North's State-sponsored killers and the law

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis Tuesday November 29, 2005 12:41 by Alban McGuinness - SDLP

Justice denied and the public robbed of truth

The killers of 2,100 victims will get away scot-free in a mockey of of the proper truth and justice process.

In February 1997, Presbyterian minister David Templeton was savagely beaten by the UVF. Mr Templeton had previously been caught at Belfast International Airport bringing a gay adult pornographic video into the country.

On the basis of this, the UVF presumed - wrongly - that he was a paedophile. These brave guardians of public morality arrived at his house and beat him senseless with baseball bats into which they had hammered nails. Rev Templeton died six weeks later.

Before he died he identified one of his assailants, a notorious UVF killer who was also an RUC informer. Despite this, the killer was never prosecuted for Rev Templeton's murder. In fact, he is believed to have been involved in at least seven other murders - and let away with each one by RUC Special Branch. The man, who has since been deactivated as an informer, has not served a day in prison for these murders. Nor have his RUC handlers who stood by and let murder after murder happen.

Now, under the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill they will not ever have to worry about appearing in court, never mind in prison. This legislation applies to anybody who could at any time be charged with any one of the 2,100 unsolved killings of the Troubles.

It applies to every unsolved IRA murder. It applies to every unsolved murder by loyalists - like that of Rev Templeton. This is so even if loyalist paramilitaries continue drug dealing and fail to decommission a single bullet. It even applies to state murders. State agents - paid by the public - are to be let away with murdering members of the public.

Not only has the British government supported this appalling situation, so too has Sinn Féin. Conor Murphy MP flew over to Westminster to welcome the legislation the day after Peter Hain made clear that state-sponsored killers would be protected. And when the SDLP criticised the legislation for letting state-sponsored killers off the hook, Martin McGuinness, on the BBC's Hearts and Minds programme of November 10th, dismissed our concerns and said he did "not envisage that any people who were involved in the murders of nationalists. . .is ever going to be brought before a court in this day and age."

He admitted that state-sponsored killers would be able to get the benefit of the legislation but said that the people who would "gain most advantage from this are those nationalists and republicans who are on the run for over 30 years." Not once in the interview did he say that the legislation should not apply to state-sponsored killers.

So there you have it, on Mr McGuinness's own words. In return for the greater advantage of getting their "on-the-runs" back with no questions asked, Sinn Féin has sold out victims of loyalists and the state.

Let us be clear. This legislation does not just deny families justice, it robs them - and the public - of truth. Because there is no time limit in this legislation, the killers of 2,100 people have no incentive to come forward and tell the truth. They can sit back and wait to see if the police ever come knocking on their doors, secure in the knowledge that if they do, they need not worry - they can apply under this legislation to avoid jail at any time.

So much for British justice. So much for Sinn Féin's "Ireland of equals". So much for truth and reconciliation.

Surely, in the Ireland of 2005, we are entitled to expect better than this. The SDLP is calling on Irish democratic leaders to raise with the British government our profound concerns about this legislation. We are also calling on Sinn Féin to do the right thing and call on Tony Blair to withdraw this Bill and work with parties and victims to devise a proper truth and justice process.