No more trauma for veterans of Troubles
New Defence Secretary vows to stop probes
VETERANS who served in Northern Ireland should not face any future probes unless new evidence comes to light, the Defence Secretary said last night. Former Scots Guard Ben Wallace, who served in Northern Ireland, said ex-soldiers in their 70s and 80s should be enjoying their retirement – not Defence and Security Editor suffering the ‘trauma’ of investigators knocking on the door.
In his first comments on the issue, he said he ‘would not let the history books be rewritten’ when it came to legacy investigations into the Troubles, and troops should be ‘proud’ of what they achieved. Currently, hundreds of veterans face being quizzed over their actions on the battlefield – even if no new evidence has come to light.
But former MSP Mr Wallace said they should not have to face probes unless new evidence emerged. He told the Mail: ‘Northern Ireland veterans in their 70s and 80s should now be enjoying their retirement – not dealing with the trauma of waiting for a knock on the door when there is no new evidence that an offence has been committed.’ His vow to protect troops came on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the start of Operation Banner, which lasted almost 38 years and led to the deaths of 1,441 serving personnel.
Veterans will today gather at the National Memorial Arboretum to attend a service organised by the Royal British Legion.
Mr Wallace said soldiers and the police had defeated one of the most ‘potent terrorist groups’ in the world and that should not be forgotten. Veterans should be ‘proud’ and ‘celrewritten ebrating’ their role in defending freedom against the ‘bad guys’.
He said he wanted to quash the idea that troops did not act heroically during the Troubles when they were there ‘defending those that couldn’t defend themselves’.
He added: ‘There is a concern by many who were deployed in Operation Banner that history is being for expediency and the effort by the thousands of veterans who delivered a successful operation forgotten. As Defence Secretary, I won’t let the history books be rewritten. We veterans know.
‘There are too many of us to forget and we owe it to those decent people of Northern Ireland, who despite different views, never supported violence as the answer.
‘Veterans of Operation Banner should be incredibly proud that militarily and politically they defeated the terrorists and the operation was successful and we should be celebrating it.’
Sources close to Mr Wallace – who was deployed to Northern Ireland in 1992 when he was a 21-year-old platoon commander – said he was working behind the scenes to find a way of stopping veterans from being hounded.
Mr Wallace said Operation Banner was a success, adding: ‘Not just because Northern Ireland is hardly recognisable now and not just because a whole generation of people have grown up with peace, but because the Armed Forces and the Police Service systematically defeated some of the most potent terrorist groups in the world.’