The Ulster Unionist Party’s Justice Spokesperson, Doug Beattie MC MLA, has reiterated the Ulster Unionist Party’s continued opposition to the Stormont House Agreement legacy proposals.
Doug Beattie MC MLA said:
“The legacy proposals of the Stormont House Agreement (SHA) are not supported by the Ulster Unionist Party. They never have been and they never will be. This very simple fact seems to be missed by certain journalists, commentators, academics and other political parties, who perpetuate the notion that ‘all parties’ supported Stormont House legacy arrangements.
“It really is time some began to understand that stance and try and address the reasons why the Ulster Unionist Party does not support the SHA. They also need to deal with their own moral deficit in supporting these arrangements.
“The SHA mechanism will conduct investigations – in the form of the Historical Investigation Unit – for around 1,500 fatalities. It will leave those who lost limbs, were blinded, burned or left psychologically damaged, with no investigation if there was no fatality attached to their case. What other perverse investigatory system allows attempted murder to be given an investigatory pass?
“Secondly those who had a Historical Enquiries Team (HET) desktop review will not get a HIU investigation. They will be left with a HET report that is mostly open source, and will leave many victims wondering if their loss was somehow less than those that get a full investigation by the HIU.
“The SHA as it stands is geographically fixed. In simple terms if you were murdered by terrorists in Birmingham, Manchester, Guildford, Warrington and London or even further afield, you are not entitled to a HIU investigation. If you were kidnapped in Northern Ireland, tortured, taken across the border and murdered, then again you will not get a HIU investigation. The disappeared will also be ignored.
“Lastly, the UK government has publicly stated that it will open all files to inform investigations and only redact after investigation and before information is contained within family reports. This means all information will be known in order to make the investigation effective. Yet the Irish Government has openly stated on multiple occasions that they will redact before investigation, and therefore all information will not be known. This is neither fair nor acceptable.
“It is clear why many victims and victims groups, who were omitted from the process to create the SHA, have grave reservations about it. As a society we have ignored victims at our peril. They must be the first ones we consult and they must be the first ones to agree to any legacy mechanism that is put in place. We cannot have a process that is co-designed between Governments and perpetrators but we can – indeed we must – agree on a process that is co-designed between Governments and Victims.”