Veterans back deal that ends NI witch-hunts
ARMY veterans yesterday backed controversial Government plans to end the witchhunt against their comrades after talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis.
Mr Lewis announced plans last month for a Statute of Limitations, which would outlaw prosecutions against ex-soldiers for incidents that happened before a specified date – widely expected to be the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
At the time the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement warned the legislation “cannot… give equivalence between security forces and perpetrators of terrorism”.
But after talks yesterday, the group said the proposed law promised an end to “show trials” and “repeated vexatious prosecutions of Northern Ireland veterans...previously cleared of wrongdoing”.
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In a hard-hitting statement, former SAS soldier Robin Horsfall condemned what he called the £500million “lawfare” campaign which he said put old soldiers on trial while terrorists walk free.
Under Tony Blair’s Good Friday Agreement, 500 terrorists were released from jail and up to 300 suspects were told they would not be prosecuted. But about 230 Army veterans are still facing reinvestigation over historic incidents. Mr Horsfall slammed Mr Blair’s “secret deals” and accused him of “deliberately failing to provide protection for security forces”. After being assured by Mr Lewis that legislation to end the witch-hunt will be introduced in the autumn, he said: “The Statute of Limitations proposed by...Brandon Lewis offers a way forward for those who served in Northern Ireland.
“This Statute, combined with an end to legal aid and funding for legacy cases, will stop this...deeply flawed propaganda offensive. There will be no more show trials, no more legacy inquests costing millions of pounds, no more hugely expensive police inquiries directed at the security forces. “With that guarantee in place, we will bring our full strength and influence to bear in support of any proposed legislation.” The legislation has been rejected by all parties in Northern Ireland, partly because the Statue of Limitations will also apply to terrorists.
But Mr Horsfall said: “The simple and painful truth is that no terrorist will ever be convicted. That battle was lost with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.” He added the NIVM hopes to get to a situation where veterans are “left alone to live their last years in relative peace without being pursued for political reasons”.
MANY brave veterans who stopped Northern Ireland descending into full-scale civil war during the years of the Troubles will be haunted by memories of the carnage unleashed by terrorist bombs.
These old soldiers should not live in fear that they will be hauled before the courts to face politically motivated prosecutions.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis’s proposals to end all Troubles-related investigations and prosecutions are intensely controversial in the province, where victims’ families want justice and there is opposition to anything that appears to give equal protection to veterans and former terrorists.
But Mr Lewis scored a major victory yesterday by winning the support of the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement, which represents 200,000 Army veterans. They argue the “simple and painful truth is that no terrorists will ever be convicted” and understand that those who served with courage during this harrowing chapter in British-Irish history deserve protection.
Sinn Fein already shares power at Stormont. Rather than disown the IRA’s murder campaign, it wants to portray itself as a champion of human rights and casts the British Army as the aggressor.
This obscene rewriting of history is an insult to the soldiers whose presence prevented sectarian massacres. Ageing veterans, many in ill-health, must be protected from naked persecution and vexatious prosecution. They defended the lives and liberties of civilians in the face of terror. We must defend their freedom today.