Statesmen propose bypassing Stormont House Agreement on legacy

However the four witnesses yesterday appeared to support three different alternatives;- Expanding Operation Kenova, a current inquiry into IRA informer Stakeknife; The government’s own current plan, or beefing up the PSNI Legacy Investigations Branch (LIB). The evidence session was the fifth of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s Legacy Inquiry.  

Former SDLP leader, Baroness Margaret Ritchie was deeply concerned by the government’s fresh approach to deal with legacy, which it unveiled in March; the government says this would end the “cycle of reinvestigations” for victims - and army veterans.

After a swift review by a new body, the government proposes that the majority of 2000 cases would be permanently closed and there would only be prosecutions in cases where there is “new compelling evidence and a realistic prospect of a prosecution”.

Ms Ritchie said the government is drafting legislation on this basis: “I understand there is a Home Office working group and yet across the last six months I understand that people and parties in Northern Ireland - and the outgoing Victims Commissioner are largely kept in the dark.”

She said key reasons that legacy had not been resolved were “a contested view of history” and “vested interests” of the state and paramilitaries.There had been an agreement with the SHA, she said, but that had been eclipsed by the Government’s March plan.

Former Secretary of State, Lord Peter Hain, said that many victims hold that “a focus on prosecutions is misplaced for all sorts of well rehearsed reasons”.

These should not be ruled out where there is evidence, he said, while expressing concerns over current plans in relation to veterans.  But what families really want, he said, is a truth recovery process.

“An article 2 compliant investigation is needed to get to the truth and I think there is a very good model for that. And that is a model of Operation Kenova headed by former Chief Constable Jon Boutcher who I think gave evidence to the committee.”

Mr Boutcher had said, the peer noted, that he could resolve all legacy cases in 10 years for £35m, whereas NI legacy costs had reached £190 from 2013-2018. 

After positive feedback from some MPs on Kenova, Ms Ritchie concluded: “I think there is a growing consensus that people would like to see a beefed up Kenova”, noting that it had inspired confidence from victims and families.

However Lord Jonathan Caine, former Special Advisor to Secretary of States from 1991-95 and 2010-19, was sympathetic to the government plan announced in March.

He said that “the current mechanisms disproportionately focus on members of the armed forces and the police”.

The Police Ombudsman investigates police, and almost all the 50 legacy inquests focus on the state, while 30% of LIB cases focus on security forces, when “proportionately the state was responsible for about 10% of deaths, in most cases entirely lawfully”.

He has “some sympathy” with the government’s March plans, he said, however he also has “serious misgivings” about the proposal to close cases forever, noting some people want to retain “ a hope of justice”.

Former UUP leader Lord Reg Empey said  his party had always opposed the SHA and the associated Historical Investigations Unit (HIU).

“We were always opposed to it because it is a parallel auxiliary police force with astonishing powers, powers to make findings of guilt contrary to all the rules of law” he said.

He was also deeply sceptical about SHA proposals for truth recovery “given the statements of people like the late Martin McGuinness with regards to his oath to the IRA”.

He noted former Justice Minister David Ford said the HIU might produce “at best one or two prosecutions” which the peer said was poor value at a half a billion pounds.

“The Irish government is pretending it has no role to play in any of this, but former Irish governments were up to their neck in the process because many - even cabinet ministers - were involved in the formation of the Provisional IRA,” he said. 

He concluded that as all NI parties had signed up to support the PSNI, HIU resources should be diverted to the LIB to conclude the legacy cases.

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