‘For 25 years, victims have carried the burden of the rest of society… there’s nothing left to give’

For a quarter of a century, the political system has subverted the criminal justice system: early prisoner releases through the Belfast Agreement; a maximum two-year sentence for pre-1998 Troubles-related crimes (those committed in Northern Ireland, anyway); ‘On-the-run’ assurance letters, which were a covert way of bypassing the express will of Parliament, which would not back the Labour government’s official efforts to finalise the issue in 2006.

We have also had Royal Prerogatives of Mercy, with 10 years of records in the run-up to the Belfast Agreement having magically disappeared (supposedly, no back-up list of recipients exists).

The Blair administration presided over the wanton appeasement of terrorism, believing that the ends would justify the means at all costs. The Blair administration laid the foundation for the moral abyss into which our society has fallen.

Successive governments have sought to divide and conquer people by teasing them into accepting particular positions, conditioning them to believe that nothing better is possible.

This is the same trick being played at this juncture. We beg people to hold their nerve and not fall for it.

For 25 years, victims and survivors have carried the burden of the rest of society and there is no more left to give.

The UK state is now proposing to extinguish the most fundamental principle of any democratic society — the right to justice.

This is not acceptable and would be an extremely dangerous road to travel.

We have many, many innocents, who have been deeply affected by developments in recent weeks, but actually suffer from a cumulative impact of having to watch terrorism and its political annexes being appeased for over a quarter of a century.

A number of widows have remarked that “terrorists murdered my husband and the state is proposing to finally murder justice”.

We have put forward an alternative proposal to the Secretary of State and we will be refining this proposal and will engage with him and local and national political parties and the Irish government, who must cease playing the role of spectator and actively engage with the process with a view to facing up to their own actions and inactions over the years of the terrorist campaign.

The Secretary of State and UK Government are not presenting a victim-centred solution; they are presenting a proposal which they believe will achieve two ends — stop the prosecution of veterans and appease terrorism (particularly the Provisional IRA), finalising the awkward edges left by the Belfast Agreement.

Stop while you still can; work with us to deliver an alternative which reflects the integrity of “the past”. We must push forward with a justice and accountability-centred process.

It is not for the Prime Minister of the UK, or anyone else, to arbitrarily close down justice because of vested interest, masquerading as concern for enabling Northern Ireland to move forward and draw a line under a painful past.

For today’s politicians, the Troubles are “the past” and are treated with a past tense approach. However, for those who were directly impacted, the legacy of that terror and violence remains with them and they continue to yearn for justice and accountability for the heinous and unjust actions to which they were subjected.

Now is the time for innocent victims and survivors, who have been collateral damage for way too long.

Kenny Donaldson is director of services for South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) and spokesman for Innocent Victims United