Minister: Troubles inquiry unfair to soldiers
CRIMINAL inquiries into British soldiers’ conduct during the Troubles are “not appropriate” and must be overhauled to ensure troops are not “unfairly treated or disproportionately investigated”, ministers said last night.
James Brokenshire, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said that investigations were focused too heavily on finding abuses by security forces, even though terrorists were responsible for 90 per cent of deaths.
The current approach was “not sustainable”, he said, as he called for a new system which ensured “terrorists are not treated more favourably than former soldiers and police officers”.
Mr Brokenshire told MPs in a speech in the Commons that investigations should also be limited to five years so they do not become open ended.
He made the comments amid growing concern in the military that veterans in their sixties and seventies face years of investigation over alleged crimes after police reopened inquiries into hundreds of killings.
It emerged late last year that as many as 1,000 soldiers are under investigation over 302 killings that took place over a 35-year period since 1969.
The Government has already pledged to shut down the inquiry into alleged abuses by troops in Iraq after admitting it had become a “witch hunt”.
Referring to the Northern Ireland inquiries, Mr Brokenshire said: “We will never accept any kind of spurious moral equivalence between those who sought to uphold the rule of law and the terrorists who sought to destroy it.
“For us, politically motivated violence in Northern Ireland was never justified, whether it was carried out by republicans or loyalists.
“We will continue to reject attempts to place the state at the heart of every atrocity or somehow to displace responsibility away from those who carried out terrorist attacks, namely the terrorists themselves.”
Mr Brokenshire, who argued in an article for The Sunday Telegraph last month that the current system was not working, added: “I recognise concerns that the current mechanisms focus disproportionately on cases involving, or allegedly involving, the state – as a result, leaving many victims of terrorism feeling ignored.”
The Northern Ireland minister Kris Hopkins also said that the system was in need of reform. He said: “The present system is not appropriate. It is disproportionate and we need a new system which was agreed under the Stormont Agreement.”
The Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) will be wound up after Phil Shiner, the lawyer who brought most of the Iraq cases, was struck off earlier this month after being found guilty of recklessness, dishonesty and lack of integrity. Mr Brokenshire said that it was
“appalling when people try to make a business of dragging our brave troops through the courts”. The minister said that the Northern Ireland investigations “are simply not delivering for anyone, including victims and survivors on all sides”.
A new Historical Investigations Unit to replace the inquiries run by Northern Ireland police would be legally obliged to be “fair, balanced and, crucially, proportionate”, he said.
The unit would have to look at terrorist attacks on troops, such as the 1979 Warrenpoint ambush which killed 18 soldiers, he said.
Mr Brokenshire said: “We are looking at ways of ensuring that where prosecutions do take place terrorists are not treated more favourably than former soldiers and police officers.
“And the bodies will be time-limited to five years, ensuring that this process will not be open ended thereby helping Northern Ireland to move forward.”
Mr Brokenshire also said that the new system would consider giving legal support to witnesses called to testify in cases involving their comrades.
Jim Shannon MP broke down in tears in the Commons as he recalled his cousin, who had been killed by the IRA. The Strangford MP, who served in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) during the Troubles, said: “I understand very well the concept of closure and wanting justice.
“I want justice for my cousin Kenneth Smith, who was murdered by the IRA.”
Bob Stewart, the Tory MP who served in the Army during the Troubles, said he feared a promise he gave to his men could be broken if cases were reopened. “Thirty-eight years ago, I gave my word to two men under my command after they had been involved in a fatality shooting that if they went to court and were charged with manslaughter and they were proved not guilty they would never hear anything again. I gave my word and it looks like my word may not be worth a fig if this continues.”