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<\/p>\nA new deal to address the legacy of Northern Ireland\u2019s past agreed by the UK and Irish governments will have a lot of questions to answer, victims have said.<\/p>\n
The two governments were also warned by Amnesty International that the new framework must be \u201cmore than simply a rebrand\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Philip Barden, of legal firm Devonshires, which has represented hundreds of former soldiers in probes, welcomed commitments of co-operation by the Irish Government but said it is \u201cultimately more of the same\u201d and \u201cone-sided\u201d.<\/p>\n
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The accord, unveiled by Secretary of State Hilary Benn and Tanaiste Simon Harris, includes commitments to resume legacy-related civil cases and some inquests, and restructure the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).<\/p>\n
Belfast legal firm KRW Law said it will have an \u201cimmediate practical impact on hundreds of cases\u201d.<\/p>\n
They said while legislation is awaited, hope has been restored, and they will watch to see how the Irish Government \u201clives up to the promises\u201d, adding \u201cbecause on past history there\u2019s little to inspire\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Belfast we are now taking steps to resurrect previously stayed high court civil actions,\u201d a KRW Law spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Legacy Act halted over 100 civil cases against state agencies ranging across three decades and all strata of the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two men whose loved ones were killed by British soldiers in Belfast and Londonderry in the early 1970s said the framework has to answer a lot of questions.<\/p>\n
Mickey McKinney, whose brother William was among those killed in Londonderry in the Bloody Sunday shootings in 1972, and John Teggart, whose father Danny was among those killed in Ballymurphy in 1971, said they had both fought long and difficult battles for justice.<\/p>\n
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They were speaking outside Belfast Crown Court following day four of the trial of a former paratrooper known as Soldier F who has been charged with two counts of murder on Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n
Mr McKinney said the UK Government is not trusted by victims.<\/p>\n
Mr Teggart said just that day the soldier F trial had been under way at Belfast Crown Court while a case involving the Glenanne Gang, whose membership included rogue members of the security forces, was under way at the High Court.<\/p>\n
Referring to former police officers being among investigators involved with the ICRIR, set up by the previous government\u2019s Legacy Act, Mr Teggart said there is distrust among victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of questions to be answered, but the thing is, it\u2019s confidence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t read the document yet, it\u2019s all down to what is in the document, what changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe campaigned for the ICRIR to be binned so it\u2019ll take a lot of encouragement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be negative because we haven\u2019t read it, but the people within the victims sector are no fools, so we\u2019ll see what is in it, and we\u2019ll decide if people like ourselves can support it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International\u2019s deputy director for Northern Ireland, said they will examine the framework to assess whether it fully complies with the European Convention on Human Rights and can genuinely deliver for victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoot-and-branch reform of legacy mechanisms must be more than a rebrand. Victims have been clear: they will not accept half-measures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny process must put rights at the centre and deliver truth and accountability, not erase them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe detail in forthcoming legislation will be critical to determining whether this framework is meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmnesty has long called for the Legacy Act to be replaced with a process that builds on the Stormont House Agreement, has the confidence and participation of victims, and meets human rights standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis framework and subsequent legislation must meet those tests and be changed or rejected if they fail them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Holder, director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), also said they intend to scrutinise the proposals carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrust is already at rock bottom due to the intention behind, and failure of, the Legacy Act and its ICRIR institution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis makes building confidence in families in a reformed and distinct legacy commission all the more challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is nevertheless essential that families do have a viable legacy mechanism for what are long overdue investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Barden claimed the UK Government is \u201cclinging to a flawed approach\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen again and again that this approach is hamstrung by the simple fact that most of the murders were committed by terrorists, on either side of the divide, and paramilitaries and their associates simply will not co-operate in the search for truth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth will only come from everyone agreeing to say what they know, otherwise the one-eyed system will continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protections for veterans are welcome, but scratch a little deeper and these are ultimately those that already exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the veterans want, and what would provide real protection, is to ensure that any matter at hand will be closed when alleged terrorists refuse to co-operate. Justice and truth cannot be one-sided.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new deal to address the legacy of Northern Ireland\u2019s past agreed by the UK and Irish governments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4501,65,61,60,25097,43,2443,25098,70,9990],"class_list":["post-31189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-belfast","tag-hilary-benn","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-government","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-philip-barden","tag-simon-harris","tag-uk-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}