IRA LEADER: STOP ARMY WITCH-HUNT
Even ex-republican commander says hounding of Ulster soldiers is shameful
A FORMER IRA gunman yesterday gave his backing to the Daily Express crusade to end the witch-hunt against British veterans of The Troubles.
Henry Robinson, who was a commander in the Official IRA, joined his former enemy, retired British Army officer Colonel Richard Kemp, in calling on Theresa May to stop the prosecution of elderly veterans over historic incidents. Mr Robinson branded the hounding of ex-soldiers as shameful and unjust
after hundreds of terrorists were allowed to go free. He warned that it risks “keeping the conflict alive”.
He said he did not believe that his boyhood hero, senior Official IRA member Joe McCann, would have approved of the prosecution of two elderly Paras after McCann was shot dead in 1972 at the height of The Troubles.
“That was a conflict of yesteryear. He would have viewed himself as a soldier of the Official IRA,” Mr Robertson added. “He was trying to kill British soldiers and they were trying to kill him. He knew the risks.”
Colonel Kemp said: “If former enemies in this conflict – an ex IRA member and a British soldier – can understand how despicable is this vendetta against elderly soldiers, surely the Government can see that it must be stopped immediately.”
Four British soldiers, including the two former Paras, are facing trial for historic shooting incidents despite having been cleared at the time.
Hundreds more face reinvestigation under proposals tabled by Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley to tackle so-called legacy killings.
Struggle
Former premier Tony Blair’s 1998 Good Friday Agreement led to 500 terrorists being freed from jail early and more than 300 suspected terrorists being given “comfort letters” which said they would not be prosecuted.
It has echoes of the persecution of British soldiers who served in Iraq.
More than 3,500 allegations were levelled at Iraq veterans – most by a now disgraced firm of solicitors. This led to taxpayer costs of £60million without leading to a single prosecution.
On Saturday the Daily Express revealed that Mrs May has ordered Britain’s top law officer, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC, to find a solution to the legal mess.
Mr Robinson joined the Official IRA in 1978 as a 17 year old and served twoand-a-half years in jail for shooting and wounding a Provisional IRA man in 1981 in a factional power struggle.
But in 1990, sickened by sectarian violence, he became a co-founder of Families Against Intimidation and Terror. He has since brokered a deal that ended more than 50 years of war in Colombia.
Mr Robinson, 57, who lives in Hertfordshire, said: “Former British soldiers and members of the security forces are facing a witch-hunt which should be stopped.
“The Good Friday Agreement allowed for a de-facto amnesty for former combatants from the loyalist and republican paramilitaries.
“It did not provide a similar de-facto amnesty for soldiers and former police officers who fought against a terrible, sectarian, bitter, war and who stopped a potential civil war and bloodbath.
“It is unjust that, now the conflict is over, other people are using legal mechanisms to pursue a war that is over.
“It is unjust that one side, the loyalists and republicans, got a de-facto amnesty while those who maintained law and order against extremists now find themselves being pursued in their old age in a witch-hunt.
“It is just shameful. The vast majority of victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles were murdered by republican and loyalist terrorists. I cannot believe that the Government would not call a halt to these prosecutions.
“Rewriting history is completely wrong. It does not reflect who did the most damage, carried out the most murders, caused the most mayhem and left the most people struggling with their lives. It is the worst kind of Orwellian propaganda.”
WE ARE good at making life difficult for ourselves. Retrospectively prosecuting British soldiers for “historic war crimes” is one of the easiest way of achieving this. We deplore the witchhunt of soldiers posted to Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
So, it turns out, does the IRA. Henry Robinson is a former IRA gunman. Now a peace activist, he believes that singling out soldiers for prosecution is “shameful” and “unjust”. Worse, it threatens to reopen old wounds. We welcome Mr Robinson’s intervention.
Wars are an abomination. Under intense stress, sometimes wrong decisions are taken with catastrophic results. But the peace that emerged from the Good Friday agreement has more or less held. Nothing should now be allowed to threaten it.