Julie Hambleton joins a delegation of families bereaved during the Northern Ireland Troubles, including in the Birmingham pub bombs, to unsuccesfully attempt to hand in a letter to No 10 Downing Street
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Michelle O'Neill joins the Time for Truth protest at Stormont
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, Raymond McCord, shadow Northern Ireland secretary Louise Haigh, Julie Hambleton, Joe Campbell Jnr and Billy McManus, join a delegation of families bereaved during the Northern Ireland Troubles
Julie Hambleton joins a delegation of families bereaved during the Northern Ireland Troubles, including in the Birmingham pub bombs, to unsuccesfully attempt to hand in a letter to No 10 Downing Street
An intensive campaign to lobby MPs to oppose the Government’s proposed Troubles amnesty is set to begin after MLAs unanimously voted against the plan.
A Westminster source is predicting the Government may try to fast-track legislation in the early autumn.
“The House rises for the summer recess on Thursday and returns on September 6,” he said.
"We could see the Government’s Legacy Bill receive an expedited passage through Parliament.
"Boris Johnson has an 80-seat majority, but some Tory backbenchers will be very uneasy about legislation giving an amnesty to paramilitaries, and they will be intensively lobbied over coming months.”
Michelle O'Neill joins the Time for Truth protest at Stormont
Speaking after an SDLP motion rejecting the Government’s statute of limitations proposals passed without any dissenting voices in Stormont yesterday, Amnesty International’s Grainne Teggart said: “The message is clear; our Assembly stands with victims and against the UK Government’s appalling plans to protect perpetrators.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, Raymond McCord, shadow Northern Ireland secretary Louise Haigh, Julie Hambleton, Joe Campbell Jnr and Billy McManus, join a delegation of families bereaved during the Northern Ireland Troubles
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, Raymond McCord, shadow Northern Ireland secretary Louise Haigh, Julie Hambleton, Joe Campbell Jnr and Billy McManus, join a delegation of families bereaved during the Northern Ireland Troubles
“After decades of failure to put in place mechanisms to deliver truth, justice and accountability for victims, the UK Government is cruelly adding to their trauma by closing down all paths to justice forever. We will not accept people who committed grave human rights abuses being placed above the law.
“Our fight now moves to Westminster. We call on the UK Parliament to heed the opposition expressed today and work with us to ensure the UK Government’s offensive plan does not become law.”
While lobbyists will attempt to build on any Tory backbench discontent, defeat for the Government is very hard to see.
Two MLAs spoke of how the Troubles personally impacted on them during yesterday’s emergency’s Assembly sitting to discuss the SDLP motion.
The DUP’s Trevor Clarke spoke of the murder of his brother-in-law Nigel McKee (22) in the IRA’s 1992 Teebane bombing. He branded the Government’s amnesty proposal “an act of political cowardice”.
"The vast majority of the servicemen and women acted within the law, in the service of everyone in our community, they do not need or seek an amnesty from prosecution,” he said.
He criticised the Sinn Fein contributions to the debate, claiming “their hypocrisy is nothing short of a disgrace".
UUP MLA Alan Chambers recalled being injured in 1973 when an IRA bomb exploded on the Shankill Road where he worked. He said flying glass missed his spine by a quarter-of-an-inch, and he could have spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
The bombers didn’t care who they hurt or killed, he said. As well as the 3,500 people murdered, 40,000 people were injured in the Troubles, he added.
Mr Chambers, a former part-time RUC reservist, said he personally knew eight policemen killed during the Troubles. He claimed that history was being rewritten to demonise the security forces.
"An amnesty may remove the threat of a knock on the door for the bad apples, but it does nothing to remove the stain on the reputation of those who do serve with honesty and professionalism, putting their life on the line 24/7 to protect and serve this community,” he said.
SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin said the Government "doesn't give two balls of roasted snow" about Troubles victims.
"Once again those that have suffered the most are being used as pawns and are being poorly serviced by a Government that quite frankly doesn't give two balls of roasted snow for any of them because if they did, they would certainly not have decided justice and truth was beyond their reach," she said.
She highlighted the "intergenerational trauma " carried by families in her home city. "The injustice of Bloody Sunday is in the heart and soul of the people of Derry. This trans-intergenerational trauma cannot simply be wiped away at the behest of a British Prime Minister," she added.
Sinn Fein’s Declan Kearney claimed the proposals were an attempt to silence victims and branded them a "travesty" and a “full-fronted assault of the Good Friday Agreement”.
"The policy objective of these amnesty proposals is to effectively pour concrete over Britain's role in the conflict," he said. He accused London of being afraid of "public exposure and public accountability".
UUP leader Doug Beattie said: "We have been quite clear that the soldier, the policeman, a terrorist, a member of the public or a politician — if you break the law, then you should face the law.
"And everybody deserves the opportunity to get justice. It doesn't mean they always will, but we cannot take away that hope." He also criticised the 2014 Stormont House legacy proposals, highlighting that they did not envisage a reinvestigation of crimes, other than murders.
DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said: “The Secretary of State seems to have chosen a path which finds equivalence between the soldier and police officer, and those who planted the bomb or pulled the trigger. This is morally reprehensible."
He criticised Sinn Fein for accusing the Government of "covering up the truth" when the IRA was responsible for most Troubles murders.
Speaking after the debate, Alliance Justice Minister Naomi Long said: “The proposals have retraumatised many families, compounded their hurt and robbed them of any remaining hope they had for justice for their loved ones.
"To be successful, such discussions require openness, honesty and trust. To date, all of these have been in short supply from the Government. They are deeply flawed and not grounded on the needs of victims’ families for truth and justice.
"They cannot deliver closure and reconciliation, instead undermining the rule of law, and are a recipe for decades in the courts, rather than truth recovery and justice. Cynics would suggest that suits the UK Government’s purposes.”
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said: “What Boris Johnson’s government is really interested in is having the long list of crimes committed with official military authority in the North exonerated.
"The British Empire has a long and bloodstained history across the world and they have much to fear from having to own up to how much of it was sanctioned from the very top — rather than the actions of a few ‘rogue’ individual soldiers.”
Green Party leader Clare Bailey said: “Telling victims to draw a line in the sand is callous, cruel and entirely counterintuitive to the needs of people suffering the mental and physical effects of the conflict.
"The trauma of the conflict is inter-generational. Communities worse impacted by the conflict are the communities today suffering disproportionately from the mental health crisis, socio-economic challenges and problematic drug and alcohol use.”
