'Probe Dublin's role in IRA'
THE template of the Saville Inquiry should be used to expose the truth of how the Irish created and armed the IRA, a DUP MP has said.
David Simpson was speaking in the wake of the 190m Bloody Sunday inquiry which found that the killing of 13 people by Paratroopers during a civil rights march in Londonderry in 1972 was unjustified.
The IRA was responsible for around half of the 3,700 deaths in the Troubles, far more than any other group.
So Upper Bann MP Mr Simpson has now called for the same template as used for Saville to be applied to investigate the alleged role of the Irish state in funding, arming, training and sheltering hundreds of IRA members during the Troubles.
"The one element in the entire Bloody Sunday story and history that people have singled out as setting it apart from all others was the part played in it by the state," he said. "The claim has always been made that since it was the state that was involved in the events of Bloody Sunday that made it different and necessitated the obtaining of the truth and justified the massive expenditure."
If state involvement in killings is the crucial factor to be investigated, he argued, then the role of the southern government in the creation and arming of the Provisional IRA meets every criteria for a similar inquiry.
"UK citizens were tortured by the Provisional IRA," he said. "The Provisional IRA shot and wounded, and blew up and injured many UK citizens. They murdered many, many hundreds of UK citizens.
"The Provisional IRA were assisted in their creation and arming by elements in the southern government. The southern government also served as a safe haven from which the PIRA operated and repeatedly dragged its heels over extradition."
A succession of UK governments have "looked the other way" on the treatment of its own citizens in this matter, Mr Simpson said.
"UK citizens deserve the protection of their own government and deserve to know the truth," he added.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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