dismissed the MPs’ demand — claims there is already an imbalance in the way the authorities have dealt with republicans through the use of on-the-run letters and royal pardons.
“Yet Sinn Fein, some of whom have these letters of comfort in their pockets, are the very ones who say there is no justice and demand equality,” says Wilfie Brown.
“We are at boiling point. We really have had enough, every decision that is coming now seems to be for the terrorists.
“They have been rebranded and many of the paramilitaries have reappeared within community groups accessing thousands of pounds in funding.
“And, of course, we have also seen them going into government, which has been unacceptable to many people.”
He says that the estimated 141,000 former security force members in Northern Ireland have seen little in the way of financial windfalls for them or for their families.
Mel Brown says she suspects that part of the thinking on a statute of limitation for the security forces is to protect high-ranking figures at the top of the chain of command, not the foot soldiers.
She and her colleagues have had meetings with the UUP, but had to postpone talks with DUP leader Arlene Foster because of the recent Brexit crisis.
However, Wilfie Brown says politicians have let veterans down by failing to represent their views.
He has called for the formation of a single unionist party to “speak up for and defend what the majority of people here believe in”.