The Ulster Unionist Party’s Belfast City Councillor Jeff Dudgeon has urged the DUP to alter its previous course and reject the NIO’s consultation process on ‘Addressing the Legacy of Northern Ireland’s past.’   

Councillor Jeff Dudgeon said:

“During the Haass talks process in December 2013, the Ulster Unionist Party was very clear that proposals for the Historical Investigations Unit were inherently dangerous, would create a parallel police force and open the door to an undue focus on the actions of the police and army due to the lack of available records from terrorist groups.

“Our concerns and opposition were clear from the outset; unlike the DUP whose fingerprints are all over the legacy proposals which the NIO has consulted on.

“Indeed, the DUP welcomed the suggestion of the HIU in October 2015, not realising the inherent dangers in setting up a parallel police force that would be perusing a mass of records relating to the actions of the police and army going back decades contributing to an imbalanced process that will rewrite history of The Troubles and minimise or ignore the crimes of the terrorists, who were responsible for 90 per cent of Troubles related deaths.

“Opposition to the consultation proposals has been voiced by a range of groups and bodies and it is for the DUP to explain just why they agreed such horrendously dangerous approaches as they did in the Stormont House Agreement. Merely changing the definition of a victim simply won’t cut it.

“As the Ulster Unionist Party has previously stated, the imbalance in the availability of credible historical records and the fact that the proposed Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) will only examine some fatalities and do nothing for the 47,000 victims injured as a result of terrorist activity is totally unacceptable. Now is the time for the DUP to support such calls.”