Victims of loyalist and republican terrorism launch petition against Stormont House Agreement

The move comes in the wake of another petition in which a different constituency of victims called for the urgent implementation of the deal.

The Stormont House Agreement (SHA) is now supported by nationalist parties while unionist parties have significant concerns about it.

Last month victims group Relatives for Justice (RFJ) published a petition to the Prime Minister and Taoiseach signed by 3,500 people, pressing for its urgent implementation.

But now a counter petition has been launched entitled ‘The voice of victims of Republican and Loyalist atrocities’ highlighting the fact that its signatories - 2000 and counting -  “reject the Stormont House Agreement”.

The petition was started by Paul Young, who served in NI with the Blues and Royals from 1968-75 and with the RUC and PSNI from 1983-2005.

“My aim is to counter what I see as the narrative from some quarters who talk about victims and survivors, but don’t seem to mention victims and survivors of terrorism,” he said. “It seems to me that quite often they are talking about the republican dead.

“I wanted people to see that there is a wider victims constituency - victims of republican and loyalist terrorism - who seem to get very little airtime by comparison. And yet 90% of Troubles deaths were carried out by terrorists, while the vast majority of state killings were entirely lawful.”

Like many others, he believes that SHA processes will produce family reports which will name and criticise members of the security forces “but without any right to reply and no fair trial in court”.

He is looking to the UK government’s Overseas Operations Bill in the hope for a better process - something the RFJ petition explicitly opposed.

The Northern Ireland Office responded: “The UK Government remains committed to finding a way forward on legacy issues, which have remained unresolved for far too long.

“The Government recognises that there are many different views on how best to move forward, which is why the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland will continue to engage with all communities across Northern Ireland and beyond to find a way forward that puts information recovery and reconciliation at its heart. We welcome all contributions to this process.”

Ann Travers, whose sister was murdered by the IRA, said: “Victims of republican and loyalist atrocities were not consulted during the drafting of the Stormont House Agreement, which was done by politicians and the chosen few. It was only later victims were asked what they thought, in a ‘box ticking’ exercise. But the response was clear - vast swathes of innocent victims do not have confidence in the proposals”.

“I would urge all victims of loyalist and republican atrocities to sign this petition”. She said some victims of loyalists she knows have also signed the petition.

• See the petition at: https://bit.ly/37mFqDz

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