Consultation on Troubles legacy begins

The British government embarked today on a consultation on how Northern Ireland should face up to its violent past.

With ministers facing demands in the North for a truth and reconciliation mechanism to get to the bottom of unsolved murders, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said there needed to be a way of dealing with the pain and hurt of the Troubles.

But in a written statement to MPs, he admitted there were no easy answers as to how to proceed.

“This is a complex and profoundly sensitive subject. There are no ready-made solutions,” Mr Murphy acknowledged.

“Opinion is divided on some aspects of the way forward. And the pain of victims and their families remains very real.

“I want, therefore, to proceed in a way which respects the feelings of all concerned, and which takes nothing for granted.”

A total of 3,633 people were killed in Northern Ireland during the Troubles between 1966 and 1999.

It is estimated around a half of the investigations into those murders remain unsolved.

Civilians accounted for 2,064 deaths (1,232 were Catholics and 698 were Protestant).

A total of 1,036 members of the security forces were killed during this period (509 of them were members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Irish Regiment, while 503 were British Army).

Republican paramilitaries accounted for 392 deaths, while 144 loyalists died.

Almost a decade on from the IRA and loyalist paramilitary ceasefires, many Troubles victims’ families feel the time has come for the truth to emerge about why their relatives were killed and who was responsible.

With the Saville Inquiry into the deaths of 13 civilians on Bloody Sunday almost complete and inquiries into a number of controversial killings also on the horizon, there have been claims that some atrocities have been ignored and the hurt of those whose loved ones died in individual incidents has not been addressed.

The Northern Ireland Secretary, who will visit South Africa next week to see how their truth and reconciliation commission operated, said today he would be holding talks with a wide range of people with relevant experience and expertise.

“These discussions will initially take the form of private soundings, which will in due course lead to wider consultation,” he confirmed.

“I will also be commissioning work on relevant international experience, which will cover the sort of processes which others have used in seeking to come to terms with the past.

“Angela Smith, as (Northern Ireland Office) victims’ minister, has already engaged in careful and detailed consultation about the needs of victims and the ways in which [British] government and society should respond.

“She has been speaking to victims and survivors, their representative groups, experts, academics and practitioners in the field. That work will continue, and be brought to fruition.

“I will take full account of it in the discussions which I am setting in train. I will also have regard to relevant initiatives in a number of related areas.”