Young
Unionists

I am sad, but not shocked, at the leaked details of what is being proposed by the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the past. It has been reported by the BBC and covered by Pete Baker on Slugger O’Toole that the group is pushing for £12,000 to be paid to the family of anyone killed during the troubles; whether they were part of a terrorist organisation perpetrating murderous acts does not appear to matter to those serving in this consultative group. Eames-Bradley are forwarding the policy that there is “no hierarchy of victims” that has some common threads with the Sinn Fein policy that attempts to equate the Provisional IRA with the victims of it’s 30+ years of terror. Not only is this a complete and utter reprehensible position, but it disgraces the memory of those who lost their lives during the the course of the troubles. Obviously my position on Eames-Bradley, at the minute, is pretty clear. I am sceptical of what their agenda is and cynical of what positive outcomes they foresee from taking this course of action.

There are unionist groups out there whose own recommendations come close to Eames-Bradley in terms of the need and benefit such truth recovery mechanisms can provide to Northern Ireland. Mainstream unionist parties (DUP, UUP and TUV) would not touch this with the proverbial 40ft barge pole. There is not a uniform category of victims, they are diverse and wide ranging and should be treated as individuals. I have been watching the Eames-Bradley group with much interest and I fear there will be some headline grabbing and positioning going on, not by the group itself, but by the ones pulling the strings. This is unsavory and unwelcome. Jim Nicholson MEP has had this to say:

“The suggestion from Eames-Bradley that £12,000 compensation is given to all those killed in the Troubles – including terrorists – is a highly damaging, immoral proposal, that will undermine both community relations and political confidence.

“The proposal endorses the morally flawed notion that a terrorist killed while undertaking a mission of murder has the same status as an innocent civilian murdered in a bomb attack or a member of the security forces murdered in front of their family. People across our entire community will find this suggestion repugnant.

“The Government must understand in the clearest possible terms that this proposal is totally unacceptable”.

Imagine if it was suggested that the Al Quaeda suicide bombers who crashed the abducted planes into the World Trade Center in New York on September 11th 2001 were to be classified as victims on an equal footing with those 2,974 people whom they murdered? There would be outrage, and rightly so.

Northern Ireland has moved along way from the pre-ceasfire days, through the negotiations that cumulated on the Belfast Agreement, the incomplete decommissioning, St. Andrew’s Agreement and the restoration of devolution in 2007. There is still a long way to go, and still a lot of heavy lifting to be done.