Hain orders review of conflict deaths

The Northern Secretary is to launch an independent rethink on dealing with conflict deaths.

With Sinn Féin signed up to policing and the political process stable, Peter Hain believes it is time to re-examine a period which left around 3,000 unsolved murders and countless more injured.

There has been a series of public inquiries into past events like Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British soldiers shot dead 13 civil rights protesters and civilians, but the minister wants a cheaper solution.

A Northern Office source said: “There’s no question of government trying to impose solutions because that would not work and we have to see if we can reach a consensus on how we deal with the past.”

He said the initiative, covering the 30 years of conflict and expected to take 18 months, would take into account all views.

A victims’ commissioner is to be appointed to champion the needs of those who have suffered.

The interim commissioner, Bertha McDougall, said there should be a fund established for their benefit.

She also called for a victims’ forum and increased payouts to those bereaved earlier in the Troubles.