It is time to go after those who directed terrorism, Doug Beattie tells Ulster Unionist colleagues as the party debates the legacy of the Troubles
Hilary Benn is returning to the failed approach to legacy of the Stormont House Agreement, Ulster Unionists were told on Saturday.
The party’s justice spokesman, Doug Beattie MC MLA, reminded party delegates why the UUP was alone among the main local political parties in opposing the Stormont House deal a decade ago.
In a debate on legacy at the annual event at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast, Mr Beattie said: “Everything we do must be victim-centred on legacy. Those responsible need to be held to account. And we're not just talking about those who pulled the trigger. We're not just talking about those who planted the bomb. We're talking about those who sent them out to do it. It's about time we went after those who directed terrorism.”
He said: “Our Northern Ireland Office, our UK government, are weak on this issue, we as a party should be absolutely proud of ourselves ... The Stormont House Agreement was absolutely and fundamentally flawed. We as a party, the only major party, stood alone to say no to the Stormont House Agreement. And I remember when Mike [Nesbitt] was a leader in 2016, and I was a justice spokesperson, then us arguing that we will never support the Stormont House Agreement.
“Why would we never support it? Because they created a parallel police force. Why would we not support it? Because if you had a desktop Historical Enquiries Team investigation, you would not get an investigation under the Stormont House Agreement. If you were left limbless, burned, blind, psychologically damaged, you would not get an investigation.
“If you were kidnapped in Northern Ireland, taken into the Irish Republic, tortured and murdered, you would not get an investigation.”
Mr Beattie added: “And all of the other major parties said, we'll sign up to that, and we as a party, said no, and we stood by that principle, and we did not support it.”
Mr Beattie went on to say of the recent joint legacy plan unveiled by the Northern Ireland secretary, Mr Benn, and the Irish deputy prime minister Simon Harris: “We now have new legacy mechanisms, and those new legacy mechanisms, we have to give time for the legislation to come out so we can see it in detail. But I am concerned. I am concerned when our secretary of state keeps saying we're going to go back to the principles of the Stormont House agreement.”
It did not fill him “with any confidence whatsoever”, Mr Beattie said.
Among the other speakers were Jon Burrows, who wrote about legacy in the News Letter on Friday (click here to read that essay) and Jeffrey Dudgeon, who is chair of the South Belfast Ulster Unionist Association.
Mr Dudgeon, who also convenes the Malone House group which campaigns against what they say is the imbalance on legacy, said: “We never supported the Stormont House Agreement, unlike the Conservatives and the DUP. We oppose the rewriting of history through state-funded lawfare, be it in the courts or in the academy.
“We will resist the continued persecution, and the actual prosecutions of veterans, whether in the Army or police, through ceaseless re-investigations and reopened inquests.”
He added: “Where Hilary Benn’s new Joint Framework is concerned, we oppose Dublin’s involvement in Strand One and Ireland’s breath-taking hypocrisy, given the hundreds of failed extraditions and the cruel and devastating cross-border raiding that they led to.
“Our team are doing great work in that respect. They recognise that the joint framework with Dublin – by definition – goes in only one direction. There is nothing absolutely nothing in it for unionists let alone victims’ families.”