The legacy of the Troubles lives on. The UK must admit its failures
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Version 0 of 1. As British as Finchley, according to the late Margaret Thatcher, but nowadays considerably less interesting to the British public, it would seem. There was hardly a ripple of attention when the UK got a serious drubbing from the UN’s expert committee on human rights last month for its failures in relation to Northern Ireland. Specifically, the committee called for urgent action to attend to the legacy of the Troubles. It is true, that for most, those brutal years seem distant now, a bad dream poorly remembered. Not, however, for the likes of Martin Shanaghan from County Tyrone, whose brother-in-law, Patrick, was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries 24 years ago in circumstances that strongly suggested security forces collusion. “Patrick was hounded by the security forces for the last 10 years of his life,” says Martin. “It has been 24 years since he was murdered. It has been 14 years since the European court of human rights said the British should investigate. We are still waiting. Patrick’s mother, who he lived with, died five years ago. We think the British are playing a long game, waiting until people are dead or don’t remember, or for a generation that does not care.” Growing evidence points towards collusion between state intelligence agencies, the security forces and paramilitarie The organisation for which I work, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), represents the Shanaghans along with many other families haunted by unanswered questions. The reality is that 17 years after the Good Friday agreement, the UK is still in breach of international law for failing properly to investigate unresolved killings, especially and most controversially where state agents might have been involved. The best-known case is that of solicitor Pat Finucane, murdered in 1989 by a loyalist paramilitary group which is now known to have been heavily infiltrated by intelligence agents. The committee urges the UK to reconsider its refusal to conduct an inquiry. There are hundreds of others, most of them people whose names are unknown outside their family circles. This UN report comes at a time when a growing body of evidence is pointing towards far higher than previously suspected levels of collusion between state intelligence agencies, the security forces, and paramilitaries from right across the political spectrum. The report arises from an examination earlier this year of the UK’s compliance with the UN’s international covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR). The UN committee calls on the government to “ensure, as a matter of particular urgency, that independent, impartial, prompt and effective investigations … are conducted … with a view to identifying, prosecuting and punishing perpetrators of human rights violations, in particular the right to life, and providing appropriate remedies for victims.” CAJ’s solicitor Gemma McKeown gave evidence to the UN’s hearings in Geneva. She pointed to a disgraceful British policy of cover-up, in effect an “apparatus of impunity”. This has involved obstruction of enquiries, destruction of records, loss of forensic evidence and refusal to disclose information. All branches of the state, from government departments to secret agents, have been implicated. In its defence, the UK pointed to the Stormont House agreement. This deal, reached in December 2014, envisages the setting up of a historical investigations unit (HIU). We urged that former police, soldiers and paramilitaries should be excluded from playing any role in this. The UN committee supports this view, noting that the independence of this body will be central to its ability to be effective. Much of the HIU’s work will involve accessing historic intelligence and operational files held by government departments and agencies. There already is a cache of such records held in Northern Ireland, gathered, with enormous difficulty, by the Stalker, Sampson and Stevens inquiries and by the now-defunct historical inquiry team. The government has promised “full disclosure” of all records and information held by any branch of the state. The UN committee backed us on this, too and has urged the government to set up the HIU “as soon as possible”. The UN’s human rights experts are clear. We need a “full, transparent and credible account of the circumstances surrounding events in Northern Ireland”. Martin Shanaghan is sceptical. “We’ve been down this road before and we’ve ended up disappointed,” he says. “We need the UK to be compelled to act, with penalties if it doesn’t.” The UN committee will conduct its next review in four years. It is true that if nothing has been done, all it can do is severely criticise the UK. However, there are deeper consequences. If the government does not live up to its responsibilities in Northern Ireland, it could cause a crisis of confidence in the rule of law which would be potentially disastrous for all the institutions of our still fragile, post-conflict society. |