Hounding of Ulster veterans is a ‘breach of human rights’
FLAWED plans to reinvestigate soldiers over deaths in The Troubles would lead to “clear breaches” of human rights laws, Northern Ireland veterans claimed last night. They said the blueprint currently out for consultation discriminates against soldiers and police officers in favour of terrorists. Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans said the plan unveiled by Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley this year “risks creating another fiasco”. It said: “The proposed arrangements would involve the UK in clear breaches of Articles 6, 7, 8, 13 and 14 ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) and have the potential for breaches of Article 2.”
The hard-hitting 6,500-word submission to the Northern Ireland Office comes with four retired soldiers already facing trial over deaths in The Troubles dating as far back as 1972, despite having been cleared at the time.
Another 278 cases involving Northern Ireland veterans are understood to be under investigation.
Yet under Tony Blair’s 1998 Good Friday Agreement 300 IRA terrorists were freed from prison early and a fur- ther 150 suspects were given Letters of Comfort or On the Run Letters guaranteeing they would not be prosecuted.
John Downey, a suspect in the Hyde Park bombing which killed four Blues and Royals soldiers in 1982, walked free from court when his Letter of Comfort was revealed.
The submission from the veterans’ group added: “The unfair and repugnant issue by HM Government of Letters of Comfort to wanted terrorists who are believed to have committed some of the gravest murders and human rights abuses in Northern Ireland will fall outside the scope of the Historical Investigations Unit.
“This means that some 200-300 republican terrorists who will have committed a large part of the deaths that are within the HIU investigative remit will not face prosecution or investigation.
“However deaths attributed to the security forces will continue to be investigated and perused rigorously.
“This proposed legislation fails to investigate the thousands of bombs that were detonated by Republican terrorists in Northern Ireland and the wider United Kingdom and Europe.”
The group also said the proposed Historical Investigations Unit would report to a policing board “which contains the political representatives of those who sought to murder members of the Security Forces and other public servants, including members of the judiciary, prison officers and civil servants”.
It added: “It cannot be entrusted with any investigations which touch on matters of national security.”
During The Troubles 1,441 members of the British Armed Forces died – at least half of them on active service.
But critics of the “legacy” investigations claim that they focus on the military because it kept detailed records, unlike terrorists such as the IRA.
The veterans also believe that the focus on the Armed Forces suits Sinn Fein which was the political wing of the IRA and is now trying to “rewrite the history of The Troubles”.
Former Regimental Corporal Major Dennis Hutchings, 77, who faces trial over a shooting incident in Northern Ireland in 1974 for which he has already been cleared twice, said: “This submission throws their plans in to chaos. It shows the holes in their argument and that what they are proposing would be illegal in some cases.
“The proposals are so one-sided it is unbelievable.”
Colonel Richard Kemp, who served as an officer on seven tours in Northern Ireland, said: “Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans are absolutely right to be fighting against what is going on.
“What we have is a vendetta against people who served their country and put their lives on the line while having an amnesty for terrorists.
“The Government has allowed this to happen. The Government has to stop this.”
As revealed in the Daily Express last month as part of our Betrayal Of Our Veterans campaign, the veterans’ group is also highly critical of the Government proposal that: “The HIU may do anything that it thinks necessary or expedient in connection with the exercise of its functions.”
It argues this will give the HIU “unlimited and absolute power that no other police force in the world or state organ possesses”.
‘We have a vendetta against people who served their country’