Editorial Comment:
othing is more precious for the people of Northern Ireland than peace. We understand that it was a long, hard road to get there – strewn with difficult choices. One of the most controversial parts of that journey was the treatment of socalled On The Runs, or fugitive IRA suspects. Letters of assurance were sent out to more than 200 such people in the years after the Northern Ireland peace agreement, informing them that they were no longer wanted by the police. Tony Blair has insisted that the peace deal would have collapsed without these “comfort letters”, that they were essential to keeping Sinn Fein on board.
Critics say that two serious mistakes were made. First, the process was not transparent. Second, the letters may have been sent to the wrong people – giving an effective pardon to guilty men. The true nature of the comfort-letter regime only became public knowledge after the prosecution of John Downey, the man accused of murdering four soldiers in the Hyde Park bombing, was halted because he had received one of the letters in error.
The Sunday Telegraph can now divulge the findings of a major parliamentary inquiry into the handling of On The Runs. Its report, which will be released later this week, will raise questions about the legality of the comfort-letter scheme and criticise the rapid pace in which it was handled in the last months of Mr Blair’s time in office. It would appear that during the appropriately named Operation Rapid, 36 On The Runs had their status downgraded from “wanted” to “not wanted”. One source told this newspaper that this later tackling of the On the Run problem was “chaotic” and “reckless to the point of unlawful”.
To make matters worse, we can also reveal details of a police document sent to the inquiry which suggests that another six people who were told they were not wanted may have also been responsible for attacks in England as well as Northern Ireland – just as Mr Downey was accused of killing soldiers in London. This will likely inflame public opinion further.
What happened in those last few days of Mr Blair’s administration needs to be brought to light. The British people and, more specifically, the families of victims of terror have a right to understand the complicated deals that were made in their name – the errors, the mistakes and the potential breaches of justice. Of course, statecraft can be a hard, even grubby, business: it is full of tortuous decisions that can go wrong with terrible consequences for those involved. We understand that. But there are grounds to suspect that the On The Runs story tells us something about Mr Blair and his style of government. Too often he decided that the ends justified the means. Too often the presumptuous pursuit of a grand vision eclipsed the finer details.
Coalition ministers and a previous inquiry have asserted that the comfort letters do not have legal force and should not be regarded as an amnesty – and Northern Ireland officers are re-examining the status of the 36 accused whose status was downgraded. This is welcome. The past cannot, should not, be whitewashed. The errors of judgment that took place in that troubled era need to be accounted for.