Doug Beattie: ​Government’s plan to deal with legacy of the Troubles as it stands amounts to an amnesty by proxy

At a recent meeting with the Northern Ireland Office, it was made clear that the six protections, offered as a fig leaf to the veterans lobby as part of the Labour Government’s Legacy Commission Bill, are in fact generic protections that are as applicable to terrorists as they are to veterans and former RUC officers.

The fact that the NIO aren’t even hiding this, while the highly decorated and respected minister for the Armed Forces, Al Carns, continues to promote them as veterans’ protections, is shameful.

Whether you support these measures contained in the Legacy Commission Bill or not, the veterans community deserves honesty.

To tell veterans that they will have the right to stay at home, not be forced to go to court to give evidence, without telling them that a terrorist will have the same right creates an equivalence between the terrorist and lawful state forces.

The same can be said for no cold calling, protection in old age, and the right to seek anonymity.

Even the so-called protection against repeated investigations is weak as it does not specify new compelling evidence before a new investigation can be initiated. This will also apply to the terrorist.

What the government is hanging its hat on is that veterans will be represented on the victims and survivors advisory group.

On the wider front, the government is in trouble in regards to the definition of a victim.

If they go down the route of the Victims and Survivors Order 2006, or make no reference to the definition of a victim, then those who perpetrated some of the most heinous crimes in the UK, including mass murder, will be viewed as victims.

As the Ulster Unionist Party justice spokesperson, I made it clear to the NIO, and I know Robin Swann MP and Lord Elliott have done the same in Westminster, that if this is not addressed, then we cannot support the legacy bill.

The question of amnesties has long been a contentious one and something the Labour government had considered in 2001 at the behest of Sinn Féin.

We are clear that there should be no direct or indirect amnesties. However, our concerns about how the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval (ICIR) and the Legacy Commission interact have not been addressed.

Within the grey area of these two bodies, an individual can find himself free to express his guilt of a crime without facing any charges.

The NIO says this is not an amnesty - that may be right in the strictest of terms, but it is an amnesty by proxy and they know it.

The question is now a very clear one. Will the government allow the numerous amendments to the bill to run their course, to create a legacy mechanism that can be supported, or will it roll over once again to the demands of the Irish government and block the amendments?

An Irish government that has promised to create a Garda legacy unit that won’t actually do any legacy investigations and a unit that will have no oversight mechanisms. A state that will redact information before investigation as opposed to the UK government that will redact information after investigation. A subtle but important difference.

Everyone wants legacy to be dealt with fairly. It needs victims and survivors to be at the heart of the process, with justice and reconciliation its guiding principles. Yet without honesty and transparency, the bill is in trouble and it will not receive the support it requires.

As it stands, the bill has no overt political support in Northern Ireland, a key government criticism of the last Conservative legacy bill.

​

l Doug Beattie is the UUP's justice spokesman and sits on the NI Assembly's justice committee