STOP THIS MONSTROUS WITCH-HUNT OF WAR HEROES
EX-FORCES CHIEF BACKS OUR CRUSADE
ONE of Britain’s most distinguished former soldiers yesterday backed the Daily Express campaign to end the legal witch-hunt against veterans.
Field Marshal Lord Bramall, head of the Armed Forces from 1982 to 1985, branded their treatment as “monstrous”.
He said: “The Daily Express has my complete support. Soldiers are being let down by politicians.”
Lord Bramall, 95, won the Military Cross in the Second World War and as head of the Army from 1979 to 1982, oversaw soldiers during the Troubles and the Falklands War.
Four veterans, three of them elderly, are facing trial over “legacy killings” in Northern Ireland dating as far back as 1972, despite having been cleared at the time. Hundreds more face reinvestigation.
Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, more than 500 terrorists were freed early and 300 on-the-run “Letters of Comfort” were issued to suspects, telling them they would not be pursued.
More than 3,500 accusations were levelled at Iraq veterans, mostly by a now-disgraced firm of solicitors. It cost the taxpayer £60million but did not lead to a single prosecution.
Lord Bramall said: “This retrospective approach is absolutely monstrous. Actually pinning down a particular crime to a particular person will be almost impossible with half the witnesses dead.
“I am unhappy with this whole business of taking these often very sick 70-year-old men and putting them through this process.
“The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday ought to have cleared the whole thing up.”
Lord Bramall contrasted the actions of terrorists carrying out planned outrages with the
conduct of soldiers who went out to do their duty.
He said on Bloody Sunday, when British paratroopers killed 14 civilians in 1972, “they may have been reckless with their fire, but they were not there intent on murder”.
He added: “Some of the Republican side are out of prison, some got an amnesty, some got Letters of Comfort.
“The chap suspected of being responsible for the Hyde Park bombing got a letter.”
Lord Bramall favours a statute of limitations for prosecutions applying to both soldiers
and terrorists, so a line can be drawn under the past.
He accepted that sometimes, in the heat of a conflict, British soldiers may not have followed the rules of engagement.
But he said they “have to make a decision on the spur of the moment, under great pressure. It’s not easy to get right”.
Lord Bramall said: “There should be a time amnesty for these offences and this should apply to both sides.
“In a sense, the military deserve it more, but if it made it easier to get it through, it should be done.”