Opinion

Tom Kelly: Those who killed in the Troubles should be held to account

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Lord Robin Eames, pictured right, co-chaired the Consultative Group on the Past with Denis Bradley, pictured left, nine years ago
Lord Robin Eames (right) co-chaired the Consultative Group on the Past with Denis Bradley (left), first suggesting in 2009 that the relatives of deceased paramilitary members should also receive compensation payments. Lord Robin Eames, pictured right, co-chaired the Consultative Group on the Past with Denis Bradley, pictured left, nine years ago

Denis Bradley is a man of immense integrity and compassion. His pastoral skills have never deserted him.

Denis is also a man who has weathered the storms of life. His pronouncements on policing, victims and legacy have developed a somewhat sage-like tenor. Both he and Archbishop Robin Eames came together for the BBC’s The View to discuss perhaps the most sensitive issues impacting on our limping peace process - victims, perpetrators and the thorny issue of amnesty.

It’s hard to believe that the Eames/Bradley proposals were nine years ago. Back then these two individuals were extremely brave in their recommendations. Brave in the way that no minister was ever going to implement them. At the time the proposal to compensate victims blew the document out of the water. It was premature and unnecessarily clumsy. I disagreed with it then but in fairness to both Bradley and Eames no one has come up with anything better. It may be time to revisit Eames/Bradley and finesse their proposals.

Although he admitted it sat uncomfortably with him, the issue that Denis touched upon in the The View about the prospect of amnesty for the perpetrators of violence by either agents of the state or paramilitaries is an abhorrent thought. That said he is right about one thing - victims are having to settle for less and less justice or truth as each year passes.

Of course the British government is keen as mustard for a statue of limitations-induced amnesty to protect former security personnel for any illegal actions they carried out during the Troubles. But why should wearing a uniform exempt former soldiers or police officers from being answerable for breaking the law? The fact that it was a dirty war doesn’t excuse the state and their agents from accountability. We have to expect higher standards from those to whom we entrust law and order. Personally I don’t want to see septuagenarian former soldiers being sent to jail but I do expect them to at least be held to account by facing the scrutiny of a proper investigation. Their victims and their families deserve no less.

Just as former soldiers and police need to be held to account for their actions so too do those in the IRA, INLA, UVF and UDA. No one in the leadership of any of these organisations has ever pro-actively agreed to voluntarily admit to their misdeeds.

Instead spokespeople and political representatives continue to propagate political myths and issue meaningless platitudes about regrets whilst simultaneously eulogising those who carried out the worst of atrocities. And in some cases they are actively trying (and failing) to re-write not only their own history but that of other players too. It’s not good enough.

Paramilitaries are responsible for the largest number of deaths in Northern Ireland and the IRA topped the murder league. Why should these cowards who for the most part hid in hedgerows under the cover of darkness, balaclavas covering their shame, sleep easy in their old age courtesy of a general amnesty? I want them to live in fear of that fateful knock on the door. I want them to look at their grandchildren and wonder will they ever have to explain their dastardly deeds because they are going to appear before an inquiry. After all, their victims have had to sit by doors through which their murdered love ones will never re-enter. They have had to explain to grandchildren who the missing people are in the family albums and why.

Victims are entitled to let justice take its course. Whether or not anyone spends an hour, day, month or year in jail is immaterial. Hearing them admit their deeds is the real start to leaving the past and hurt behind. It’s too callous to ask or expect victims, no matter who caused their victimhood, to settle for a few quid, a cuddle and a bit of counselling. These people have borne too much already. Their burden is an embarrassment to us all. They are an inconvenient truth for too many. They are the elephant in the room of political harmony.

If we are to move on we can't expect to do it on the backs of victims. The row over the definition of a victim is a nonsense. Families share the same grief, the same sense of loss.

There is a saying that ‘though the heavens may fall let justice be done’ - surely that's the least we owe victims and their families.