We know all about humiliation
Members of the innocent victims’ community have taken courageous steps for peace in the North during the past 35 years. They accepted the disbandment of the B-specials in the early ‘70s in a bid to get peace, but none came.
They accepted disbandment of the UDR for peace, but it eluded them. They had to put up with the removal of the RUC in order to get peace, but it didn’t materialise then either.
Many accepted the Belfast Agreement of 1998 in a further bid to get peace, but this was answered definitively by the republicans the following August with the Omagh bomb, and by the numerous terrorist-related incidents since.
Innocent victims and their families have paid a very high price for peace in our land. But this desire has not been reciprocated by those who murdered and maimed their loved-ones.
The republicans say that having photographic evidence of decommissioning has been suggested as a means of “humiliation.” But they do not know the first thing about humiliation.
Humiliation is about hearing that a loved one has been murdered by the Provisional IRA. It is walking behind the coffin in the full knowledge that the murderers are rejoicing at a job well done.
Humiliation is about having your right to justice removed from you. Humiliation is seeing images of your murdered loved one in the media. Humiliation is learning about the torture your relatives experienced before they were mercilessly murdered by the Provisional IRA. Humiliation is hearing how republican lies have been listened to and believed by gullible people at home and abroad. It is about witnessing the security of your country being dismantled piece by piece, and seeing the triumphalism of those who attacked the country on our TV screens.
Humiliation is having to live in fear in isolated border areas, knowing that your protection has been removed to facilitate the terrorist murderers. Humiliation is having to check regularly under your car and around your house.
It is living in virtual fortresses because of death threats from republican terrorists. Humiliation is living with the loss of a dear father, spouse, brother or sister, son or daughter, and knowing that those terrorist criminals have been rewarded and elevated by governments.
Mary Harney has weighed in behind the UK, Dublin and US governments, as well as the innocent victims’ groups in the North, and her statement in the Dáil to the effect that “humiliation works both ways” is most welcome.
Every party in the North, with the exception of IRA/Sinn Féin, supports the need for photographic confirmation. This is yet another ploy by the terrorists further to humiliate the innocent victims as well as every decent person who lives on this island.
And if the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, proceeds with his plan to release the four terrorist killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe, victims will be humiliated yet again by such crass insensitivity to their needs. But he and Mr Blair do not seem to care that they are humiliated, so long as IRA/Sinn Féin are not.
Dr JE Hazlett Lynch
Project Co-ordinator
West Tyrone Voice (victims’ organisation)
Newtownstewart
Co Tyrone
