Letter: We won't get full story on Omagh bomb as Dublin's actions are preventing full transparency
A letter from Doug Beattie:
The Omagh bomb inquiry has now started, reflecting firstly on the victims of this appalling crime perpetrated by republicans who saw violence as the way forward - a view supported by anyone who says there was no alternative.
Over the coming months the focus will shift from the victims’ stories to look at what happened that day, the previous days and the investigation that followed.
In delving into this I hope that we will see genuine transparency from all agencies involved. Only through transparency will victims and the wider society be able to lay demons to rest following that fateful day in 1998.
However, the truth is, we will never get the full story or all the facts because the Irish government has decided that it will not hold its own inquiry into this atrocity.
The bomb that murdered those 31 victims in 1998 and injured many more was designed in the Irish Republic, the fertiliser-based explosives were manufactured in the Irish Republic, the bomb’s timer power unit (TPU) and the stolen vehicle that transported the bomb all originated in the Irish Republic, and the plan - involving at least a dozen individuals - was developed in the Irish Republic.
Having delivered the bomb on that day, the perpetrators retreated to the Irish Republic; yet the Irish government seems to say, as they do with all legacy crimes, that there is nothing to see here.
The UK government has made it clear that it will provide every single scrap of evidence in regard to legacy crimes and will only redact once the investigation is completed and its findings known.
The Irish government on the other hand will redact information before investigation so that there will be no transparency. This is exacerbated within the Omagh bomb inquiry where the Irish Directorate of Military Intelligence (G2) can redact information before passing to the Garda Siochana who can then redact information before it is made available to the inquiry. This is not acceptable.
While I welcome the commitment from the tanaiste that the Irish government will ensure full cooperation with the enquiry, I would challenge him to clarify his government’s position on the points I raise here. Again, I call on the Irish government to live up to its responsibility and open its own inquiry into the Omagh bomb and bring forward its own legislation to deal with the legacy of the past.
I also call on the UK government to take a case against the Irish government for their failings in regards to not just the Omagh bomb, but all troubles-related crimes that originated from their sovereign territory.
Doug Beattie, MLA and former UUP leader