Soldiers put on trial

SIR – Another former soldier is to be prosecuted for events that took place in Northern Ireland decades ago (report, June 20).

I served in Northern Ireland during the Seventies and Eighties and recently added my name to a petition addressed to the Government entitled “British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland must have immunity from prosecution”. The Government’s written response stated that prosecutions were a matter for the police and the prosecuting authorities, who acted independently of the Government. The paragraph ended: “We do not support amnesties or immunity from prosecution.”

This sentence encapsulates the double standards that exist in dealing with immunity: the Government of the day acted contrary to the present policy when it made a political decision to allow an amnesty and immunity for hundreds of convicted felons under the Good Friday Agreement.

This is what people in the military find impossible to swallow. How could any British Government do a deal to draw a line under the conflict without ensuring that their own servants, who had given them enough breathing space to achieve a political peace, were treated in the same way as the criminal protagonists?

It’s time for this Government to put the matter right once and for all.

Col Anthony Snook (retd)

Petworth, West Sussex