Councillor hits out at Troubles ‘witch hunt’
WEST Lancashire council leader Ian Moran has criticised inquiries into Northern Ireland’s Troubles as “a witch hunt”.
Cllr Moran served in South Armagh for six months in 1990 and said he felt “betrayed” by investigations being made by the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) legacy investigation branch into killings carried out during The Troubles.
The PSNI’s legacy branch is reinvestigating 1,118 deaths not previously reviewed or completed by the now defunct Historical Enquiries Team (HET). Cllr Moran said: “Speaking in a personal capacity, as an ex-serviceman, if they are going to carry out inquiries it should be across all the deaths not just those for former servicemen. “I just feel angry and betrayed I suppose. People were doing their jobs under extreme pressure at the time.” The Ministry of Defence (MoD) was recently forced to defended a Parachute Regiment Facebook appeal asking former soldiers for information about a killing.
Bernard Watt, 28, was shot by the Army during disturbances in Belfast’s Ardoyne area in 1971.
In the post, the Parachute Regiment asked former members with any knowledge of the incident to get in touch.
Hundreds of Facebook users posted angry comments describing the appeal as a “witch hunt against ex-soldiers”.
Of the killings under investigation, 530 were carried out by republicans, 271 by loyalists and 354 by the security forces.
It is not known who was responsible for the other 33 killings.
Cllr Moran said: “If people have done wrong, fair enough. But to just be trying ex servicemen - many of them privates and lower ranks... If it was a true inquiry then why are we not hearing of former terrorists from both sides - loyalists and republicans?”
Unionists and senior Conservative politicians, including the Secretary of State, James Brokenshire, have claimed that investigations into Troubles killings have been unduly focused on killings by the Army.
This was disputed by police figures seen by the BBC. They showed that investigations into killings by the Army account for about 30% of the PSNI’s legacy workload.