‘the harsh reality of where we are in 2023’
Below is a copy of a letter published in today’s Irish News (March 1st, 2023) from the Truth Recovery Process in response to one from Alex Schmidt of Ulster Human Rights Watch (February 23). Both of them confront the Legacy issues currently facing society in Northern Ireland and, by extension people in the Republic of Ireland and Britain whose lives have been deeply affected by the Troubles.
Securing peace and reconciliation
In his letter, Alex Schmidt of Ulster Human Rights Watch (February 23), rightly says that ‘Admitting you made a mistake is a sign of strength not weakness’ and poses the dilemma of a society where ‘an innocent victim could be rubbing shoulders with a killer at a supermarket check-out or standing near a bomber at a bar counter’. That is indeed ‘the harsh reality of where we are in 2023’.
Unfortunately it is the fate of many societies which have experienced inter-community conflict and fail to address the difficult issue of amnesties as part of a political settlement when that conflict ends. It is one of the most significant flaws in the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
In the past such conflicts and inter-state conflicts have usually ended with general amnesties for participants, including the Irish War of Independence and Civil War because it was accepted that such conflicts grew out of intrinsic divisions between the protagonists.
We, the Truth Recovery Process, agree with Alex Schmidt that the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill is ‘abhorrent, indecent and callous’ and should be withdrawn. But we also believe that where former combatants are willing to come forward with information, and where victims and survivors are willing to explore this alternative to the courts, they should be allowed to do so.
As Alex says, admitting to making mistakes is something to be commended and encouraged. It is also something that protagonists on all sides in the Troubles, not just paramilitaries, were guilty of.
One thing we do know a quarter of a century after the Belfast Good Friday Agreement is that securing peace and reconciliation in a divided society cannot be achieved through the criminal justice system.
PADRAIG YEATES
Truth Recovery Process, Portmarnock, Dublin 13
Below is Axel Schmidt’s letter published on February 23rd.
Admitting you made a mistake is a sign of strength not weakness
There are people walking our streets today who are murderers. They shot and killed hundreds of people and bombed commercial premises in their efforts to drag Northern Ireland back to the Stone Age.
An innocent victim could be rubbing shoulders with a killer at a supermarket check-out or standing near a bomber at a bar counter. That’s the harsh reality of where we are in 2023 – with a government hell-bent on drawing a line under the past and leaving innocent victims without hope or closure.
What is happening over the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill is abhorrent, indecent and callous. No political party supports the bill and beyond our shores, the EU and the US are pressing London to abandon the course it is on and see sense.
So far, ministers have been deaf to all pleadings. Inexplicably they are determined not to budge and to many people there’s a lack of compassion or understanding in the approach they are taking to the past.
Admitting an error or a mistake is a big thing to do – a sign of strength and not weakness. Of course, ministers would be criticised, but wouldn’t that be preferable than doggedly pursuing legislation that casts innocent victims adrift and bluntly tells them there can be no justice or closure.
This bill is a travesty and defective. It’s an indecent and callous draft law and one that should never see the light of day in its present form, unless amended as suggested in the Ulster Human Rights Watch’s submission to the government.
Innocent victims and families are bereft and feel marginalised and ignored. They haven’t been listened to or shown any consideration by ministers. There’s still time to do the decent thing. The government should change tack and instead of shutting down any prospect of future prosecutions for appalling crimes committed during the ‘Troubles’, they should become champions for victims.
Ulster Human Rights Watch is a registered charity funded mainly by government with some 400 directly and indirectly impacted victims of terrorism on its books. For every one of them, there is daily pain and a deep sense of loss.
If the legacy legislation in its present form isn’t abandoned, then justice, too, will become a victim.
AXEL SCHMIDT
Ulster Human Rights Watch,
Lurgan, Co Armagh
