Families maintain legal threat despite Chilcot promise of progress
FAMILIES OF soldiers killed in Iraq have rejected Sir John Chilcot’s justification for the long delay in publishing the findings of his inquiry into the war.
Sir John yesterday insisted the inquiry he is leading, which has been running for six years, had to be “fair” to all sides and defended the controversial Maxwellisation process, which means everyone facing criticism in the report is given the chance to respond.
But relatives criticised Sir John’s refusal to set a firm timetable for the publication of his findings.
Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon was killed in Iraq in 2005, said: “He should just get on with it. I’m not sure he is able to understand our anguish. If he was in our shoes, he might well take a different view on what is going on. This process of Maxwellisation is too much. It seems to go on and on and on. The fact he is still waiting for responses means there will be further delays.”
Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was killed in Iraq in 2003, said the families wanted the report to be “open, transparent and unflinching in its findings”.
“He has had adequate funding, that delay is borderline unlawful, so we will seek a judicial review to see if the courts can press Sir John under the legal channels for a timeframe to complete before
the end of this year.”
Then Prime Minister Gordon Brown commissioned the Iraq Inquiry in 2009 and its findings were expected to be published the following year.
Sir John said the inquiry team understood the “anguish” of the families. “We take the responsibility we were given as an independent inquiry extremely seriously, and understand the need for Government, Parliament and the public to see our report as soon as possible.”
He added: “It is critically important that the report should be fair to all who participated in the conflict and to those who bore the responsibility of taking decisions ...
“In its scope and length, this is an inquiry mandate for which there is no precedent.
“Given the scale of the task of assembling a reliable account of a nine-year period and drawing conclusions on a wide range of issues, it became apparent as the work proceeded that the report would have to be very long and would take a considerable time to produce.”
Sir John said Maxwellisation was “essential” to ensure that “conclusions drawn by the inquiry are robust and that any criticism included in the final report is soundly based, fair and reasonable”.
He said the inquiry had “remained in control of its deadlines throughout the process”.